The Avant-Garde is an album credited to jazz musicians John Coltrane and Don Cherry, released in 1966 on Atlantic Records, catalogue SD 1451. It features Coltrane playing the compositions of Ornette Coleman accompanied by the members of his quartet, Don Cherry, Charlie Haden and Ed Blackwell. It is assembled from unissued results of two separate recording sessions at the Atlantic Studios in New York City in 1960. As Coltrane's fame grew during the 1960s long after he had stopped recording for the label, Atlantic used unissued recordings to create new marketable albums without Coltrane's input or approval.


Track listing

Side one
"Cherry-Co" (Don Cherry) — 6:47
"Focus on Sanity" (Ornette Coleman) — 12:15

Side two
"The Blessing" (Ornette Coleman) — 7:53
"The Invisible" (Ornette Coleman) — 4:15
"Bemsha Swing" (Thelonious Monk, Denzil Best) — 5:05


John Coltrane — tenor and soprano saxophone
Don Cherry — cornet
Charlie Haden — bass on "Cherry-Co," "The Invisible"
Percy Heath — bass on "Focus on Sanity," "The Blessing, "Bemsha Swing"
Ed Blackwell — drums Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.