JOHN COLTRANE
G'day folks,
Welcome to some background on another talented muso who died way too young. John
Coltrane was an acclaimed American saxophonist, bandleader and composer,
becoming an iconic figure of 20th-century jazz with albums like 'Giant Steps,'
'My Favorite Things' and 'A Love Supreme.'
“You can
play a shoestring if you're sincere.”
—John
Coltrane
John
Coltrane was born on September 23, 1926, in Hamlet, North Carolina. During the
1940s and '50s, he continued to develop his craft as a saxophonist and
composer, working with famed musicians/bandleaders Dizzy Gillespie, Duke Ellington and Miles Davis. Coltrane
turned the jazz world on its head with technically marvelous, innovative
playing that was thrillingly dense and fluid in its understanding of the genre;
his virtuosity and vision could be heard on the now revered albums Giant
Steps, My Favorite Things and A Love Supreme, among others.
He died from liver cancer at 40 years old on July 17, 1967, in Huntington, Long
Island, New York.
Background and Early Years
A
revolutionary and groundbreaking jazz saxophonist, John William Coltrane was
born on September 23, 1926, in Hamlet, North Carolina, growing up in nearby
High Point. Coltrane was surrounded by music as a child. His father John R.
Coltrane worked as a tailor, but had a passion for music, playing several
instruments. The younger Coltrane's early influences included jazz legends
like Count Basie and Lester Young. By his teens, Coltrane had picked up the alto saxophone
and displayed immediate talent.
Family
life took a tragic turn in 1939 with the passing of Coltrane's father, along
with several other relatives. Financial struggles defined this period for
Coltrane, and eventually his mother Alice and other family members moved to New
Jersey in the hopes of having an improved life. Coltrane remained in North
Carolina until he graduated from high school.
In 1943,
he too moved north, specifically to Philadelphia, to make a go of it as a
musician. For a short time Coltrane studied at the Ornstein School of Music.
But with the country in the throes of war, he was called to duty and enlisted
in the Navy. During his service, Coltrane was stationed in Hawaii
and regularly performed and made his first recording with a quartet of
fellow sailors.
Joining Gillespie and Ellington
Upon his
return to civilian life in the summer of 1946, Coltrane landed back in
Philadelphia, where he studied at the Granoff School of Music
and proceeded to hook up with a number of jazz bands. One of the earliest
was a group led by Eddie "Cleanhead" Vinson, for whom Coltrane
switched over to tenor sax. He later joined Jimmy Heath's band, where Coltrane
began to fully explore his experimental side. Then in the fall of 1949 he
signed on with a big band led by famed trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie, remaining
with the group for the next year and a half.
Coltrane
had started to earn a name for himself. But during the 1950s, as was the case
with other jazz performers, he began to use drugs, mainly heroin. His talent
earned him gigs, but his addictions ended them prematurely. In 1954, Duke
Ellington brought Coltrane on to temporarily replace Johnny Hodges, but soon
fired him because of his drug dependency.
Famed Work With Miles Davis
Coltrane
rebounded during the mid-'50s when Miles Davis asked him to join his group, the
Miles Davis Quintet. Davis encouraged Coltrane to push his creative boundaries
while holding him accountable for his drug habits.
With the
group working under a new record contract from Columbia Records, the next
several years proved fruitful and artistically rewarding with albums such as
The New Miles Davis Quintet (1956) and 'Round About Midnight (1957).
Coltrane also played on Davis's seminal masterpiece Kind of Blue
(1959).
In 1957,
after having previously fired and rehired his bandmate, Davis fired Coltrane
again, after he failed to give up heroin. Whether that was the exact impetus
for Coltrane finally getting sober isn't certain, but the saxophonist finally
kicked his drug habit. He worked with pianist Thelonious Monk for several months while also developing as a
bandleader and solo recording artist, heralded by the release of albums like Blue
Train (1957) and Soultrane (1958). At the start of a new decade,
Coltrane made his debut on Atlantic Records with the groundbreaking Giant
Steps (1960), penning all of the material himself.
By this
time, Coltrane had nurtured a distinctive sound defined in part by an
ability to play several notes at once amid wondrous cascades of scales, dubbed
in 1958 by critic Ira Gitler as a "sheets of sound" technique.
Coltrane reportedly described it this way: "I start in the middle of a
sentence and move both directions at once.”
'My Favorite Things' and 'A Love Supreme'
In autumn
1960, Coltrane led a group that included pianist McCoy Tyner, bassist Steve
Davis and drummer Elvin Jones to create My Favorite Things
(1961). With its title track and additional standards "Ev'ry Time We
Say Goodbye," "Summertime" and "But Not for Me," the
enduring album was also heralded for Coltrane's performance on the soprano sax.
The bandleader was catapulted to stardom. Over the next several years Coltrane
was lauded—and, to a smaller degree, criticized—for his sound. His albums from
this period included Duke Ellington and John Coltrane (1963), Impressions
(1963) and Live at Birdland (1964).
A Love
Supreme (1965)
is arguably Coltrane's most globally acclaimed record. The succinct, four-suite
album, a big seller that went gold decades later (along with My Favorite
Things), is noted not only for Coltrane's astounding technical vision but
for its nuanced spiritual explorations and ultimate transcendence. The work was
nominated for two Grammys and is considered a hallmark album by jazz historians
around the world.
Final Years and Legacy
Having
been previously married to Juanita "Naima" Grubbs, Coltrane wed
pianist and harpist Alice McLeod (or MacLeod, according to some sources) in the
mid-1960s. Alice Coltrane would also play in her husband's band and establish
her own unique jazz career noted for its Asian stylistic fusions and divine
orientation. John Coltrane wrote and recorded a considerable amount of material
over the final two years of his life in which his work was described as
avant-garde, steeped in poignant spirituality for some while spurned by others.
In 1966 he recorded the last two albums to be released while he was alive—Kulu
Se Mama and Meditations. The album Expression was finalized
just days before his death. He died at only 40 years old from liver cancer on July
17, 1967, in Huntington, Long Island, New York, survived by his spouse and four
children.
A
voracious reader noted for his gentleness, Coltrane had an immense impact on
the music world. He revolutionized jazz with his innovative, demanding
techniques while showing a deep reverence for sounds from other locales that
included Africa, Latin America, the Far East and South Asia. Having received a
1981 Grammy posthumously for the live recording Bye Bye Blackbird, in
1992 Coltrane was given the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award as well, with an
array of unearthed recordings and reissues released in the years since his
death. In 2007, the Pulitzer Prize Board also awarded the musician a special
posthumous citation. Coltrane's work continues to be an integral part of the
sonic landscape and a major inspiration for newer generations of artists.
Clancy's comment: What a shame that so many musicians die so early?
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