Broken Shadows

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title: "Broken Shadows" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["1982-albums", "ornette-coleman-albums", "columbia-records-albums"] topic_path: "arts/music" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broken_Shadows" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::data[format=table title="Infobox album"]

Field	Value
name	Broken Shadows
type	Album
artist	Ornette Coleman
cover	Broken Shadows.jpg
released	1982
recorded	September 9, 1971 and September 7 & 8, 1972
genre	Jazz
length	50:37
label	Columbia
producer	Jim Fishel
chronology	Ornette Coleman
prev_title	Friends and Neighbors: Live at Prince Street
prev_year	1970
next_title	Science Fiction
next_year	1972
::

| name = Broken Shadows | type = Album | artist = Ornette Coleman | cover = Broken Shadows.jpg | alt = | released = 1982 | recorded = September 9, 1971 and September 7 & 8, 1972 | venue = | studio = | genre = Jazz | length = 50:37 | label = Columbia | producer = Jim Fishel | chronology = Ornette Coleman | prev_title = Friends and Neighbors: Live at Prince Street | prev_year = 1970 | next_title = Science Fiction | next_year = 1972

Broken Shadows is an album by the American jazz saxophonist and composer Ornette Coleman recorded in 1971, at the same sessions that produced Science Fiction, but not released on the Columbia label until 1982.

The contents of the album were included in the 2000 compilation The Complete Science Fiction Sessions.

Reception

| rev1 = AllMusic | rev1Score = |rev2 = The Rolling Stone Jazz Record Guide | rev2Score = {{Cite book |editor-last=Swenson |editor-first=J. | author-link = | year = 1985 | title = The Rolling Stone Jazz Record Guide |url=https://archive.org/details/rollingstonejazz00swen |url-access=registration | publisher = Random House/Rolling Stone | location = USA | isbn = 0-394-72643-X | pages = 46 The AllMusic review by Scott Yanow stated: "Cut prior to Coleman's formation of Prime Time, these performances serve as an unintentional retrospective of his career up to that point".

Robert Palmer of The New York Times called Broken Shadows "a wonderful album," and stated that, in relation to Science Fiction, it is "quite possibly a better album... and certainly in that league." Palmer praised "Good Girl Blues," describing it as "an extravagantly imaginative updating of the Southwestern jump blues that Mr. Coleman played as a young man," and commenting: "The tune is weird, perhaps a little disorienting. Listening to it is something like finding yourself between stations on the radio, with the blues in one ear and an atonal woodwind quintet in the other."

Writing for The Washington Post, Geoffrey Himes commented: "The... release finds Coleman at a midpoint between his turbulent free jazz pioneering and just as turbulent harmolodic work. In 1972, he had slowed down enough to reveal his gift for pensive melodies and populist blues."

Track listing

:All compositions by Ornette Coleman

1. "Happy House" – 9:50
2. "Elizabeth" – 10:30
3. "School Work" – 5:40
4. "Country Town Blues" – 6:27
5. "Broken Shadows" – 6:45
6. "Rubber Gloves" – 3:26
7. "Good Girl Blues" – 3:07
8. "Is It Forever" – 4:52

• Recorded at Columbia Studio E, NYC on September 9, 1971 (tracks 1–5), and September 7 & 8, 1972 (tracks 6–8)

Personnel

• Ornette Coleman – alto saxophone, trumpet, violin
• Don Cherry – pocket trumpet (tracks 1, 2, 4 & 5)
• Bobby Bradford (tracks 1–3 & 5) – trumpet
• Dewey Redman – tenor saxophone, musette (tracks 1–3 & 5–8)
• Charlie Haden – bass
• Billy Higgins (tracks 1, 2, 4 & 5), Ed Blackwell (tracks 1–3 & 5–8) – drums
• Jim Hall – guitar (tracks 7 & 8)
• Cedar Walton – piano (tracks 7 & 8)
• Webster Armstrong – vocals (tracks 7 & 8)
• Uncredited woodwinds (tracks 7 & 8)

References

References

1. [http://www.jazzdisco.org/ornette-coleman/catalog/#columbia-fc-38029 Ornette Coleman discography] accessed November 30, 2010
2. "Ornette Coleman: The Complete Science Fiction Sessions".
3. Yanow, S. [http://www.allmusic.com/album/broken-shadows-columbia-r136809 Allmusic Review] accessed November 30, 2010
4. Palmer, Robert. (August 18, 1982). "The Pop Life".
5. Himes, Geoffrey. (October 14, 1982). "Harmolodic Legacies". The Washington Post.

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