William Franklin Hardman, Jr. (April 6, 1933, Cleveland, Ohio – December 5, 1990, Paris, France) was an American jazz trumpeter and flugelhornist who chiefly played hard bop.

Biography[link]

While in high school he appeared with Tadd Dameron, and after graduating he joined Tiny Bradshaw's band. While not well known, he appeared and recorded with some of the foremost jazz musicians. His first recording was with Jackie McLean in 1955. He later played with Charles Mingus, Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers, Horace Silver, and Lou Donaldson, and led a group with Junior Cook. He also recorded as a leader. A most underrated musician — boasting three separate tours of duty in as many decades with Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers — Hardman's bad luck was to not be with the Messengers at the time of their popular Blue Note recordings. Originally a crackling hard bop player with blazing technique, crisp articulations, and a no-frills sound, Hardman soon began to play with some of the fuller, more extroverted romantic passion of a Clifford Brown, a direction he would take increasingly throughout the 1960s and 1970s. When put to the test, few could match and none exceed his pyrotechnical or imaginative gifts (Blakey would occasionally feature him playing several extended choruses unaccompanied). In the New York City jazz scene of the 1970s it was not uncommon to attend all-star trumpet sessions on which the unassuming, self-effacing Hardman would go head to head with heralded trumpet stars and emerge the clear and decisive winner.

Discography[link]

As leader[link]

• 1961 - Saying Something (Savoy Records)
• 1975 - Colors (Strata-East Records, with Brass Company)^[1]
• 1978 - Home (Muse Records)
• 1989 - Focus (Muse)
• 1981 - Politely (Muse)
• 1989 - What's Up (Steeplechase) with Robin Eubanks, Junior Cook, Mickey Tucker

As sideman[link]

• 1956 - Jackie McLean: Jackie's Pal (Prestige)
• 1957 - Charles Mingus: A Modern Jazz Symposium of Music and Poetry (Bethlehem)
• 1957 - Mal Waldron: Mal 2 (OJC) with John Coltrane
• 1957 - Art Blakey: Reflections of Buhaina
• 1958 - Art Blakey: Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers With Thelonious Monk
• 1960 - Lou Donaldson: Sunny Side Up
• 1961 - Dave Bailey: Two Feet in the Gutter (Epic Records)^{[citation needed]}
• 1964 - Lou Donaldson: Possum Head
• 1965 - Lou Donaldson: Musty Rusty
• 1965 - Lou Donaldson: Fried Buzzard
• 1969 - Eddie Jefferson: Come Along with Me (OJC)
• 1987 - Steve Turre: Viewpoints and Vibrations (Stash)

References[link]

Horace Silver
Horace Silver by Dmitri Savitski, 1989.
Background information
Birth name	Horace Ward Martin Tavares Silva[1]
Born	(1928-09-02) September 2, 1928 (age 83)
Origin	Norwalk, Connecticut, U.S.
Genres	Post bop Modal jazz Mainstream jazz Soul jazz Jazz fusion Hard bop
Occupations	Pianist Composer Bandleader
Instruments	Piano
Associated acts	Horace Silver Quintet Horace Silver Trio Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers

Horace Silver (born September 2, 1928), born Horace Ward Martin Tavares Silva in Norwalk, Connecticut, is an American jazz pianist and composer.^[1]

Silver is known for his distinctive humorous and funky playing style and for his pioneering compositional contributions to hard bop. He was influenced by a wide range of musical styles, notably gospel music, African music, and Latin American music and sometimes ventured into the soul jazz genre.^[2]

Early life and career[link]

His father, who was known as John Tavares Silva, was from the island of Maio in Cape Verde. His mother was born in New Canaan, Connecticut, and was of Irish-African descent.

Silver began his career as a tenor saxophonist but later switched to piano. His tenor saxophone playing was highly influenced by Lester Young, and his piano style by Bud Powell. Silver was discovered in the Sundown Club in Hartford, Connecticut. in 1950 by saxophonist Stan Getz. Getz was playing at the club with Silver’s trio backing him up. Getz liked Silver’s band and brought them on the road, eventually recording three of Silver’s compositions. It was with Getz that Silver made his recording debut.

He moved to New York City in 1951, where he worked at the jazz club Birdland on Monday nights, when different musicians would come together and informally jam. During that year he met the executives of the label Blue Note while working as a sideman. He eventually signed with them where he remained until 1980. It was in New York that he formed The Jazz Messengers, a co-operatively run group with Art Blakey.

In 1952 and 1953 he recorded three sessions with his own trio, featuring Blakey on drums and Gene Ramey, Curly Russell and Percy Heath on bass. The drummer-pianist team lasted for four years; during this time, Silver and Blakey recorded at Birdland (A Night at Birdland Vol. 1) with Russell, Clifford Brown and Lou Donaldson, at the Bohemia with Kenny Dorham and Hank Mobley, and also in the studios. He was also a member of the Miles Davis All Stars, recording the influential Walkin' in 1954.

Blue Note years[link]

From 1956 onwards, Silver recorded exclusively for the Blue Note label, eventually becoming close to label boss Alfred Lion who allowed him greater input on aspects of album production than was usual at the time. During his years with Blue Note, Silver helped to create the rhythmically forceful branch of jazz known as "hard bop", which combined elements of rhythm-and-blues and gospel music with jazz. Gospel elements are particularly prominent on one of his biggest hits, "The Preacher", which Lion thought corny, but Silver persuaded him to record it.

While Silver's compositions at this time featured surprising tempo shifts and a range of melodic ideas, they caught the attention of a wide audience. Silver's own piano playing easily shifted from aggressively percussive to lushly romantic within just a few bars. At the same time, his sharp use of repetition was funky even before that word could be used in polite company. Along with Silver's own work, his bands often featured such rising jazz stars as saxophonists Junior Cook and Hank Mobley, trumpeter Blue Mitchell, and drummer Louis Hayes. Some of his key albums from this period included Horace Silver Trio (1953), Horace Silver and the Jazz Messengers (1955), 6 Pieces of Silver (1956) and Blowin' the Blues Away (1959), which includes his famous, "Sister Sadie." He also combined jazz with a sassy take on pop through the 1961 hit, "Filthy McNasty".

Influences[link]

Silver tended not to play up that he was proficient in Portuguese, nor draw directly on his rich Lusophone musical upbringing. His 1965 hit, "Cape Verdean Blues," is the only clear rhythmic reference to his childhood home where his father and friends jammed, with traditional Capeverdean morna and coladeira as the main fare. In the interview for the liner notes to 1964's Song for My Father (Cantiga Para Meu Pai), however, Silver remarked of the title track, "This tune is an original of mine, but it has a flavor of it that makes me think of my childhood days. Some of the family, including my father and my uncle, used to have musical parties with three or four stringed instruments; my father played violin and guitar. Those were happy, informal sessions." Silver melded additional Lusophone influences into his music directly after his February 1964 tour of Brazil. Referring to "Song for My Father," Silver said, "I was very much impressed by the authentic bossa nova beat. Not just the monotonous tick-tick-tick, tick-tick, the way it's usually done, but the real bossa nova feeling, which I've tried to incorporate into this number."

His early influences included the styles of boogie-woogie and the blues. It includes but is not limited to Art Tatum, Teddy Wilson, Nat “King” Cole, and Thelonious Monk. He liked to quote other musicians within his own work and would often recreate famous solos in his original pieces as something of a tribute to the greats who influenced him.

During Silver's time with Blakey he rarely recorded as a leader, but after splitting with him in 1956, formed his own hard bop quintet at first featuring the same line-up as Blakey's Jazz Messengers with 18-year-old Louis Hayes replacing Blakey. The quintet's more enduring line-up featured Blue Mitchell and Junior Cook.

