Lecture 19: John Coltrane John Coltrane (1926 – 1967)

• Born John William Coltrane on September 23, 1926 in Hamlet, North Carolina • His nickname was “Trane” • Coltrane has been credited with reshaping modern jazz • He is the predominant influence on successive generations of saxophonists • He achieved extraordinary popularity, while also responding to a religious

awakening that has made him a source of spiritual inspiration Early Years

• His early life was influenced by his Southern middle-class upbringing • His upbringing included a heavy emphasis on religion along with exposure to and

training in the Western European choral canon • Coltrane first played alto horn in a community band, but soon switched to clarinet • In high school, he played in the school band and also sang in the William Penn

High School Boys Chorus • Coltrane learned of jazz through the radio, movies, and jukeboxes • As his enthusiasm for jazz blossomed, he changed instruments again, to alto

saxophone, after hearing Charlie Parker records, but lost interest in the school band and did not play in the band at all during his senior year

Early Career

• Coltrane moved to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in June 1943 • He was drafted into the Navy in 1945, where he played in a Hawaii-based Navy

band • Coltrane returned to civilian life in 1946 • He worked at a variety of jobs in the late 1940s until he joined Dizzy Gillespie’s

big band in 1949 as an alto saxophonist • He stayed with Gillespie through the big band’s breakup in May 1950 and

switched to tenor saxophone during his subsequent spell in Gillespie’s small group, staying until April 1951 when he returned to Philadelphia

• It was at around this time that Coltrane became addicted to heroin

The Miles Davis Years • Coltrane received a call from Miles Davis in 1955 and joined what became known

as Davis’ First Great Quintet • 1955 through 1957, was a period which saw influential recordings from Davis and

the first signs of Coltrane’s growing ability • The quintet disbanded in April of 1957 and Coltrane rejoined Davis in 1958

through 1960 • During this time he participated in such seminal Davis sessions as Milestones and

Kind Of Blue Cleaning Up

• In the early part of 1957, Coltrane succeeded in kicking his heroin addiction • He simultaneously experienced a spiritual epiphany that would lead him to

concentrate wholly on the development of his music • He began to practice obsessively, incorporating violin and harp exercises • From this point until almost the end of his life, Coltrane was well-known for his

intensive practicing Coltrane’s Religious Beliefs

• Coltrane was born and raised a Christian, and was in touch with religion and spirituality from childhood

• In 1957 Coltrane began to shift spiritual directions • Two years earlier, he had married Juanita Naima Grubb, a Muslim convert, and

came into contact with Islam, an experience that may have led him to overcome his addictions to alcohol and heroin

• It was a period of “spiritual awakening” that helped him return to the jazz scene and eventually produce his greatest work

• Coltrane also explored Hinduism, the Kabbala, Jiddu Krishnamurti, yoga, math, science, astrology, African history, and even Plato and Aristotle

Monk & Trane

• During the latter part of 1957, Coltrane worked with Thelonious Monk at New York City’s Five Spot Cafe during a legendary six-month gig

• Unfortunately, this association was not extensively documented, and the best-recorded evidence demonstrating the compatibility of Coltrane with Monk, a fund-raising concert at Carnegie Hall on November 29, 1957, was only discovered and issued in 2005

Blue Train (1957) • Blue Train, Coltrane’s sole date as leader for Blue Note, featuring trumpeter Lee

Morgan and trombonist Curtis Fuller, is widely considered his best album from his early period

• Four of its five tracks are original Coltrane compositions, and several of them, notably Moment’s Notice and Lazy Bird, have gone on to become standards

Giant Steps (1959)

• Coltrane’s first album exclusively of his own compositions was titled Giant Steps • The title track is generally considered to have the most complex and difficult

chord progression of any widely-played jazz composition • The chord changes follow a cycle of ii-V-I changes shifted by major thirds and

tritones • Coltrane went on to use this approach to other tunes, such as Countdown, based

on the Miles Davis tune Tune Up and 26-2 based on Charlie Parker’s Confirmation

My Favorite Things (1960)

