Coltrane, John 1926–1967
John Coltrane 1926–1967
jazz saxophonist, composer
At a Glance…
Naval Tour Of Duty
Free-lanced In Philadelphia
Apprenticeship With Thelonious Monk
Solo Trane
Rejoined Davis
Continued Solo Career
New Musical Explorations
The Art Of Free Jazz
Selected discography
Sources
Jazz saxophonist and composer John Coltrane led, between 1960 and 1966, one of most influential groups in the history of jazz. Since his first jobs with nationally known band leaders in the late 1940s, Coltrane’s career—which included stints with Miles Davis and Thelonious Monk—went through several phases and stylistic changes before culminating in the playing of “free jazz” based upon the omission of a harmonic center. Like saxophonist Charlie Parker, he opened up new improvisatory variations by expanding the musical vocabulary of jazz. Apart from bringing into vogue the playing of chords on the saxophone, Coltrane often led groups which employed either two basses or two drummers. His solemn manner, spiritual outlook, and chronic drug use made him an avant garde cultural hero among countless jazz artists and 1960s rock musicians. Inspired by the music of Africa, India, and the Far East, Coltrane brought together disparate musical and cultural elements (including modern symphonic music by such composers as Igor Stravinsky), which made him one of the founders of a world music consciousness, and a creative force whose profound impact has yet to be fully recognized.
John Coltrane was born on September 23, 1926, in Hamlet, North Carolina, to John Robert Coltrane—a tailor—and Alice Gertrude Blair, members of the African Methodist Episcopal Church who displayed talent as amateur musical instrumentalists. A few months after the birth of their son, the Coltranes moved one hundred miles north to High Point, North Carolina. Not long after, Coltrane’s father separated from the family, leaving Alice and her sister to raise John Jr. A bright student in grammar school, Coltrane’s subsequent musical interests shifted his attention away from his school studies which earned him average grades. Around the time of his father’s death from stomach cancer in 1939, Coltrane took up alto saxophone and then clarinet. Shortly afterward he played in a local community band, and in the fall of 1940, became a member of William Penn High School’s newly formed music ensemble. During this time, he spent countless hours in private musical practice which became an obsessive endeavor.
After graduating from high school in May of 1943, Coltrane joined his mother in Philadelphia, and enrolled in the Ornstein School of Music, where he received private saxophone lessons from Mike Guerra. “[Coltrane]
Born John William Coltrane, September 23, 1926, in Hamlet, North Carolina; died of liver cancer July 17, 1967; son of John Robert Coltrane (a tailor) and Gertrude Blair; married Naima Grubbs October 3, 1955, and divorced in 1966; married Alice McCleod (pianist/harpist) in 1966; children: John W. Jr., Ravi John Coltrane; Education: Ornstein School of Music circa 1943; Granoff Studio.
Career: Played alto saxophone in a Navy Band, 1945-46; free-lanced with various musicians in Philadelphia, 1946-49; with Eddie “Cleanhead” Vinson, 1948-49; with Dizzy Gillespie, 1949-51; performed with saxophonist Earl Bostic, 1952; toured with saxophonist Johnny Hodges, 1954; performed with organist Jimmy Smith before joining Miles Davis’ quintet, 1955; performed and recorded with Thelonious Monk, 1957; returned to Miles Davis’ group and recorded with Kenny Burrell, 1958; quit Miles Davis’ group and recorded album Giant Steps, 1959; led own group, 1960-65; added Eric Dolphy to group, 1961; played jobs with Wes Montgomery and recorded with Duke Ellington, 1962; recorded with singer Johnny Hartman, 1963; performed with two drummers and recruited saxophonist Farrell “Pharaoh” Sanders, 1965; led with new ensemble, 1966; Military service: U.S. Navy 1945-46.
