Turnaround is a jazz composition by Ornette Coleman, released in 1959 on the album Tomorrow Is the Question! It is a 12-bar blues whose changes come from the last four bars of the blues and move chromatically in half and whole steps, creating a turnaround that never settles into a single key. The piece showcases Coleman's early free-leaning approach, where harmony and melody share equal importance and tonal centers can be fluid. The original group on this track featured Don Cherry on trumpet, Charlie Haden on bass, and Billy Higgins on drums, highlighting Coleman’s pioneering sound of the era. Turnaround is often cited as part of the birth of free jazz and reflects Coleman's harmolodic philosophy, which loosens conventional chord changes and allows for open-ended improvisation. Genre-wise it sits within jazz with early, exploratory free-jazz characteristics.