• Coltrane formed his first group, a quartet, in 1960 • After moving through different personnel the lineup stabilized in the fall with

pianist McCoy Tyner, bassist Art Davis, and drummer Elvin Jones • His first record with his new group was also his debut playing the soprano

saxophone, the hugely successful My Favorite Things • The new soprano sound was coupled with further exploration

– For example, on the Gershwin tune But Not for Me, Coltrane employs the kinds of restless harmonic movement of his Giant Steps period

The Classic Quartet

• From 1962 through 1965, the members of Coltrane’s group were pianist McCoy Tyner, bassist Jimmy Garrison, and drummer Elvin Jones

• From then on, the “Classic Quartet,” as it would come to be known, produced searching, spiritually driven work

• Coltrane was moving toward a more harmonically static style that allowed him to expand his improvisations rhythmically, melodically, and motivically

A Love Supreme (1964) • The Classic Quartet produced their most famous record, A Love Supreme, in

December 1964 • This four-part suite is an ode to his faith in and love for God • These spiritual concerns would characterize much of Coltrane’s composing and

playing from this point onwards • Despite its challenging musical content, the album was a commercial success by

jazz standards • The quartet only played A Love Supreme live once in July 1965 at a concert in

Antibes, France Coltrane & Avant-Garde

• In his late (post-A Love Supreme) period, Coltrane showed an increasing interest in avant-garde jazz

• Coltrane’s playing became increasingly abstract, with greater incorporation of devices like multiphonics, utilization of overtones, and playing in the altissimo register

• After the departures of McCoy Tyner and Elvin Jones, Coltrane led a quintet with Pharoah Sanders on tenor saxophone, his new wife Alice Coltrane on piano, Jimmy Garrison on bass, and Rashied Ali on drums

Jupiter

• Interstellar Space was one of the last albums recorded by the saxophonist John Coltrane before his death in 1967

• It consists of an extended duet suite (in four parts) with the drummer Rashied Ali • The structure of each track is fairly uniform: Coltrane plays some largely

ceremonial wind-chime like bells, while Ali sets a shifting pattern on the drums, then the theme is stated by Coltrane on tenor saxophone

• The album is an important example of highly improvised free jazz, which was Coltrane’s principal interest in the latter part of his career

Death • Coltrane died from liver cancer at Huntington Hospital in Long Island, NY on

July 17, 1967, at the age of 40 after decades of alcohol and heroin abuse • In an interview, Albert Ayler revealed that Coltrane was consulting a Hindu

meditative healer for his illness instead of Western medicine, though Alice Coltrane later denied this

• The Coltrane family reportedly remains in possession of much more as-yet-unreleased music, mostly mono reference tapes made for the saxophonist and, as with the 1995 release Stellar Regions, master tapes that were checked out of the studio and never returned

Sources

• History and Tradition of Jazz by Thomas E. Larson • Jazz for Dummies by Dirk Sutro • Jazz a film by Ken Burns • http://en.wikipedia.org • The World According to John Coltrane a documentary by Robert Palmer & Toby

Byron Discography

1. “Naima” by John Coltrane from the album Giant Steps Atlantic Records 1311-2

2. “Blue Train” by John Coltrane from the album Blue Train Blue Note Records CDP 7 46095 2

3. “Giant Steps” by John Coltrane from the album Giant Steps Atlantic Records 1311-2

4. “My Favorite Things” by John Coltrane from the album My Favorite Things Atlantic Records 1361-2

5. “Impressions” by John Coltrane from the album Impressions Impulse!

6. “A Love Supreme, Part 1: Acknowledgement” by John Coltrane from the album A Love Supreme Impulse! GRD 155

7. “Jupiter” by John Coltrane from the album Interstellar Space Impulse! 314 543 415-2

8. “Central Park West” by John Coltrane from the album Coltrane’s Sound Atlantic Records R2 75588

9. “Lush Life” by John Coltrane & Johnny Hartman from the album John Coltrane & Johnny Hartman Impulse! MCAD-5661 JVC-466

10. “Countdown” by John Coltrane from the album Giant Steps Atlantic Records 1311-2