Awards: Down Beat Jazz Musician of the Year, International Critic’s Poll, Reader’s Poll, Best Saxophone, and Best Miscellaneous (soprano saxophone), New Star Combo, 1961; Down Beat Jazzman of the Year, 1965; album Love Supreme voted Album of the Year by Down Beat and Jazz, 1965.
trane] was easily the best student in my class,” accounted Guerra in Chasin’ the Trane. “I wrote out complex chord progressions and special exercises in chromatic scales, and he was one of the few who brought his homework back practically the next day and played it on sight,” he continued. At this time, Coltrane befriended such Philadelphia jazzmen as Jimmy Heath, Benny Golson, and Ray Bryant—musicians with whom he often performed with in small groups around the city.
Inducted into the Navy in 1945, Coltrane was first stationed in California and then spent a tour of duty on the Hawaiian island of Oahu. Between regular military duties Coltrane, called “Trane” by other naval personnel, performed on clarinet and alto saxophone in a dance band, The Melody Masters. Shortly before his discharge in August of 1946, and while still in Oahu, Coltrane took part in his first recording session with a small group of Navy musicians, playing bebop-style numbers on alto saxophone. Back in Philadelphia, Coltrane, funded by Veteran’s Administration benefits, continued his musical education at the Granoff Studios. Like many young jazzmen of the post war period, Coltrane balanced his study of music between formal and informal training. “Philadelphia’s jazz scene had high technical standards in comparison with many local scenes outside New York,” noted Lewis Porter in John Coltrane: His Life and Music. “This clearly had an impact on Coltrane, who was fascinated with technical and theoretical matters. He both contributed to and benefitted from this aspect of the Philadelphia jazz life,” he continued.
In 1947 Coltrane spent three months in the band of trumpeter King Kolax, and then continued to study music and free-lance around Philadelphia, until joining Jimmy Heath’s big band. After disbanding his group in Philadelphia, in November of 1948, alto saxophonist Eddie “Cleanhead” Vinson hired Coltrane as a tenor saxophonist as part of his new unit. Coltrane toured with Vinson until leaving the band in the summer of 1949, and by September was hired as lead alto saxophonist for Dizzy Gillespie’s big band. Though honored to be a member of Gillespie’s ensemble, Coltrane’s position on alto offered him little room for improvisation. In between playing Gillespie’s new bebop novelty material, Coltrane did manage to perform complex modern compositions such as Gillespie’s “Night in Tunisia” and Thelonious Monk’s “Round Midnight.”
When financial troubles caused Gillespie to break up his big band in 1950, the trumpeter formed a small unit which included Coltrane on tenor saxophone. As a member of the Dizzy Gillespie Sextet, Coltrane was joined by vibraphonist Milt Jackson, bassist Percy Heath, and drummer Specs Wright. In March of 1951 Coltrane recorded on Gillespie’s Detroit-based Dee Gee label with Milt Jackson, Kenny Burrell, both of whom he would later collaborate on solo recording projects. In New York that same year, Coltrane, as a result of his increasing drug use, was fired by Gillespie.
Back in Philadelphia, Coltrane continued his study of music through relentless practice and free-lance jobs. In April of 1952 he toured with alto saxophonist Earl Bostic. Coltrane free-lanced around Philadelphia, until joining Johnny Hodges in March of 1954. In a Down Beat interview with Don Demichael, Coltrane described the musical value of his stint with Hodges: “I was getting first hand information about things that happened way before my time.” Despite an enthusiasm for Hodge’s music, Coltrane’s drug habit forced the bandleader to fire him.
