The Shape of Jazz to Come is the third album by jazz musician Ornette Coleman. Although Coleman initially wished for the album to be titled Focus on Sanity, after one of the songs on the album, it was ultimately titled The Shape of Jazz to Come at the urging of Atlantic producer Nesuhi Ertegun, who felt that the title would give consumers "an idea about the uniqueness of the LP." Released on Atlantic Records in 1959, it was his debut on the label and his first album featuring his working quartet including himself, trumpeter Don Cherry, bassist Charlie Haden, and drummer Billy Higgins. The recording session for the album took place on May 22, 1959, at Radio Recorders in Hollywood, California. Two outtakes from the session, "Monk and the Nun" and "Just for You", would later be released respectively on the 1970s compilations Twins and The Art of the Improvisers. In 2012, the Library of Congress added the album to the National Recording Registry.

From 1948 to 1958, Coleman moved between New Orleans, Fort Worth, and Los Angeles, working various jobs and developing his own unique sound that was often met with hostility. His unique approach to jazz initially made it difficult to make ends meet by playing music. While employed as an elevator operator in Los Angeles, he studied music theory and harmony and developed an idiosyncratic take on country blues and folk forms. Coleman's big break came in Los Angeles when he caught the attention of Percy Heath and John Lewis, the bassist and pianist of the Modern Jazz Quartet. Lewis encouraged Coleman and his trumpeter Don Cherry to attend the Lenox School of Jazz (a seminal summer jazz education program) in Massachusetts in 1959, at which Lewis was the director. Lewis also secured Coleman a deal with Atlantic Records, who paid his tuition at the Lenox School of Jazz. Though both Coleman and Cherry were already rather accomplished by this point in their careers, Lewis wanted to use their attendance at the Lenox School of Jazz to generate buzz amongst jazz circles. Their presence at the school was not without friction amongst students and faculty alike, but in the end, their attending the school accomplished what Lewis hoped to achieve. After his stint at the Lenox School of Jazz, Coleman was booked by Lewis to play at the 1959 Monterey Jazz Festival in California. These were all pivotal events in Coleman's career, who in June 1959 suggested to Nesuhi Ertegun, who handled Atlantic's jazz recordings, that he was considering abandoning music in order to study religion. Ertegun, confident of Coleman's potential, urged him to reconsider.

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