"With the release of his 1959 debut album, Something Else!, Coleman had ushered in a new era in jazz history. This music was free from the prevailing conventions of harmony, rhythm and melody, and transformed the art form with a concept he called Harmolodic. 'When our group plays,' Coleman once stated, 'before we set up to play, we do not have any idea what the end result will be. Each player is free to contribute what he feels in the music at any given moment.' Soon he was signed to Atlantic Records, where he recorded some of his most brilliant work, characterized by an 'immensely vocal' sound, 'with virtually no vibrato: it is gutsy without being raspy, because there is a sweetness to it. He also had what in conventional mainstream jazz would be called the 'Texas cry,' only he pushed it further, distorted it more often.' Originally released in 1961, This Is Our Music marked Coleman's third release for the label and certainly one of his finest. The Ornette Coleman Quartet made music that was simultaneously radical and beautiful -- This Is Our Music is incontrovertible evidence."