In 1963 Silver created a new group featuring Joe Henderson on tenor saxophone and Carmell Jones on trumpet; this quintet recorded most of Silver's best-known album Song for My Father. When Jones left to settle in Europe, the trumpet chair was filled by a young Woody Shaw and Tyrone Washington replaced Henderson.

Silver's compositions, catchy and very strong harmonically, gained popularity while his band gradually switched to funk and soul. This change of style was not readily accepted by many long-time fans. The quality of several albums of this era, such as The United States of Mind (on which Silver himself provided vocals on several tracks), is to this day contested by fans of the genre. Silver's spirituality displayed on these albums also has a mixed reputation. However, many of these later albums featured many interesting musicians (such as Randy Brecker). Silver was the last musician to be signed to Blue Note in the 1970s before it went into temporary hiatus. In 1981 he formed his own short-lived labels, Silveto and Emerald.

Later years[link]

After Silver's long tenure with Blue Note ended, he continued to create vital music. The 1985 album, Continuity of Spirit (Silveto), features his unique orchestral collaborations. In the 1990s, Silver directly answered the urban popular music that had been largely built from his influence on It's Got To Be Funky (Columbia, 1993). Now living surrounded by a devoted family in California, Silver has received much of the recognition due a venerable jazz icon. In 2005, the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences (NARAS) gave him its President's Merit Award. The SFJazz Collective focused on Horace Silver's music for their 2010 season.^[3]

Legacy[link]

Silver's music has been a major force in modern jazz. He was one of the first pioneers of the style known as hard bop, influencing such pianists as Bobby Timmons, Les McCann, and Ramsey Lewis. Second, the instrumentation of his quintet (trumpet, tenor sax, piano, double bass, and drums) served as a model for small jazz groups from the mid-1950s until the late 1960s.^{[citation needed]} Further, Silver's ensembles provided an important training ground for young players, many of whom (such as Donald Byrd, Art Farmer, Blue Mitchell, Woody Shaw, Junior Cook, and Joe Henderson) later led similar groups of their own.

Silver's talent did not go unnoticed among rock musicians who bore jazz influences, either; Steely Dan sent Silver into the Top 40 in the early 1970s when they crafted their biggest hit single, "Rikki, Don't Lose That Number," off the bass riff that opens "Song for My Father."

As social and cultural upheavals shook the nation during the late 1960s and early 1970s, Silver responded to these changes through music. He commented directly on the new scene through a trio of records called United States of Mind (1970–1972) that featured the spirited vocals of Andy Bey. The composer got deeper into cosmic philosophy as his group, Silver 'N Strings, recorded Silver 'N Strings Play The Music of the Spheres (1979).

Discography[link]

As leader[link]

Blue Note Records

• 1955: Horace Silver and the Jazz Messengers
• 1956: "Horace Silver Trio"
• 1956: 6 Pieces of Silver
• 1957: The Stylings of Silver
• 1958: Further Explorations
• 1958: Live at Newport '58
• 1959: Finger Poppin'
• 1959: Blowin' the Blues Away
• 1960: Horace-Scope
• 1961: Doin' the Thing
• 1962: The Tokyo Blues
• 1963: Silver's Serenade
• 1964: Song for My Father
• 1965: The Cape Verdean Blues
• 1966: The Jody Grind
• 1968: Serenade to a Soul Sister
• 1969: You Gotta Take a Little Love
• 1970: That Healin' Feelin'
• 1971: Total Response
• 1972: All
• 1972: In Pursuit of the 27th Man
• 1975: Silver 'n Brass
• 1976: Silver 'n Wood
• 1977: Silver 'n Voices
• 1978: Silver 'n Percussion
• 1979: Silver 'n Strings Play the Music of the Spheres

Silveto Records/Emerald Records

• 1964: Live 1964
• 1965: The Natives are Restless Tonight
• 1981: Guides to Growing Up
• 1983: Spiritualizing the Senses
• 1984: There's No Need to Struggle
• 1985: The Continuity of Spirit
• 1988: Music to Ease Your Disease

Columbia Records

• 1956: Silver's Blue
• 1993: It's Got to Be Funky
• 1994: Pencil Packin' Papa

Impulse! Records

• 1996: The Hardbop Grandpop
• 1997: A Prescription for the Blues

Other labels

• 1962: Paris Blues (Pablo)
• 1991: Rockin' with Rachmaninoff (Bop City)
• 1999: Jazz Has a Sense of Humor (Verve)

Compilations

• The Best of Horace Silver: The Blue Note Years
• The Best of Horace Silver Vol. II
• Retrospective
• The United States of Mind (Blue Note) - compiles That Healin' Feelin', Total Response, and All

As sideman[link]

with Nat Adderley :

• Introducing Nat Adderley (1955, EmArcy)

with Art Blakey :

• A Night at Birdland Vol. 1 (1954, Blue Note)
• A Night at Birdland Vol. 2 (1954, Blue Note)
• A Night at Birdland Vol. 3 (1954, Blue Note)
• At the Cafe Bohemia, Vol. 1 (1955, Blue Note)
• At the Cafe Bohemia, Vol. 2 (1955, Blue Note)
• Art Blakey with the Original Jazz Messengers (1956, Columbia)
• Originally (1956, Columbia)

with Dee Dee Bridgewater :

• Love and Peace: A Tribute to Horace Silver (1994, Verve)

with Kenny Burrell :

• K.B. Blues (1957, Blue Note)

with Donald Byrd :

• Byrd's Eye View (1955, Transition)

with Paul Chambers :

• Whims of Chambers (1956, Blue Note)

with Kenny Clarke :

• Bohemia After Dark (1955, Savoy)

with Al Cohn :

• Al Cohn's Tones (1953, Savoy)

with Miles Davis :

• Miles Davis Volume 1 (1954, Blue Note Records)
• Blue Haze (1954, Prestige Records)
• Walkin' (1954, Prestige Records)
• Bags' Groove (1954, Prestige Records)

with Kenny Dorham :

• Afro-Cuban (1955, Blue Note Records)

with Lou Donaldson :

• Quartet/Quintet/Sextet (1952, Blue Note Records)

with Art Farmer :

• Early Art (1954, Prestige)
• Art Farmer Septet (1954, Prestige)

with Leonard Feather :

• Cats vs. Chicks (1954, MGM)

with Stan Getz :

• The Complete Roost Recordings (1951, Blue Note Records)
• Birdland Sessions (1952, Fresh Sound)

With Giant of Jazz

• Giants of Jazz (1955, Mercury Records)

with Terry Gibbs :

• Jazz USA (1951, Brunswick)

with Gigi Gryce :

• When Farmer Met Gryce (1954, Prestige)
• Nica's Tempo (1955, Savoy)

with Coleman Hawkins :

• Disorder at the Border (1952, Spotlite)

with J. J. Johnson :

• The Eminent Jay Jay Johnson Volume 2 (1955, Blue Note)

with Milt Jackson :

• Milt Jackson Quartet/Quintet (1954, Prestige Records)
• Milt Jackson Quartet (1955, Prestige Records)
• Plenty, Plenty Soul (1957, Atlantic)

with Cliff Jordan & John Gilmore

• Blowing in from Chicago (1957, Blue Note)

with Howard McGhee :

• Howard McGhee, Volume 2 (1953, Blue Note)

with Hank Mobley :

• Hank Mobley Quartet (1955, Blue Note)
• The Jazz Message of Hank Mobley (1956, Savoy)
• Hank Mobley Sextet (1956, Blue Note)
• Hank Mobley and his All Stars (1957, Blue Note)
• Hank Mobley Quintet (1957, Blue Note)

with J. R. Monterose :

