http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/music_box/2006/10/take_the_o_train.html

Ornette Coleman, one of the most innovative voices in modern jazz, second only to Charlie Parker, died Thursday at the age of 85. He was the last survivor of the quartet that, in 1959, turned the world of music topsy-turvy. But Coleman kept experimenting and evolving for decades after. In 2006, I wrote a Slate column about his then-new album, Sound Grammar—which went on to win that year’s Pulitzer Prize for Music—and about the key to appreciating Coleman’s music. The article is reprinted below.