John Coltrane

Verified Timeline

Lore & Background

Coltrane was born in his parents' apartment at 200 Hamlet Avenue in Hamlet, North Carolina, on September 23, 1926. He grew up in High Point, North Carolina, and attended William Penn High School. While in high school, he played clarinet and alto horn in a community band before switching to the saxophone, after being influenced by the likes of Lester Young and Johnny Hodges. Beginning in December 1938, his father, aunt, and grandparents died within a few months of one another, leaving him to be raised by his mother and a close cousin. In June 1943, shortly after graduating from high school, Coltrane and his family moved to Philadelphia, where he got a job at a sugar refinery. In September that year, for his 17th birthday, his mother bought him his first saxophone, an alto. An important moment in Coltrane's musical development occurred on June 5, 1945, when he saw Charlie Parker perform for the first time. He recalled: 'The first time I heard Bird play, it hit me right between the eyes.'

To avoid being drafted by the Army, Coltrane enlisted in the Navy on August 6, 1945, the day the first U.S. atomic bomb was dropped on Japan. He was trained as an apprentice seaman at Sampson Naval Training Station in upstate New York before being shipped to Pearl Harbor, where he was stationed at Manana Barracks. His musical talent was recognized, and he joined the Melody Masters, the base swing band. Because the Melody Masters was an all-white band, Coltrane was treated as a guest performer to avoid alerting superior officers of his participation. His first recordings, an informal session in Hawaii with Navy musicians, occurred on July 13, 1946. He was officially discharged from the Navy on August 8, 1946. After his discharge, Coltrane returned to Philadelphia and used the G.I. Bill to enroll at the Granoff School of Music, where he studied music theory with jazz guitarist and composer Dennis Sandole. He continued under Sandole's tutelage from 1946 into the early 1950s. Coltrane became fanatical about practicing, practicing '25 hours a day' according to Jimmy Heath. Heath recalls an incident in a hotel in San Francisco when after a complaint was issued, Coltrane took the horn out of his mouth and practiced fingering for a full hour. In 1955, Coltrane received a call from trumpeter Miles Davis and joined the 'First Great Quintet,' which included Red Garland on piano, Paul Chambers on bass, and Philly Joe Jones on drums. They played from October 1955 to April 1957 with a few breaks. During the later part of 1957, Coltrane worked with Thelonious Monk at New York's Five Spot Café, playing in Monk's quartet from July through December 1957. In October 1958, jazz critic Ira Gitler coined the term 'sheets of sound' to describe the style Coltrane developed with Monk and was perfecting in Davis's group.

Reader's Guide

John Coltrane's significance lies in his profound impact on jazz and 20th-century music. He helped pioneer the use of modes and was at the forefront of free jazz, expanding the harmonic and structural possibilities of the genre. His work with Miles Davis produced influential recordings, including the Davis sessions *Milestones* and *Kind of Blue*, and the concert recordings *Miles & Monk at Newport* (1963) and *Jazz at the Plaza* (1958). With Thelonious Monk, a high quality tape of a concert given by the quartet in November 1957 was found later and released by Blue Note in 2005 as *Thelonious Monk Quartet with John Coltrane at Carnegie Hall*. Coltrane's own album *Blue Train*, his sole date as leader for Blue Note, is often considered his best album from this period. Four of its five tracks are original Coltrane compositions, and the title track, 'Moment's Notice' and 'Lazy Bird' have become standards. His album *Giant Steps* (1960), his first released album as leader for Atlantic, contained only his compositions, and the album's title track is generally considered to have one of the most difficult chord progressions of any widely played jazz composition, eventually referred to as Coltrane changes. His most acclaimed album *A Love Supreme* (1965) exemplifies the increasingly spiritual dimension of his music. Decades after his death, Coltrane remains influential, and he has received numerous posthumous awards, including a special Pulitzer Prize, and he was canonized by the African Orthodox Church.

Did You Know?

• Coltrane enlisted in the Navy on August 6, 1945, the same day the first U.S. atomic bomb was dropped on Japan.
• Because the Melody Masters was an all-white band, Coltrane was treated as a guest performer to avoid alerting superior officers of his participation.
• Jazz critic Ira Gitler coined the term 'sheets of sound' in October 1958 to describe Coltrane's style.
• Coltrane's album *Giant Steps* (1960) contains a title track with one of the most difficult chord progressions in jazz, later called 'Coltrane changes.'
• Coltrane was canonized by the African Orthodox Church after his death.