In September of 1955 Coltrane worked in Philadelphia with organist Jimmy Smith. In John Coltrane: His Life and Music, Lewis Porter noted that during this period, “Coltrane utilized a very slow vibrato, lending to poignant delicacy to his sound. At faster tempos, Coltrane’s tone became more raspy and intense.” When tenor saxophonist Sonny Rollins left Miles Davis’ band, the trumpeter invited Coltrane to fill the job. At first, Coltrane found playing with Davis uneasy and frustrating. After a very brief return with Jimmy Smith, he rejoined Davis’ band later that month. Two months later, Coltrane appeared on the Prestige album The New Miles Davis Quintet, soon to be followed by sessions that yielded Davis’ classic works, Cookin’, Relaxin’ Workin’ With Miles Davis, and Steamin’. He then appeared on Davis’ first solo Columbia release, ‘Round About Midnight. By 1957 Coltrane’s increasing drug use began to take its toll. In his memoir Miles, Davis recalled his waning tolerance for Coltrane’s addiction: “Trane was a beautiful person, a real sweet kind of guy, spiritual, all of that. So you really couldn’t help loving him and caring about him, too. I figured he was making more money than he ever made in his life, and so when I talked to him I thought he would stop, but he didn’t.” Without heeding his bandleader’s advice, Coltrane was fired by Davis in April of 1957.
In the summer of 1957 Coltrane, bassist Wilbur Ware, and drummer Shadow Wilson, backed pianist Thelonious Monk at New York’s Five Spot on the city’s lower east side. Though it lasted only several months, Coltrane’s stint with Monk proved an invaluable musical experience. Monk’s habit of leaving space behind the soloist (termed “laying out”) allowed Coltrane freedom to explore various harmonic possibilities. Ted Goia wrote, in The History of Jazz, “Rather than emulating Monk’s use of space or compositional style of improvisation, as so many others did when playing with the pianist, Coltrane stayed true to his own emphatic style.” As Goia added, “In an amazing turnaround, Monk came to adapt to Coltrane, even going so far as not playing behind some of the horn solos, allowing the tenorist to stretch out with just bass and drum backing (as the saxophonist would do a few years later with his own band).” Shortly before joining Monk, Coltrane cut the number, “Monk’s Mood,” which later appeared on the Prestige album Thelonious Himself. As a regular of Monk’s group, he attended an April 1957 session which yielded material featured on the album Thelonious Monk With John Coltrane, a work containing such Monk classics as “Ruby My Dear,” “Trinkle Tinkle” and “Nutty.” Several years later, in Down Beat, Coltrane recalled, “Working with Monk brought me close to a musical architect of the highest order. I felt I learned from him in everyway—through the senses, theoretically, technically.”
In May of 1957 Coltrane recorded his debut album, entitled Coltrane, for Prestige Records (over the next months he would record material which make up the albums Dakar, and Traneing In). That same year, Prestige arranged a deal with Blue Note Records allowing Coltrane to record one album, which brought forth, Blue Train, a modern jazz classic, yielding such Coltrane numbers as the twelve bar-structured “Blue Train” and “Moment’s Notice”—a sixteen-bar original which Lewis Porter noted, in John Coltrane: His Life and Music, that displayed Coltrane’s “preoccupation with placing changing harmonies under a repeated note in the melody.”
At this time, Coltrane’s musical explorations coincided with an increasing interest in world religions and spiritual consciousness. In the liner notes to A Love Supreme, Coltrane wrote, “During the year 1957, I experienced by the grace of God, a spiritual awakening which led me to a richer, fuller more productive life … All Praise to God.” As Valerie Wilmer noted, in As Serious as Your Life, “[Coltrane] was not the first musician to speak of spiritual matters, but his example was one of the most compelling and persuasive”—one that exemplified the “hip” element by becoming “a musician of value or worth to the community,” and African American culture.
In 1958, after periodically kicking his drug habit, Coltrane rejoined Davis’ expanded-unit which included alto saxophonist Cannonball Adderly. In February and March of 1958 the sextet recorded Milestones. During this two-month period, he also recorded two solo efforts Soultrane and Trane’s Reign, and co-led a date with guitarist Kenny Burrell. In the spring of 1958, Coltrane recorded on Davis’ album the classic numbers “On Green Dolphin Street” and Richard Roger’s “My Funny Valentine”—material which comprised the album ’58 Sessions. In March and April of 1959 Coltrane took part in sessions which produced Davis’ classic album Kind of Blue. Despite his invaluable experience with Davis’ sextet, Coltrane had, by 1959, desired to expand his own musical horizons, and spent many hours at the piano working out harmonic variations [Coltrane composed most of his work on the keyboard]. As he told Ralph Gleason, in the liner notes to Ol’e Coltrane, “All the time I was with Miles I didn’t have anything to think about but myself so I stayed at the piano and chords, chords, chords! I ended up playing them on my horn.”
