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It is to the lasting credit of the late Lester Koenig, founder of Contemporary Records, that he gave Ornette Coleman his first exposure on record, thus launching an illustrious career that would exercise a worldwide influence. Coleman's vision of the future, as stated on this 1958 album's original liner notes, foretold that "music will be a lot freer. The pattern for a tune, for instance, will be forgotten and the tune itself will be the pattern."
Something Else finds Coleman right on the cusp of that kind of invention leading a group that includes Don Cherry (trumpet), Walter Norris (piano), Don Payne (bass) and Billy Higgins (drums) through nine of his own compositions. The album was the first of two albums he made for the West Coast label before moving on, the following year, to New York and global renown. It is, by all accounts, a vital collectors' item.