• J. R. Monterose (1956, Blue Note)

with Lee Morgan :

• Lee Morgan Indeed! (1956, Blue Note)
• Lee Morgan Sextet (1956, Blue Note)

with Clifford Jordan and John Gilmore :

• Blowing in from Chicago (1957, Blue Note)

with Rita Reys :

• The Cool Voice of Rita Reys (1956, Columbia)

with Sonny Rollins :

• Sonny Rollins, Vol. 2 (1957, Blue Note)

with Sonny Stitt :

• Arrangements by Richards (1953, Roost/Mosaic)

with Clark Terry :

• Introducing Clark Terry (1955, EmArcy)

with Phil Urso :

• The Philosophy of Urso (1954, Savoy)

with Lester Young :

• The Pres Box, Vol. 10-12 (1953, Jazz Up)

Quotation[link]

Funky means earthy and blues-based. It might not be blues itself, but it does have that 'down-home' feel to it. Soul is basically the same, but there's an added dimension of feeling and spirit.^[4]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Official site
• Horace Silver Discography at the Hard Bop Home Page
• Horace Silver entry at the Jazz Discography Project
• Listening In: An Interview with Horace Silver by Bob Rosenbaum, Los Angeles, December 1981 (PDF file)
• "The Dozens: Twelve Essential Horace Silver Recordings" by Bill Kirchner (Jazz.com)

Herman "Junior" Cook (July 22, 1934 – February 3, 1992) was a hard bop tenor saxophone player.

Biography[link]

Cook was born in Pensacola, Florida.^[1] After playing with Dizzy Gillespie in 1958, Cook gained some fame for his longtime membership in the Horace Silver Quintet (1958–1964); when he and Blue Mitchell left that band, Cook played in Mitchell's quintet (1964–1969). Later associations included Freddie Hubbard, Elvin Jones, George Coleman, Louis Hayes (1975–1976), Bill Hardman (1979–1989), and the McCoy Tyner big band.

In addition to many appearances as a sideman, Junior Cook recorded as a leader for Jazzland (1961), Catalyst (1977), Muse, and SteepleChase.

He also taught at Berklee School of Music for a year during the 1970s.^[2]

In the early 1990s Cook was playing with Clifford Jordan and also leading his own group. He died in his apartment in New York City.^[2]

Discography[link]

As leader[link]

• Juniors Cookin´ (OJC)
• The Place To Be (Steeplechase; 1988)
• On A Misty Night (Steeplechase, 1989)
• You Leave Me Breathless (Steeplechase,1991)

As sideman[link]

With Horace Silver

• Live At Newport '58 (1958)
• 6 Pieces of Silver (1956–58)
• Finger Poppin' (1956–58)
• Blowin' the Blues Away (1959)
• Horace-Scope (1960)
• Doin' the Thing (1961)
• The Tokyo Blues (1962)
• Silver's Serenade (1963)
• Song For My Father (1964)
• Music to Ease Your Disease (1988)

With Freddie Hubbard

• Sing Me a Song of Songmy (1971)
• Keep Your Soul Together (1973)
• High Energy (1974)
• Polar AC (1974)

With Blue Mitchell

• The Cup Bearers (Riverside, 1962)
• The Thing to Do (Blue Note, 1964)
• Down with It! (Blue Note, 1965)
• Bring It Home to Me (Blue Note, 1966)
• Boss Horn (Blue Note, 1966)

With others

• Kenny Burrell: Blue Lights (Blue Note, 1958)
• Dave Bailey Sextet: One Foot In The Gutter (Epic, 1960)
• Barry Harris: Luminiscence (OJC, 1967)
• Cedar Walton: Cedar! (OJC, 1967)
• John Patton: That Certain Feeling (Blue Note, 1968)
• Don Patterson: Dem New York Dues (Prestige, 1968–69)
• Clifford Jordan: Two Tenor Winner (Criss Cross, 1984)
• McCoy Tyner: Uptown/Downtown (Milestone, 1988)
• THE PLACE TO BE Musiciens : Junior Cook (ts), Mickey Tucker (p), Wayne Dockery (b), Leroy Williams (dr) (23-11-1988)
• Bill Hardman: What’s Up? (Steeplechase, 1989)
• Larry Gales Sextet: A Message from Monk (Candid, 1990)
• Bertha Hope: Elmo’s Fire (Steeplechase, 1991)

References[link]

Art Blakey
Blakey
Background information
Birth name	Arthur Blakey
Also known as	Abdullah Ibn Buhaina
Born	(1919-10-11)October 11, 1919 Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania United States
Died	October 16, 1990(1990-10-16) (aged 71) New York City, New York, U.S.
Genres	Hard bop, bebop
Occupations	Drummer, bandleader
Instruments	Drums, percussion
Years active	1942–1990
Labels	Blue Note
Associated acts	Art Blakey & the Jazz Messengers, Art Blakey Quartet, Art Blakey Quintet, Art Blakey & the Afrocuban Boys
Website	www.artblakey.com

Arthur "Art" Blakey (October 11, 1919 – October 16, 1990),^[1] known later as Abdullah Ibn Buhaina, was an American Grammy Award-winning jazz drummer and bandleader. He was a member of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community.

Along with Kenny Clarke and Max Roach, he was one of the inventors of the modern bebop style of drumming. He is known as a powerful musician and a vital groover; his brand of bluesy, funky hard bop was and continues to be profoundly influential on mainstream jazz. For more than 30 years his band, Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers, included many young musicians who went on to become prominent names in jazz. The band's legacy is thus not only known for the music it produced, but as a proving ground for several generations of jazz musicians;^[2] Blakey's groups are matched only by those of Miles Davis in this regard.^[3]

Blakey was inducted into the Jazz Hall of Fame (in 1982), the Grammy Hall of Fame (in 2001), and was awarded the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2005.

Before the Messengers[link]

Blakey was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. By the time he was a teenager, he was playing the piano full-time, leading a commercial band. Shortly afterwards, reputedly because he thought he would be unable to compete with the emerging pianist Erroll Garner, he taught himself to play the drums in the aggressive swing style of Chick Webb, Sid Catlett and Ray Bauduc. He joined Mary Lou Williams as a drummer for an engagement in New York in autumn 1942. He then toured with the Fletcher Henderson Orchestra (1939–1942). During his years with Billy Eckstine’s big band (1944–7), Blakey became associated with the bebop movement, along with his fellow band members Miles Davis, Dexter Gordon, Fats Navarro and others.^[4]

By the late forties and early fifties, Blakey was backing musicians such as Miles Davis, Bud Powell and Thelonious Monk — he is often considered to have been Monk's most empathetic drummer,^[5] and he played on both Monk's first recording session as a leader (for Blue Note Records in 1947) and his final one (in London in 1971), as well as many in between.

Blakey said that he travelled to Africa during 1948 and 1949. He converted to Islam during this period and took the name Abdullah Ibn Buhaina (which led to the nickname "Bu"). In the early 1950s he performed and broadcast with such musicians as Charlie Parker and Miles Davis.