A work with an immense impact on the jazz world, Coltrane’s Atlantic album, Giant Steps, was cut in three sessions held between April and December of 1959. His original numbers, “Giant Steps” and “Countdown,” became test pieces not only for saxophonists but for other instrumentalists as well. In the album’s liner notes, Coltrane explained that he titled “Giant Steps” for the intervals of the composition’s bass line which moved from “minor thirds to fourths … in contrast fourths or in half-steps.”
After a European tour with Davis, Coltrane left the trumpeter’s group in April of 1960, and five months later, (after several personnel changes) assembled a quartet with pianist McCoy Tyner, bassist Steve Davis, and drummer Elvin Jones. In Jones’ inventive musicianship Coltrane found the ideal drummer whose revolutionary circular-style of playing and furious sense of swing seemed to anticipate his musical ideas. In October the quartet recorded the Atlantic album, My Favorite Things, featuring Rodgers’ and Hammerstein’s title selection, on which Coltrane’s eastern-sounding soprano saxophone inspired numerous jazz interpretations of the original stage number. In May and June of 1961, he gained the Impulse labels’ permission to record an eighteen-piece orchestral work, Africa/Brass. In November of the same year, the quartet cut [with Reggie Workman on bass and a guest appearance by Eric Dolphy] Live at the Village Vanguard which included the feral blues “Chasin’ the Trane.” Coltrane’s extended soloing, noted Nat Hentoff in the album’s liner notes, “… is particularly fascinating for the astonishing variety of textures Coltrane draws from the full range of his horn and the unflagging intensity of his inventions.”
During the early 1960s, Coltrane’s agonized saxophone cries and atonal intervals led critics to label him “the angry tenor,” (a title he despised). Despite criticism, Coltrane’s fierce attack and astonishing display of unique musical ideas were balanced by his tasteful playing of ballads and blues. In describing the man behind the media image, Elvin Jones commented, in Thinking in Jazz: “[Coltrane] was so calm and had such a peaceful attitude, it was soothing to be around him.… To me, he was like an angel on earth. He struck me deeply. This is not just an ordinary person, and I’m not a believer to think very seriously about that. I’ve been touched some way by something greater than life.” Coltrane’s deepening religious consciousness inspired him, in December of 1964, to record the album Love Supreme. A four section suite, Love Supreme became Down Beat magazine’s album of the year, and emerged as Coltrane’s best-selling recording.
In 1965 the Impulse label released Ascension, Coltrane’s first tonally free effort. “This forty-minute performance,” observed Ted Gioia in The History of Jazz, “found Coltrane and his rhythm section supplemented by a half-dozen horn players in a wild free-for-all—a superheated encounter that, for many listeners, served as the fitting logical and anarchistic end point to this quest of freedom.” In September of 1965 tenor saxophonist Ferrell “Pharaoh” Sanders joined Coltrane’s ensemble. Frustrated that his piano had taken a background role, Tyner left the band at the end of 1965, and was replaced by pianist and harpist Alice McCleod, a former Detroiter who became Coltrane’s second wife in 1966. After Coltrane’s addition of drummer, Rashied Ali, the group’s two-drum line-up found disfavor with Elvin Jones, who soon left the group (Jimmy Garrison stayed with Coltrane’s group until the summer of 1966).
