Since its inception, free jazz has been one of the most polarizing styles of music, and it's managed to remain so for over fifty years. Actually, it's an approach to music more than a style, because like certain schools of visual art, the process is meant to be out in the open and noted. It came into being, at least partially, because players were tired of being boxed in by the use of songs and chord changes as improvisational contexts. Theoretically, free jazz is meant to be played without chord changes and to be based on mutual composition in the moment. But what results can often alienate listeners, mostly because there isn't time for any kind of editing.

Ornette Coleman is the first name that comes to mind when the genre is mentioned, and deservedly, because he has dedicated more time to it than any other musician. And because free jazz as a concept is just as divisive among musicians as it is with fans, many of Coleman's peers have said negative things about his music. I think the fact that he's still at it, after over fifty years, speaks for itself. In any event, it's clear that controversy and the induction of thinking are necessary results of what he does, and he know it. As a listener, I find that his best recordings are the ones in which he's in the company of the great Charlie Haden on bass: The Shape of Jazz to Come (1959), Change of the Century (1959), This is Our Music (1960), and Song X (1986), which also features Pat Metheny. Here's the title track: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d66Ytt2g7ns