From his earliest recording sessions with Eckstine, and particularly in his historic sessions with Monk in 1947, Blakey exuded power and originality, creating a dark cymbal sound punctuated by frequent loud snare- and bass-drum accents in triplets or cross-rhythms. Although Blakey discouraged comparison of his own music with African drumming, he adopted several African devices, including rapping on the side of the drum and using his elbow on the tom-tom to alter the pitch. His much-imitated trademark, the forceful closing of the hi-hat on every second and fourth beat, was part of his style from 1950 to '51. A loud and domineering drummer, Blakey also listened and responded to his soloists. His contribution to jazz as a discoverer and molder of young talent over three decades was no less significant than his very considerable innovations on his instrument.^[4]

The Jazz Messengers[link]

Art Blakey on a tour billed as part of the "Giants of Jazz" in Hamburg, Germany in 1973

In 1947 Blakey organized the Seventeen Messengers, a rehearsal band, and recorded with an octet called the Jazz Messengers.^[6] The use of the Messengers tag only stuck with the group co-led at first by both Blakey and pianist Horace Silver, though the name was not used on the earliest of their recordings. Blakey and Silver recorded together on several occasions, including live at Birdland with trumpeter Clifford Brown and alto-saxophonist Lou Donaldson in 1954 for Blue Note, having formed in 1953 a regular cooperative group with Hank Mobley and Kenny Dorham.

The "Jazz Messengers" name was first used for this group on a 1954 recording nominally led by Silver, with Blakey, Mobley, Dorham and Doug Watkins — the same quintet would record The Jazz Messengers at the Cafe Bohemia the following year, still functioning as a collective. Donald Byrd replaced Dorham, and the group recorded an album called simply The Jazz Messengers for Columbia Records in 1956. Blakey took over the group name when Silver left after the band's first year (taking Mobley, Byrd and Watkins with him to form a new quintet with a variety of drummers), and the band was known as "Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers" from then onwards with Blakey being the sole leader, and he remained associated with it for the rest of his life. It was the archetypal hard-bop group of the 1950s, playing a driving, aggressive extension of bop with pronounced blues roots. Towards the end of the 1950s, the saxophonists Johnny Griffin and Benny Golson were in turn briefly members of the group. Golson, as music director, wrote several jazz standards which began as part of the band book such as "I Remember Clifford", and "Blues March" was regularly revived by later editions of the group. "Along Came Betty" and "Are You Real" were other Golson compositions for Blakey.

From 1959 to 1961 the group featured Wayne Shorter on tenor saxophone, Jymie Merritt, Lee Morgan, and Bobby Timmons.^[1] The second line-up (1961–1964) was a sextet that added trombonist Curtis Fuller and replaced Morgan and Timmons with Freddie Hubbard and Cedar Walton, respectively.^[1] Shorter was now the musical director of the group, and many of his original compositions such as "Lester Left Town" remained repertoire staples later on. (Other players over the years made permanent marks on Blakey's repertoire — Timmons, composer of "Dat Dere" and "Moanin'", and later, Bobby Watson.) Shorter's more experimental inclinations pushed the band at the time into an engagement with the 1960s "New Thing", as it was called: the influence of Coltrane's contemporary records on Impulse! is evident on Free For All (1964), often cited as the greatest document of the Shorter-era Messengers (and certainly one of the most fearsomely powerful examples of hard bop on record).^{[citation needed]}

Up to the 1960s Blakey also recorded as a sideman with many other musicians: Jimmy Smith, Herbie Nichols, Cannonball Adderley, Grant Green, and Jazz Messengers graduates Lee Morgan and Hank Mobley, amongst many others. However, after the mid-1960s he mostly concentrated on his own work as a leader. Blakey also made a world tour in 1971–2 with the Giants of Jazz (with Dizzy Gillespie, Kai Winding, Sonny Stitt, Thelonious Monk and Al McKibbon).^[4]

Later career[link]

Blakey went on to record dozens of albums with a constantly changing group of Jazz Messengers — he had a policy of encouraging young musicians: as he remarked on-mike during the live session which resulted in the A Night at Birdland albums in 1954: "I'm gonna stay with the youngsters. When these get too old I'll get some younger ones. Keeps the mind active."^[1] After weathering the fusion era in the 1970s with some difficulty (recordings from this period are less plentiful and include attempts to incorporate instruments like electric piano), Blakey's band got revitalized in the early 1980s with the advent of neotraditionalist jazz. Blakey's ferociousness and tenacity while drumming earned him the nickname "Jazz Tiger", or "The Tiger of Jazz". Wynton Marsalis was for a time the band's trumpeter and musical director, and even after Marsalis's departure Blakey's band continued as a proving ground for many "Young Lions" like Johnny O'Neal, Philip Harper, Terence Blanchard, Donald Harrison and Kenny Garrett.

Blakey continued performing and touring with the group into the late 1980s; Ron Wynn notes that Blakey had "played with such force and fury that he eventually lost much of his hearing, and at the end of his life, often played strictly by instinct."^[7] Some reports suggest Blakey had hearing problems as early as 1959. Blakey died in 1990 in New York City, leaving behind a vast legacy and approach to jazz which is still the model for countless hard-bop players.^[1][7]

Jazz Messengers alumni[link]

This section requires expansion.

Piano

Wynton Kelly, Joanne Brackeen, Donald Brown, Walter Davis, Jr., Sam Dockery, Kenny Drew, Benny Green, John Hicks, Keith Jarrett, Geoffrey Keezer, Mulgrew Miller, Johnny O'Neal, Horace Silver, Bobby Timmons, Cedar Walton, James Williams

Reeds

Dale Barlow, Gary Bartz, Kenny Garrett, Lou Donaldson, John Gilmore, Benny Golson, Johnny Griffin, Billy Harper, Donald Harrison, Javon Jackson, Branford Marsalis, Jackie McLean, Hank Mobley, Bill Pierce, David Schnitter, Wayne Shorter, Ira Sullivan, Jean Toussaint, Bobby Watson

Trumpet

Terence Blanchard, Clifford Brown, Donald Byrd, Kenny Dorham, Bill Hardman, Philip Harper, Freddie Hubbard, Brian Lynch, Chuck Mangione, Wynton Marsalis, Lee Morgan, Woody Shaw, Valery Ponomarev, Charles Tolliver

Trombone

Steve Davis, Robin Eubanks, Curtis Fuller, Frank Lacy, Tim Williams

Bass

Spanky DeBrest, Charles Fambrough, Dennis Irwin, Jymie Merritt, Curly Russell, Victor Sproles, Doug Watkins, Wilbur Ware, Reggie Workman, Riccardo Del Fra, Stanley Clarke

Guitar

Bobby Broom, Kevin Eubanks

Drums

Ralph Peterson, Jr.

Awards[link]

• Jazz Mobile Development and Preservation of Jazz (1970)
• Newport Jazz Festival Hall of Fame (1976)
• Down Beat Jazz Hall of Fame Reader's Choice Award (1981)
• Smithsonian Performing Arts Certificate of Appreciation (1982)
• Lee Morgan Memorial Award (1982)
• Jazz Hall of Fame Induction (1982)
• Grammy Award Best Jazz Instrumental Performance, Group (1984) for the album New York Scene
• Jazznote Award (1986)
• Doctorate of Music (1987; Berklee College of Music)
• Martin Luther King Humanitarian Award (1991)
• Grammy Hall of Fame Induction for the album Moanin' (2001)
• Pittsburgh Jazz Festival Award
• Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award (2005; awarded posthumously)

Discography[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Art Blakey

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Art Blakey

• Official Art Blakey website

John Coltrane
John Coltrane, live at Birdland
Background information
Birth name	John William Coltrane
Also known as	"Trane"
Born	(1926-09-23)September 23, 1926 Hamlet, North Carolina, US
Died	July 17, 1967(1967-07-17) (aged 40) Huntington, New York, US
Genres	Avant-garde jazz, bebop, hard bop, post-bop, modal jazz, free jazz
Occupations	Saxophonist, composer, bandleader
Instruments	Tenor, soprano, and alto saxophone, bass clarinet, flute
Years active	1946–1967
Labels	Prestige, Blue Note, Atlantic, Impulse!, Pablo
Associated acts	Alice Coltrane, Miles Davis Quintet, Thelonious Monk, Pharoah Sanders, Eric Dolphy
Website	johncoltrane.com

John William Coltrane (September 23, 1926 – July 17, 1967) was an American jazz saxophonist and composer. Working in the bebop and hard bop idioms early in his career, Coltrane helped pioneer the use of modes in jazz and later was at the forefront of free jazz. He organized at least fifty recording sessions as a leader during his recording career, and appeared as a sideman on many other albums, notably with trumpeter Miles Davis and pianist Thelonious Monk.

