# Lonely Woman (composition)

"Lonely Woman" is a jazz composition by Ornette Coleman. Coleman's recording of it was the opening track on his 1959 Atlantic Records album The Shape of Jazz to Come. Alongside Coleman's alto saxophone, the recording featured Don Cherry on cornet, Charlie Haden on double bass and Billy Higgins on drums.

## Origin

In an interview with Jacques Derrida, Coleman spoke of the origin of the composition:
   Before becoming known as a musician, when I worked in a big department store, one day, during my lunch break, I came across a gallery where someone had painted a very rich white woman who had absolutely everything that you could desire in life, and she had the most solitary expression in the world. I had never been confronted with such solitude, and when I got back home, I wrote a piece that I called "Lonely Woman."

## Other versions

Haden and Cherry revisited the song on Old and New Dreams (ECM, 1979), Haden doing so again on Etudes (1987) and In Angel City (1988).
Pianist John Lewis first recorded the song in November1961 with the Modern Jazz Quartet for their 1960-1961 Live in Paris (album) which was one of the earliest recorded covers of a Coleman number. Later that year, in July, Lewis recorded it again for his album European Encounter.
Vocal versions, with lyrics written by Margo Guryan, have been recorded by Chris Connor (1962), Freda Payne (1964, on After the Lights Go Down Low and Much More!!!) and Carola Standertskjöld (1966).
| Year | Performer | Album | Source |
| 1961 | Modern Jazz Quartet | Lonely Woman | [5] [6] |
| 1965 | Denny Zeitlin with Charlie Haden | Shining Hour - Live at The Trident | |
| 1968 | Helen Merrill and Dick Katz | A Shade of Difference | |
| 1969 | Marzette Watts with Patty Waters | The Marzette Watts Ensemble | |
| 1971 | Zurich International Festival All-Stars | From Europe with Jazz | |
| 1974 | Lester Bowie with Julius Hemphill | Fast Last! | |
| 1977 | Hugh Hopper | Hopper Tunity Box | |
| 1979 | Old and New Dreams | Old and New Dreams | |
| 1982 | Masayuki Takayanagi | Lonely Woman | discogs |
| 1982 | Billy Bang and Dennis Charles | Bangception | |
| 1984 | Jaki Byard | Phantasies | |
| 1987 | Charlie Haden with Paul Motian and Geri Allen | Etudes | |
| 1987 | Kronos Quartet | White Man Sleeps | |
| 1987 | Branford Marsalis with Kenny Kirkland | Random Abstract | |
| 1988 | Charlie Haden | In Angel City | |
| 1990 | John Zorn with Bill Frisell, Wayne Horvitz, Fred Frith, and Joey Baron | Naked City | |
| 1992 | 8 Bold Souls | Sideshow | |
| 1992 | Radka Toneff | Live in Hamburg (recorded 1981) | |
| 1994 | Charlie Haden | The Montreal Tapes: with Don Cherry and Ed Blackwell | |
| 1995 | The Denison/Kimball Trio | Soul Machine | |
| 1998 | J. D. Allen | In Search of | |
| 2002 | Greg Malcolm | Homesick for Nowhere | |
| 2005 | Joshua Redman | Momentum | |
| 2005 | Ahmed Abdullah | Tara's Song | |
| 2005 | Sunny Murray | Perles Noires Volume 1 | |
| 2007 | Basquiat Strings | Basquiat Strings | |
| 2009 | Miroslav Vitouš Group w/ Michel Portal | Remembering Weather Report | |
| 2011 | Archie Shepp and Joachim Kühn | Woman | |
| 2011 | Brad Mehldau and Kevin Hays | Modern Music | |
| 2013 | Benoît Delbecq and Fred Hersch | Fun House | |