Merely
mention the name John Coltrane and you’re likely to
evoke a deeply emotional, often spiritual response from even the
most casual jazz fan.
Born September 23, 1926 in Hamlet, North Carolina, John Coltrane
was always surrounded by music. His father played several instruments
sparking Coltrane’s study of E-flat horn and clarinet. While
in high school, Coltrane’s musical influences shifted to the
likes of Lester Young and Johnny Hodges prompting him to switch to
alto saxophone. He continued his musical training in Philadelphia
at Granoff Studios and the Ornstein School of Music. He was called
to military service during WWII, where he performed in the U.S. Navy
Band in Hawaii.
After the war, Coltrane began playing tenor saxophone with the Eddie "CleanHead" Vinson
Band, and was later quoted as saying, "A wider area of listening
opened up for me. There were many things that people like Hawk, and
Ben and Tab Smith were doing in the ‘40’s that I didn’t
understand, but that I felt emotionally." Prior to joining the
Dizzy Gillespie band, Coltrane performed with Jimmy Heath where his
passion for experimentation began to take shape. However, it was
his work with the Miles Davis Quintet in 1958 that would lead to
his own musical evolution. " Miles music gave me plenty of freedom," he
once said. During that period, he became known for using the three-on-one
chord approach, and what has been called the ‘sheets of sound,’ a
method of playing multiple notes at one time.
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Source: www.johncoltrane.com
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