As his career progressed, Coltrane and his music took on an increasingly spiritual dimension. His second wife was pianist Alice Coltrane, and their son Ravi Coltrane is also a saxophonist. Coltrane influenced innumerable musicians, and remains one of the most significant tenor saxophonists in jazz history. He received many posthumous awards and recognitions, including canonization by the African Orthodox Church as Saint John William Coltrane. In 2007, Coltrane was awarded the Pulitzer Prize Special Citation for his "masterful improvisation, supreme musicianship and iconic centrality to the history of jazz."^[1]

Biography[link]

Early life and career (1926–1954)[link]

Coltrane's first recordings were made when he was a sailor

John Coltrane was born in Hamlet, North Carolina on September 23, 1926, and grew up in High Point, NC, attending William Penn High School (now Penn-Griffin School for the Arts). Beginning in December 1938 Coltrane's aunt, grandparents, and father all died within a few months of each other, leaving John to be raised by his mother and a close cousin.^[2] In June 1943 he moved to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He enlisted in the Navy in 1945, and played in the Navy jazz band once he was stationed in Hawaii. Coltrane returned to civilian life in 1946 and began jazz theory studies with Philadelphia guitarist and composer Dennis Sandole. Coltrane continued under Sandole's tutelage until the early 1950s. Originally an altoist,^[3] during this time Coltrane also began playing tenor saxophone with the Eddie Vinson Band. Coltrane later referred to this point in his life as a time when "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 '40s that I didn't understand, but that I felt emotionally."^[4]

An important moment in the progression of Coltrane's musical development occurred on June 5, 1945, when he saw Charlie Parker perform for the first time. In a DownBeat article in 1960 he recalled: "the first time I heard Bird play, it hit me right between the eyes."^[3] Parker became an early idol, and they played together on occasion in the late 1940s.

Contemporary correspondence shows that Coltrane was already known as "Trane" by this point, and that the music from some 1946 recording sessions had been played for Miles Davis—possibly impressing the latter.^[5]

There are recordings of Coltrane from as early as 1945. He was a member of groups led by Dizzy Gillespie, Earl Bostic and Johnny Hodges in the early- to mid-1950s.

Miles and Monk period (1955–1957)[link]

The rivalry, tension, and mutual respect between Coltrane and bandleader Miles Davis was formative for both of their careers

Coltrane was freelancing in Philadelphia in the summer of 1955 while studying with guitarist Dennis Sandole when he received a call from trumpeter Miles Davis. Davis, whose success during the late forties had been followed by several years of decline in activity and reputation, due in part to his struggles with heroin, was again active, and was about to form a quintet. Coltrane was with this edition of the Davis band (known as the "First Great Quintet" - along with Paul Chambers on bass, Philly Joe Jones on drums, and Red Garland on piano - to distinguish it from Davis's later group with Wayne Shorter) from October 1955 through April 1957 (with a few absences), a period during which Davis released several influential recordings which revealed the first signs of Coltrane's growing ability. This First Quintet, represented by two marathon recording sessions for Prestige in 1956 that resulted in the albums Cookin', Relaxin', Workin', and Steamin', disbanded in mid April due partly to Coltrane's heroin addiction.^[5]

During the later part of 1957 Coltrane worked with Thelonious Monk at New York’s Five Spot, a legendary jazz club, and played in Monk's quartet (July–December 1957), but owing to contractual conflicts took part in only one official studio recording session with this group. A private recording made by Juanita Naima Coltrane of a 1958 reunion of the group was issued by Blue Note Records in 1993 as Live at the Five Spot-Discovery!. More significantly, a high-quality tape of a concert given by this quartet in November 1957 surfaced, and in 2005 Blue Note made it available on CD. Recorded by Voice of America, the performances confirm the group's reputation, and the resulting album, Thelonious Monk Quartet with John Coltrane at Carnegie Hall, is widely acclaimed.

Blue Train, Coltrane's sole date as leader for Blue Note, featuring trumpeter Lee Morgan, bassist Paul Chambers, and trombonist Curtis Fuller, 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. Both tunes employed the first examples of his chord substitution cycles known as Coltrane changes.^[5]

Davis and Coltrane again[link]

Coltrane rejoined Davis in January 1958. In October of that year, jazz critic Ira Gitler coined the term "sheets of sound" to describe the style Coltrane developed during his stint with Monk and was perfecting in Davis' group, now a sextet. His playing was compressed, with rapid runs cascading in hundreds of notes per minute. He stayed with Davis until April 1960, working with alto saxophonist Cannonball Adderley; pianists Red Garland, Bill Evans, and Wynton Kelly; bassist Paul Chambers; and drummers Philly Joe Jones and Jimmy Cobb. During this time he participated in the Davis sessions Milestones and Kind of Blue, and the live recordings Miles & Monk at Newport and Jazz at the Plaza.^[5]

At the end of this period Coltrane recorded his first album for Atlantic Records, Giant Steps, made up exclusively of his own compositions. The album's title track is generally considered to have the most complex and difficult chord progression of any widely-played jazz composition. Giant Steps utilizes Coltrane changes. His development of these altered chord progression cycles led to further experimentation with improvised melody and harmony that he would continue throughout his career.^[5]

"Giant Steps" noicon One of Coltrane's most acclaimed recordings, "Giant Steps" features harmonic structures more complex than were used by most musicians of the time. Problems listening to this file? See media help.

First albums as leader[link]

Coltrane formed his first group, a quartet, in 1960 for an appearance at the Jazz Gallery in New York City. After moving through different personnel including Steve Kuhn, Pete La Roca, and Billy Higgins, the lineup stabilized in the fall with pianist McCoy Tyner, bassist Steve Davis, and drummer Elvin Jones. Tyner, from Philadelphia, had been a friend of Coltrane's for some years and the two men long had an understanding that the pianist would join Coltrane when Tyner felt ready for the exposure of regularly working with him. Also recorded in the same sessions were the later released albums Coltrane's Sound and Coltrane Plays the Blues.

Still with Atlantic Records, for whom he had recorded Giant Steps, his first record with his new group was also his debut playing the soprano saxophone, the hugely successful My Favorite Things. Around the end of his tenure with Davis, Coltrane had begun playing soprano saxophone, an unconventional move considering the instrument's near obsolescence in jazz at the time. His interest in the straight saxophone most likely arose from his admiration for Sidney Bechet and the work of his contemporary, Steve Lacy, even though Miles Davis claimed to have given Coltrane his first soprano saxophone. 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 (Coltrane changes) used on Giant Steps (movement in major thirds rather than conventional perfect fourths) over the A sections instead of a conventional turnaround progression. Several other tracks recorded in the session utilized this harmonic device, including "26–2," "Satellite," "Body and Soul", and "The Night Has a Thousand Eyes".

