Coltrane, John William
1926-1967 · Contribution: 1955-1967
Transformed jazz saxophone playing and pioneered modal jazz alongside Miles Davis, creating his 1965 masterwork A Love Supreme as a spiritual meditation now considered one of the most influential and acclaimed albums in the history of American music
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Impact on the world
After overcoming heroin addiction in 1957 through what he described as a profound spiritual awakening, Coltrane developed what critic Ira Gitler termed “sheets of sound,” a rapid, cascading style of improvisation built around dense chord progressions, first as a member of Miles Davis's celebrated quintet and sextet, appearing on the landmark 1959 album Kind of Blue, and then as a bandleader in his own right. His 1965 album A Love Supreme, a four-part suite recorded in a single session as an explicit offering of gratitude for his recovery, is regarded as a landmark achievement bridging hard bop, modal jazz, and free jazz, and continues to be treated by listeners and musicians alike as a work of genuine spiritual significance. Coltrane led at least fifty recording sessions as a bandleader, mentored jazz greats including pianist McCoy Tyner and saxophonist Pharoah Sanders, and remains among the most studied and revered figures in jazz history, with recordings including Giant Steps and My Favorite Things standing as genre-defining standards.
Life & background
Born September 23, 1926, in Hamlet, North Carolina, and raised in a religious family in nearby High Point, Coltrane served in the U.S. Navy before beginning his professional jazz career in Philadelphia in 1945. He led his own groups through the mid-1960s while continually pushing his music toward greater experimentation, and died of liver cancer in Huntington, New York, on July 17, 1967, at age 40.
Sources
- EBSCO Research Starters; Oxford Reference
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