''To Whom Who Keeps a Record'' is an album credited to jazz composer and saxophonist

Ornette Coleman Randolph Denard Ornette Coleman (March 9, 1930 – June 11, 2015) was an American jazz saxophonist, violinist, trumpeter, and composer known as a principal founder of the free jazz genre, a term derived from his 1960 album '' Free Jazz: A Colle ...

, originally released by the Japanese subsidiary Warner Pioneer of

Warner Bros. Records Warner Records Inc. (formerly Warner Bros. Records Inc.) is an American record label. A subsidiary of the Warner Music Group, it is headquartered in Los Angeles, California. It was founded on March 19, 1958, as the recorded music division of the ...

in 1975. The album, which was assembled by Atlantic producer

İlhan Mimaroğlu İlhan Kemaleddin Mimaroğlu (, March 11, 1926 – July 17, 2012) was a Turkish American musician and electronic music composer. He was born in Istanbul, Turkey, the son of the famous architect Mimar Kemaleddin Bey depicted on the Turkish lira ...

without Coleman's input, comprises

outtakes An outtake is a portion of a work (usually a film or music recording) that is removed in the editing process and not included in the work's final, publicly released version. In the digital era, significant outtakes have been appended to CD and DV ...

from

Atlantic Records Atlantic Recording Corporation (simply known as Atlantic Records) is an American record label founded in October 1947 by Ahmet Ertegun and Herb Abramson. Over its first 20 years of operation, Atlantic earned a reputation as one of the most i ...

recording sessions The term studio recording means any recording made in a studio, as opposed to a live recording, which is usually made in a concert venue or a theatre, with an audience attending the performance. Studio cast recordings In the case of Broadway musi ...

of 1959 and 1960 for ''

Change of the Century ''Change of the Century'' is an album by jazz saxophonist Ornette Coleman, released on Atlantic Records in May 1960. It sold very well from soon after its release. Recording sessions for the album took place on October 8 and 9, 1959, in New York Ci ...

'' and '' This Is Our Music''.Ornette Coleman discography
accessed November 28, 2011 Sessions for "Music Always" took place at

Radio Recorders Radio Recorders, Inc. was an American recording studio located in Los Angeles, California. During the 1940s and 1950s, Radio Recorders was one of the largest independent recording studios in the world. Notable musicians recorded at Radio Recorder ...

Hollywood, California Hollywood is a neighborhood in the central region of Los Angeles, California. Its name has come to be a shorthand reference for the U.S. film industry and the people associated with it. Many notable film studios, such as Columbia Pictures, ...

with

Billy Higgins Billy Higgins (October 11, 1936 – May 3, 2001) was an American jazz drummer. He played mainly free jazz and hard bop. Biography Higgins was born in Los Angeles, California, United States. Higgins played on Ornette Coleman's first records, be ...

on drums; all others took place at

Atlantic Studios Atlantic Studios was the recording studio of Atlantic Records. Although this recording studio was located at 1841 Broadway (at the corner of 60th Street), in New York City, Atlantic Recording Studios was initially located at 234 West 56th Street ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

with drummer

Ed Blackwell Edward Joseph Blackwell (October 10, 1929 – October 7, 1992) was an American jazz drummer born in New Orleans, Louisiana, known for his extensive, influential work with Ornette Coleman. Biography Blackwell's early career began in New Orleans ...

. (Blackwell replaced Higgins shortly before the Coleman group's 1960 engagement at the

Five Spot Café The Five Spot Café was a jazz club located at 5 Cooper Square (1956–1962) in the Bowery neighborhood of New York City, between the Greenwich Village, East and West Village. In 1962, it moved to 2 St. Marks Place until closing in 1967. Its fri ...

after Higgins encountered

cabaret card The New York City Cabaret Identification Card was a permit required of all workers, including performers, in nightclubs in New York City from Prohibition to 1967. Its administration was fraught with politics, and some artists' cards were revoked o ...

difficulties in New York.) The album was reissued by Water Music Records in 2006 and by Superior Viaduct in 2016. The contents of the album also appear on the 1993 compilation ''

Beauty Is a Rare Thing ''Beauty Is a Rare Thing'' is a compilation box set collecting all the master recordings made for Atlantic Records between 1959 and 1961 by the American jazz composer and saxophonist Ornette Coleman.

'' as well as the 2018 compilation ''The Atlantic Years.'' The track titles spell out "music always brings goodness to us all, p.s. unless one has some other motive for its use."

Reception

In a review for

All About Jazz ''All About Jazz'' is a website established by Michael Ricci in 1995. A volunteer staff publishes news, album reviews, articles, videos, and listings of concerts and other events having to do with jazz. Ricci maintains a related site, ''Jazz Near ...

, Kurt Gottschalk wrote: "this collection is hardly the mismatched-socks drawer that so many 'rarities' collections are. Nor is it an epiphany. It casts no unexpected light on the man, the aesthetic or the times. It is simply another great record... It stands up to Coleman's other work of the time, which means it stands up to the greatest records in the jazz canon. What more could be said?" David Was, in an article for

NPR National Public Radio (NPR, stylized in all lowercase) is an American privately and state funded nonprofit media organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It differs from other ...

Music, commented that the recordings "sound as fresh and startling today as they must have in 1959 and '60, when they were recorded." Writing for

The Austin Chronicle ''The Austin Chronicle'' is an alternative weekly newspaper published every Thursday in Austin, Texas, United States. The paper is distributed through free news-stands, often at local eateries or coffee houses frequented by its targeted demogr ...

, Jay Trachtenberg called the album "marvelous," and remarked: "Upon its release, this disturbing and challenging 'free jazz' jolted the jazz establishment to its core. Almost 50 years later, the musical world has finally caught up with once jarring tunes like 'To Us' and 'Motive for Its Use,' which now sound practically mainstream... This is the music that started it all."

Track listing

:''All compositions by Ornette Coleman.''

Side one

Side two

Personnel

—

alto saxophone The alto saxophone is a member of the saxophone family of woodwind instruments. Saxophones were invented by Belgian instrument designer Adolphe Sax in the 1840s and patented in 1846. The alto saxophone is pitched in E, smaller than the B tenor ...

Don Cherry Donald Stewart Cherry (born February 5, 1934) is a Canadian former ice hockey player, coach, and television commentator. Cherry played one game in the National Hockey League (NHL) with the Boston Bruins, and later coached the team for five se ...

—

pocket trumpet 250px, Pocket trumpet in B-flat, with a standard size bell and medium-large bore The pocket trumpet is a B♭ trumpet that is constructed with the tubing wound into a much smaller coil than a standard trumpet, generally with a smaller diameter ...

Charlie Haden Charles Edward Haden (August 6, 1937 – July 11, 2014) was an American jazz double bass player, bandleader, composer and educator whose career spanned more than 50 years. In the late 1950s, he was an original member of the ground-breaking ...

—

bass Bass or Basses may refer to: Fish * Bass (fish), various saltwater and freshwater species Music * Bass (sound), describing low-frequency sound or one of several instruments in the bass range: ** Bass (instrument), including: ** Acoustic bass gui ...

—

drums A drum kit (also called a drum set, trap set, or simply drums) is a collection of drums, cymbals, and other Percussion instrument, auxiliary percussion instruments set up to be played by one person. The player (drummer) typically holds a pair o ...

on "Music Always" *

— drums on 1960 tracks

References

{{Authority control 1975 albums Ornette Coleman albums Atlantic Records albums Albums produced by Nesuhi Ertegun