First years with Impulse Records (1960–1962)[link]

In the 1960s, Coltrane and fellow saxophonist Ornette Coleman lead the controversial "New Thing" movement into avant-garde and free jazz

In May 1961, Coltrane's contract with Atlantic was bought out by the newly formed Impulse! Records label.^[6] An advantage to Coltrane recording with Impulse! was that it would enable him to work again with engineer Rudy Van Gelder, who had taped both his and Davis's Prestige sessions, as well as Blue Train. It was at Van Gelder's new studio in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey that Coltrane would record most of his records for the label.

By early 1961, bassist Davis had been replaced by Reggie Workman while Eric Dolphy joined the group as a second horn around the same time. The quintet had a celebrated (and extensively recorded) residency in November 1961 at the Village Vanguard, which demonstrated Coltrane's new direction. It featured the most experimental music he'd played up to this point, influenced by Indian ragas, the recent developments in modal jazz, and the burgeoning free jazz movement. John Gilmore, a longtime saxophonist with musician Sun Ra, was particularly influential; after hearing a Gilmore performance, Coltrane is reported to have said "He's got it! Gilmore's got the concept!"^[7] The most celebrated of the Vanguard tunes, the 15-minute blues, "Chasin' the 'Trane", was strongly inspired by Gilmore's music.^[8]

During this period, critics were fiercely divided in their estimation of Coltrane, who had radically altered his style. Audiences, too, were perplexed; in France he was famously booed during his final tour with Davis. In 1961, Down Beat magazine indicted Coltrane, along with Eric Dolphy, as players of "Anti-Jazz" in an article that bewildered and upset the musicians.^[9] Coltrane admitted some of his early solos were based mostly on technical ideas. Furthermore, Dolphy's angular, voice-like playing earned him a reputation as a figurehead of the "New Thing" (also known as "Free Jazz" and "Avant-Garde") movement led by Ornette Coleman, which was also denigrated by some jazz musicians (including Miles Davis) and critics. But as Coltrane's style further developed, he was determined to make each performance "a whole expression of one's being".^[10]

Classic Quartet period (1962–1965)[link]

	"In a Sentimental Mood" noicon The romantic ballad features Coltrane with pianist Duke Ellington.
Problems listening to this file? See media help.

In 1962, Dolphy departed and Jimmy Garrison replaced Workman as bassist. From then on, the "Classic Quartet", as it came to be known, with Tyner, Garrison, and Jones, 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. Harmonically complex music was still present, but on stage Coltrane heavily favored continually reworking his "standards": "Impressions", "My Favorite Things", and "I Want to Talk about You."

The criticism of the quintet with Dolphy may have had an impact on Coltrane. In contrast to the radicalism of Trane's 1961 recordings at the Village Vanguard, his studio albums in 1962 and 1963 (with the exception of Coltrane, which featured a blistering version of Harold Arlen's "Out of This World") were much more conservative and accessible. He recorded an album of ballads and participated in collaborations with Duke Ellington on the album Duke Ellington and John Coltrane and with deep-voiced ballad singer Johnny Hartman on an eponymous co-credited album. The Impulse compilation Coltrane for Lovers is largely drawn from these three albums. The album Ballads is emblematic of Coltrane's versatility, as the quartet shed new light on old-fashioned standards such as "It's Easy to Remember". Despite a more polished approach in the studio, in concert the quartet continued to balance "standard" and its own more exploratory and challenging music, as can be seen on the Impressions album (two extended jams including the title track along with "Dear Old Stockholm", "After the Rain" and a blues), Coltrane at Newport (where he plays "My Favorite Things") and Live at Birdland both from 1963. Coltrane later said he enjoyed having a "balanced catalogue."

The Classic Quartet produced their most famous record, A Love Supreme, in December 1964. It is reported that Coltrane, who struggled with repeated drug addiction, derived inspiration for A Love Supreme through a near overdose in 1957 which galvanized him to spirituality.^[11] A culmination of much of Coltrane's work up to this point, 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, as can be seen from album titles such as Ascension, Om and Meditations. The fourth movement of A Love Supreme, "Psalm", is, in fact, a musical setting for an original poem to God written by Coltrane, and printed in the album's liner notes. Coltrane plays almost exactly one note for each syllable of the poem, and bases his phrasing on the words. Despite its challenging musical content, the album was a commercial success by jazz standards, encapsulating both the internal and external energy of the quartet of Coltrane, Tyner, Jones and Garrison. The album was composed at Coltrane's home in Dix Hills on Long Island.

The quartet only played A Love Supreme live once—in July 1965 at a concert in Antibes, France. By then, Coltrane's music had grown even more adventurous, and the performance provides an interesting contrast to the original.

Avant-garde jazz and the second quartet (1965–1967)[link]

As Coltrane's interest in jazz became increasingly experimental, he added Pharoah Sanders to his ensemble

In his late period, Coltrane showed an increasing interest in avant-garde jazz, purveyed by Ornette Coleman, Albert Ayler, Sun Ra and others. In developing his late style, Coltrane was especially influenced by the dissonance of Ayler's trio with bassist Gary Peacock and drummer Sunny Murray, a rhythm section honed with Cecil Taylor as leader. Coltrane championed many younger free jazz musicians, (notably Archie Shepp), and under his influence Impulse! became a leading free jazz record label.

After A Love Supreme was recorded, Ayler's apocalyptic style became more prominent in Coltrane's music. A series of recordings with the Classic Quartet in the first half of 1965 show Coltrane's playing becoming increasingly abstract, with greater incorporation of devices like multiphonics, utilization of overtones, and playing in the altissimo register, as well as a mutated return to Coltrane's sheets of sound. In the studio, he all but abandoned his soprano to concentrate on the tenor saxophone. In addition, the quartet responded to the leader by playing with increasing freedom. The group's evolution can be traced through the recordings The John Coltrane Quartet Plays, Living Space, Transition (both June 1965), New Thing at Newport (July 1965), Sun Ship (August 1965), and First Meditations (September 1965).

In June 1965, he went into Van Gelder's studio with ten other musicians (including Shepp, Pharoah Sanders, Freddie Hubbard, Marion Brown, and John Tchicai) to record Ascension, a 40-minute long piece that included adventurous solos by the young avant-garde musicians (as well as Coltrane), and was controversial primarily for the collective improvisation sections that separated the solos. After recording with the quartet over the next few months, Coltrane invited Pharoah Sanders to join the band in September 1965.

While Coltrane used over-blowing frequently as an emotional exclamation-point, Sanders would opt to overblow his entire solo, resulting in a constant screaming and screeching in the altissimo range of the instrument. The more Coltrane played with Sanders, the more he gravitated to Sanders' unique sound.

Adding to the quartet[link]

Percussionist Rashied Ali helped to augment Coltrane's sound in the last years of his life

By late 1965, Coltrane was regularly augmenting his group with Sanders and other free jazz musicians. Rashied Ali joined the group as a second drummer. This was the end of the quartet; claiming he was unable to hear himself over the two drummers, Tyner left the band shortly after the recording of Meditations. Jones left in early 1966, dissatisfied by sharing drumming duties with Ali. Both Tyner and Jones subsequently expressed displeasure in interviews, after Coltrane's death, with the music's new direction, while incorporating some of the free-jazz form's intensity into their own solo projects.

There are speculations that in 1965 Coltrane may have begun using LSD^[12][13]—informing the sublime, "cosmic" transcendence of his late period. After Jones's and Tyner's departures, Coltrane led a quintet with Pharoah Sanders on tenor saxophone, his second wife Alice Coltrane on piano, Jimmy Garrison on bass, and Rashied Ali on drums. Coltrane and Sanders were described by Nat Hentoff as "speaking in tongues". When touring, the group was known for playing very lengthy versions of their repertoire, many stretching beyond 30 minutes and sometimes even being an hour long. Concert solos for band members regularly extended beyond fifteen minutes in duration.

