Jazz innovator Ornette Coleman has won the International Bird Award.
The award, named for the American jazz saxophonist Charlie "Bird" Parker, honors musicians who have had a lasting influence on international jazz.The 64-year-old Texas-born musician and composer "is a saxophonist who has kept his own style throughout the years," Aernoud Oosterholt, spokesman for the eight-member jury of jazz critics from seven countries, said Friday in The Hague, Netherlands.
In the late 1950s, Coleman introduced jazz that broke away from the bebop style.