By 1967 Coltrane’s music no longer employed the use of a steady beat (most notably in the absence of a walking bass), and abandoned the use of a tonal center in his compositions. As saxophonist Dave Leibman noted in Down Beat, “In ’66 and ’67, Trane employed no harmonic basis at all, but worked on the base level of harmonic minimalism, which he could paint any picture over, moving in and out of the stated key, playing in many keys at once.” In February and March of 1967 Coltrane recorded the album Expressions. He also recorded, in February, a number of duets with drummer Rashied Ali, posthumously released as the Impulse! album Interstellar Space. At this time, Coltrane’s chronic use of LSD attributed to his worsening health. After complaints of pains in his stomach in May of the same year, he was hospitalized. Two months later, Coltrane was admitted to Huntington Hospital, in New York City, where he died of liver cancer on July 17, 1967.
Despite his untimely death, Coltrane left behind a musical legacy of profound human message. In an interview quoted in the book John Coltrane: His Life and Music, Coltrane expressed his ultimate creative purpose: “I think music can make the world better and, if I’m qualified, I want to do it. I’d like to point out to people the divine in a musical language that transcends words. I want to speak to their souls.”
(with Dizzy Gillespie)
The Champ, Savoy, 1992.
(with Miles Davis)
The New Miles Davis Quintet, Prestige 1955.
Cookin’, Prestige, 1956.
Relaxin’, Prestige 1956.
Workin’ With Miles Davis, Prestige, 1956.
Steamin’, Prestige, 1956.
Miles Davis and the Modern Jazz Giants, Prestige, 1956.
Round About Midnight, Columbia, 1956.
Milestones, Columbia, 1958.
Miles Davis ’58 Sessions, Columbia, reissued material, 1991.
Kind of Blue, Columbia, 1959.
(with Thelonious Monk)
Thelonious Monk With John Coltrane, Jazzland, reissued on Original Jazz Classics, 1987.
The Thelonious Monk Quartet Featuring John Coltrane, Live at the Five Spot/Discovery! Blue Note.
(solo)
Dakar, Prestige, 1957.
Blue Train, Blue Note, 1957.
Traneing In, Prestige, 1958.
Kenny Burrell and John Coltrane, New Jazz, 1958, reissued on Original Jazz Classics, 1987.
Giant Steps, Atlantic, 1960.
My Favorite Things, Atlantic, 1961.
Ol’e Coltrane, Atlantic, 1961.
The Complete Africa Brass Sessions, Impulse!, 1961.
Live at the Village Vanguard, Impulse!, 1962.
Coltrane, Impulse!, 1962.
Ballads, Impulse!, 1962.
John Coltrane in Stockholm 1963, Charly Records, 1986.
A Love Supreme, Impulse!, 1964.
Cresent, Impulse!, 1964.
Ascension, Impulse!, 1965.
Sun Ship, Impulse!, 1965.
Meditations, Impulse!, 1965.
Coltrane Plays the Blues, Atlantic, 1966.
Expression, Impulse!, 1967.
Interstellar Space, Impulse!, 1967.
Boxed Sets
John Coltrane: The Prestige Recordings.
The Last Giant, Rhino Records.
Books
Berliner, Paul F., Thinking in Jazz: The Infinite Art of Improvisation, University of Chicago Press, 1994.
Davis, Miles with Quincy Troupe, Miles the Autobiography, Simon & Schuster, 1989, p. 209-210.
Gioia, Ted, The History of Jazz, Oxford University Press, 1997, pp.245-246. Thomas, J.C., Chasin’ The Trane: The Music and Mystique of John Coltrane. Da Capo, 1976.
Porter, Lewis, John Coltrane: His Life and Music, University of Michigan, 1998.
Wilmer, Valerie, As Serious as Your Life: The Story of Jazz, Pluto Press, 1977, p. 25-44.
Periodicals
Down Beat, October 16, 1958; September, 29, 1960; June 1988, pp. 20-27.
Other
Additional information for this profile was obtained from the liner notes to: Giant Steps, Atlantic, 1960; Live at the Village Vanguard, by Nat Hentoff, 1962; John Coltrane, A Love Supreme, 1964; Ol’e Coltrane, by Ralph Gleason, Atlantic, 1961.
—John Cohassey
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