The group can be heard on several live recordings from 1966, including Live at the Village Vanguard Again! and Live in Japan. In 1967, Coltrane entered the studio several times; though pieces with Sanders have surfaced (the unusual "To Be", which features both men on flutes), most of the recordings were either with the quartet minus Sanders (Expression and Stellar Regions) or as a duo with Ali. The latter duo produced six performances which appear on the album Interstellar Space.

Death and funeral[link]

Coltrane died from liver cancer at Huntington Hospital on Long Island on July 17, 1967, at the age of 40. His funeral was held on Friday, July 21 at St. Peters Lutheran Church in New York City. The Albert Ayler Quartet and The Ornette Coleman Quartet respectively opened and closed the service. He is buried at Pinelawn Cemetery in Farmingdale, N.Y.

Biographer Lewis Porter has suggested, somewhat controversially, that the cause of Coltrane's illness was hepatitis, although he also attributed the disease to Coltrane's heroin use.^[14] In a 1968 interview Albert Ayler claimed that Coltrane was consulting a Hindu meditative healer for his illness instead of Western medicine, though Alice Coltrane later denied this.

His death surprised many in the musical community who were not aware of his condition. Miles Davis commented: "Coltrane's death shocked everyone, took everyone by surprise. I knew he hadn't looked too good... But I didn't know he was that sick—or even sick at all."^[15]

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.^{[citation needed]} The parent company of Impulse!, from 1965 to 1979 known as ABC Records, purged much of its unreleased material in the 1970s.^[16] Lewis Porter has stated that Alice Coltrane, who died in 2007, intended to release this music, but over a long period of time; her son Ravi Coltrane, responsible for reviewing the material, is also pursuing his own career.^{[citation needed]}

Instruments[link]

Coltrane played the clarinet and the alto horn in a community band before taking up the alto saxophone during high school. In 1947, when he joined King Kolax's band, Coltrane switched to tenor saxophone, the instrument he became known for playing primarily.^[5] Coltrane's preference for playing melody higher on the range of the tenor saxophone (as compared to Coleman Hawkins or Lester Young) is attributed to his start and training on the alto horn and clarinet; his "sound concept" (manipulated in ones vocal tracts- tongue, throat) of the tenor sax was set higher than the normal range of the instrument.^[17]

In the early 1960s, during his engagement with Atlantic Records, he increasingly played soprano saxophone as well. The cover of his album My Favorite Things features Coltrane playing soprano.^[5] Toward the end of his career, he experimented with flute in his live performances and studio recordings.

Religious beliefs[link]

Coltrane's second wife Alice performed with him and also challenged his spiritual beliefs

Coltrane was born and raised in a Christian home, and was influenced by religion and spirituality from childhood. His maternal grandfather, the Reverend William Blair, was a preacher at an African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church^[18][19] in High Point, North Carolina, and John's paternal grandfather, Reverend William H. Coltrane, was an A.M.E. Zion minister in Hamlet, North Carolina.^[18] John's parents met through church affiliation, and married in 1925.^[18] John was born in 1926. As a youth, John practiced music in the southern African-American church. In A Night in Tunisia: Imaginings of Africa in Jazz, Norman Weinstein notes the parallel between Coltrane's music and his experience in the southern church.^[20]

In 1955, Coltrane married Juanita Naima Grubbs, a Muslim convert, for whom he later wrote the piece "Naima", and came into contact with Islam.^[21] Coltrane explored Hinduism, the Kabbalah, Jiddu Krishnamurti, African history, and the philosophical teachings of Plato and Aristotle.^[22] Coltrane also became interested in Zen Buddhism and, later in his career, visited Buddhist temples during his 1966 tour of Japan.^[23]

Since 1948, Coltrane had struggled with heroin addiction^[24][25] as well as alcoholism.^[25] In 1957, Coltrane had a religious experience which may have been what finally led him to overcome his addictions to alcohol and heroin.^[26] In the liner notes of A Love Supreme (released in 1965) Coltrane states "[d]uring the year 1957, I experienced, by the grace of God, a spiritual awakening which was to lead me to a richer, fuller, more productive life. At that time, in gratitude, I humbly asked to be given the means and privilege to make others happy through music." In his 1965 album Meditations, Coltrane wrote about uplifting people, "...To inspire them to realize more and more of their capacities for living meaningful lives. Because there certainly is meaning to life."^[27]

John and Naima Coltrane had no children together and were separated by the summer of 1963, and not long after that John met pianist Alice McLeod (who soon became Alice Coltrane).^[28] John and Alice moved in together and had two sons before he was "officially divorced from Naima in 1966, at which time John and Alice were immediately married."^[29] John Jr. was born in 1964, Ravi was born in 1965, and Oranyan (Oran) was born in 1967.^[29] According to Lavezzoli, "Alice brought happiness and stability to John's life, not only because they had children, but also because they shared many of the same spiritual beliefs, particularly a mutual interest in Indian philosophy. Alice also understood what it was like to be a professional musician".^[29]

Moustafa Bayoumi, an associate professor of English at Brooklyn College, City University of New York, argues that Coltrane's A Love Supreme (recorded in December 1964 and released in 1965) features Coltrane chanting, "Allah Supreme."^[30] However, in Lewis Porter's book John Coltrane: His Life and Music (2000), on page 242, he describes the lyrics this way: "Coltrane and another voice—probably himself overdubbed—chant the words 'a love supreme' in unison with the bass ostinato". In Peter Lavezzoli's book The Dawn of Indian Music in the West: Bhairavi (2006), on page 283, he says, "Certainly in his opening solo in "Acknowledgment," with his constant modulations of the same phrase in different keys, Coltrane assumes the role of the preacher. After stating the theme in every possible key, Coltrane concludes his solo and quietly begins to chant, "A love supreme ... a love supreme," singing the same four notes played by Garrison on the bass. After chanting "A love supreme" sixteen times, Coltrane and the band shift from F minor down to E flat minor, and the chant slowly tapers off." Whatever the case may be, the liner notes to A Love Supreme appear to mention God in a Universalist sense, and do not advocate one religion over another.^[31] Further evidence of this universal view regarding spirituality can be found in the liner notes of Meditations (1965), in which Coltrane declares, "I believe in all religions."^[29]

Lavezzoli points out that "After A Love Supreme, most of Coltrane's song and album titles had spiritual implications: Ascension, Om, Selflessness, Meditations, "Amen," "Ascent," "Attaining," "Dear Lord," "Prayer and Meditation Suite," and the opening movement of Meditations, "The Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost," the most obvious Christian reference in any of Coltrane's work."^[29] Coltrane's collection of books included The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, the Bhagavad Gita, Paramahansa Yogananda's Autobiography of a Yogi, which, Lavezzoli points out, "recounts Yogananda's search for universal truth, a journey that Coltrane had also undertaken. Yogananda believed that both Eastern and Western spiritual paths were efficacious, and wrote of the similarities between Krishna and Christ. This openness to different traditions resonated with Coltrane, who studied the Qur'an, the Bible, Kabbalah, and astrology with equal sincerity."^[32]

In October 1965, Coltrane recorded Om, referring to the sacred syllable in Hinduism, which symbolizes the infinite or the entire Universe. Coltrane described Om as the "first syllable, the primal word, the word of power". The 29-minute recording contains chants from the Bhagavad Gita^[33], a Hindu holy book, as well as Coltrane and Pharoah Sanders chanting from a Buddhist text, The Tibetan Book of the Dead,^[34] and reciting a passage describing the primal verbalization "om" as a cosmic/spiritual common denominator in all things.

