Tomorrow Is the Question!

Artist: Ornette Coleman

Genre: Avant-Garde Jazz

Year: 1959

Grade: A

Tomorrow Is the Question! follows a simple premise: hard bop with atonal solos. The rhythm section of Percy Heath and Shelly Manne are no different than what you’d hear from any drum & bass combo of the era. The strangeness comes in the form of trumpeter Don Cherry and Ornette Coleman himself, who provide overlapping free-improv commentary over the simplistic beats. The lack of a piano player heightens the peculiar atmosphere.

While The Shape of Jazz to Come remains the tome that all avant-garde jazz fans reference, Tomorrow Is the Question! is necessary for providing the blueprint.