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The Shape of Jazz to Come is the third album by jazz musician Ornette Coleman. Although Coleman initially wished for the album to be titled Focus on Sanity, after one of the songs on the album, it was ultimately titled The Shape of Jazz to Come to give "an idea about the uniqueness of the LP." Released on Atlantic Records in 1959, it was his debut on the label and his first album featuring his working quartet including himself, trumpeter Don Cherry, bassist Charlie Haden, and drummer Billy Higgins. The recording session for the album took place on May 22, 1959, at Radio Recorders in Hollywood, California. In 2012, the Library of Congress added the album to the National Recording Registry. This stereo edition was released in the early development of the art-form, demonstrating the initial blossoming possibility of stereo listening. “That was Ornette’s title, and he always had this — you know, this vision. He’s a real visionary in his music, and he has these great titles to his songs and to his albums, and so The Shape of Jazz to Come… That’s what it was. There were several revolutions, changes in the world of jazz, you know. Louis Armstrong and some other people started it out, and then there was the swing era with the big bands, and then Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie came along and created bebop on 52nd Street in the ’40s. That was a revolution in the language of jazz. And then when Ornette and Don (Cherry) and I and Billy (Higgins) came to New York, that was the next one.” - Charlie Haden (Bassist)