The legendary jazz musician and composer Ornette Coleman has died at the age of 85. Coleman changed the language of jazz music, pioneering a new sound known as “free jazz.” In 2006, I interviewed one of his closest musical associates, the late jazz bassist Charlie Haden, who described how he first heard Ornette Coleman play at a Hollywood club called the Hague.

Charlie Haden: “They tell him to come up, and he got his alto. It was a plastic—white plastic alto saxophone. And he starts to play, and the whole room lit up for me. It was so brilliant. And as soon as he started to play, they asked him to stop. So he put the horn back in the case and started out the back door.”

Amy Goodman: “Why did they ask him to stop?”

Charlie Haden: “Well, you know, Ornette’s music was completely different than traditional jazz. It was free improvisation. It was his way of improvising. It was improvising and creating a new chord structure to the song that you were playing. That’s the way he played.”

That’s Charlie Haden, who died last year. Ornette Coleman died Thursday of cardiac arrest in New York City. He was 85 years old.