John Coltrane (1926 -1967) Bio and Chronology

John Coltrane was a pioneer of contemporary jazz styles. He set an example of dedication to his craft and a willingness to make musical experiments. When he graduated in 1943 from high school in High Point, N.C., Coltrane was dubbed the Most Musical student, constantly practicing his saxophone at a boarding house while waiting to join his mother, who had moved to Philadelphia. As a teenager, Coltrane's goal was to become a professional musician, recalling, "I wanted to progress quickly...This was something new for me and I threw myself into it headlong."

Philadelphia turned out to be a great training ground for jazz musicians with its many venues and opportunities. After World War II, the bebop scene was underway, including local musicians Jimmy Heath, Lee Morgan, McCoy Tyner and visiting artists Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie and Hank Jones.
Coltrane cultivated his individual sound while working in Philadelphia.

While John Coltrane was characterized as "quiet, shy and humble," he was creating explosive music, dynamic, forceful, driving tonality to its limits. Lewis Porter's book entitled John Coltrane His Life and Music presents a timeline of Coltrane's performances, recordings and travels as one continuous jam session. Coltrane did not seem to stop practicing during his waking hours. He was influenced by Lester Young, Charlie Parker, Paul Consalves and Ornette Coleman. Apprenticing under Dizzy Gillespie, he developed proficiency in traditional and new jazz styles. Coltrane performed with Miles Davis and T. Monk before forming his classic quartet, which toured from 1962-65 (Coltrane, Tyner, Garrison and Jones). Always dedicated and disciplined, Coltrane experimented with new sounds, forms and non-forms. He said, "I've really got to work and study more approaches to writing, to keep probing. There is so much more to do."

Coltrane's areas of concentration encompassed American spirituals, and the music of India, Latin America and Africa. He may have introduced the concept of "world music." During his later period, Coltrane's compositions retained motivic development and planned sequential patterns that could be diagrammed like an unfolding plot and denouement of a story.

Coltrane said, "I think music is an instrument. It can create the initial thought patterns that can change the thinking of the people...Jazz is an expression of music; and this music is an expression of higher ideals to me." He explained his compositional strategies: "I always return to the little fraction of the solo that I'm involved in playing...Chords have become for me a kind of obsession, which gives me the impression of approaching music by the wrong end of the telescope."

Before his life was cut short, Coltrane planned to teach. His legacy is found by today's students in his original and soulful contributions to the world of music. In every work by John Coltrane we can discover within the sweeping melodies, harmonies, powerful bass lines and exotic rhythms that make up something extraordinarily modern.

Suggested listening: A Love Supreme 1964 (remastered 2003).
Blue Train 1957; Giant Steps 1959.

1926 Born, Hamlet, North Carolina
1945-46 Served in Navy
1947 King Kolax Band, Philadelphia. Switched from alto to tenor sax.
1949-51 Dizzy Gillespie's band
1954-56 Performed with Johnny Hodges, Miles Davis
1957 Joined Thelonious Monk Quartet
1959 Kind of Blue with Miles Davis (modal playing)
1960 Solo career; Giant Steps
1961 My Favorite Things
1965 A Love Supreme
1966 Meditations; married Alice (sons John, Ravi, Oran)
1967 Died of cancer.

Photo: Matisse. JAZZ.