Coltrane's spiritual journey was interwoven with his investigation into world music. He believed not only in a universal musical structure which transcended ethnic distinctions, but in being able to harness the mystical language of music itself. Coltrane's study of Indian music led him to believe that certain sounds and scales could "produce specific emotional meanings." According to Coltrane, the goal of a musician was to understand these forces, control them, and elicit a response from the audience. Coltrane said: "I would like to bring to people something like happiness. I would like to discover a method so that if I want it to rain, it will start right away to rain. If one of my friends is ill, I'd like to play a certain song and he will be cured; when he'd be broke, I'd bring out a different song and immediately he'd receive all the money he needed."^[35]

Legacy[link]

The influence Coltrane has had on music spans many different genres and musicians. Coltrane's massive influence on jazz, both mainstream and avant-garde, began during his lifetime and continued to grow after his death. He is one of the most dominant influences on post-1960 jazz saxophonists and has inspired an entire generation of jazz musicians. In 1965, he was inducted into the Down Beat Jazz Hall of Fame. In 1972, A Love Supreme was certified gold by the RIAA for selling over half a million copies in Japan. This album, as well as My Favorite Things, was certified gold in the United States in 2001. In 1982 Coltrane was awarded a posthumous Grammy for "Best Jazz Solo Performance" on the album Bye Bye Blackbird, and in 1997, was awarded the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.^[4]

His widow, Alice Coltrane, after several decades of seclusion, briefly regained a public profile before her death in 2007. Coltrane's son, Ravi Coltrane, named after the great Indian sitarist Ravi Shankar, who was greatly admired by Coltrane, has followed in his father's footsteps and is a prominent contemporary saxophonist.

John Coltrane House, 1511 North Thirty-third Street, Philadelphia

A former home, the John Coltrane House in Philadelphia, was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1999. His last home, the John Coltrane Home in the Dix Hills neighborhood of Huntington, New York, where he resided from 1964 until his death in 1967, was added to the National Register of Historic Places on June 29, 2007.

His revolutionary use of multi-tonic systems in jazz has become a widespread composition and reharmonization technique known as "Coltrane changes".

In 2002, scholar Molefi Kete Asante listed John Coltrane on his list of 100 Greatest African Americans.^[36]

Coltrane's tenor (Selmer Mark VI, serial number 125571, dated 1965) and soprano (Selmer Mark VI, serial number 99626, dated 1962) saxophones were auctioned on February 20, 2005 to raise money for the John Coltrane Foundation. The soprano raised $70,800 but the tenor remained unsold.^[37]

Religious figure[link]

After Coltrane's death, congregants at the Yardbird Temple, in San Francisco, began worshipping Coltrane as God incarnate. The Temple was named for Charlie Parker, who they equated to John the Baptist.^[38] The St. John Will-I-Am Coltrane African Orthodox Church, San Francisco, which is fondly known as the "Coltrane church", is the only African Orthodox Church which incorporates Coltrane's music and his lyrics as prayers in its liturgy.^[39] In order to become affiliated with the AOC, Coltrane was "demoted" from being God to a saint.^[38]

In 1996, documentary filmmaker Alan Klingenstein made a short (26 minute) film called The Church of Saint Coltrane.^[40][41] Another documentary on Coltrane, featuring the church and presented by Alan Yentob, was produced for the BBC in 2004.^[42] Samuel G. Freedman writes in his New York Times article "Sunday Religion Inspired By Saturday Nights", December 1, 2007,

... the Coltrane church is not a gimmick or a forced alloy of nightclub music and ethereal faith. Its message of deliverance through divine sound is actually quite consistent with Coltrane’s own experience and message.

In the same article, he comments on John Coltrane's place in the canon of American music.

In both implicit and explicit ways, Coltrane also functioned as a religious figure. Addicted to heroin in the 1950s, he quit cold turkey, and later explained that he had heard the voice of God during his anguishing withdrawal. In 1964, he recorded A Love Supreme, an album of original praise music in a free-jazz mode... In 1966, an interviewer in Japan asked Coltrane what he hoped to be in five years, and Coltrane replied, "A saint."^[38]

John Coltrane is depicted as one of the ninety saints in the monumental Dancing Saints icon of St. Gregory of Nyssa Episcopal Church in San Francisco. The Dancing Saints icon is a 3,000-square-foot (280 m²) painting rendered in the Byzantine iconographic style that wraps around the entire church rotunda. The icon was executed by iconographer Mark Dukes, an ordained deacon at the Saint John Coltrane African Orthodox Church, who has painted other icons of Coltrane for the Coltrane Church.^[43] Saint Barnabas Episcopal Church in Newark, New Jersey included Coltrane on their list of historical black saints and made a "case for sainthood" for him in an article on their former website.^[44]

Discography[link]

Discography below lists albums conceived and approved by Coltrane as a leader during his lifetime. It does not include his many releases as a sideman, sessions assembled into albums by various record labels after Coltrane's contract expired, sessions with Coltrane as a sideman later reissued with his name featured more prominently, or posthumous compilations except for the one which he approved before his death. See main discography link above for full list.

Prestige and Blue Note Records[link]

• Coltrane (debut solo LP) (1957)
• Blue Train (1957)
• John Coltrane with the Red Garland Trio (1958)
• Soultrane (1958)

Atlantic Records[link]

• Giant Steps (first album entirely of Coltrane compositions) (1960)
• Coltrane Jazz (first appearance by McCoy Tyner and Elvin Jones) (1961)
• My Favorite Things (1961)
• Olé Coltrane (features Eric Dolphy, compositions by Coltrane and Tyner) (1961)

Impulse! Records[link]

• Africa/Brass (brass arranged by Tyner and Dolphy) (1961)
• Live! at the Village Vanguard (features Dolphy, first appearance by Jimmy Garrison) (1962)
• Coltrane (first album to solely feature the "classic quartet") (1962)
• Ballads (1963)
• John Coltrane and Johnny Hartman (1963)
• Impressions (1963)
• Duke Ellington & John Coltrane (1964)
• Live at Birdland (1964)
• Crescent (1964)
• A Love Supreme (1965)
• The John Coltrane Quartet Plays (1965)
• Ascension (1966)
• New Thing at Newport (live with Archie Shepp) (1966)
• Kulu Se Mama (1966)
• Meditations (quartet plus Pharoah Sanders and Rashied Ali) (1966)
• Expression (posthumous and final Coltrane-approved release; one track features Coltrane on flute) (1967)

References[link]

Sources[link]

• Kahn, Ashley (2003) [2002]. A Love Supreme: The Story of John Coltrane's Signature Album. Elvin Jones. Penguin Books. ISBN 0-14-200352-2. 
• Lavezzoli, Peter (2006). The Dawn of Indian Music in the West. Continuum International Publishing Group. ISBN 0-8264-1815-5. 
• Nisenson, Eric (1995). Ascension: John Coltrane and His Quest. Da Capo Press. ISBN 0-306-80644-4. 
• Porter, Lewis (1999). John Coltrane: His Life and Music. University of Michigan Press. ISBN 0-472-08643-X. 
• Ratliff, Ben (2007). Coltrane: The Story of a Sound. New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux. ISBN 0-374-12606-2. 
• Simpkins, Cuthbert (1989) [1975]. Coltrane: A Biography. New York: Herndon House Publishers. ISBN 0-915542-82-X. 
• Thomas, J.C. (1975). Chasin' the Trane. New York: Da Capo. ISBN 0-306-80043-8. 
• Woideck, Carl (1998). The John Coltrane Companion. New York: Schirmer Books. ISBN 0-02-864790-4. 

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• Official Website
• Coltrane Church Website
• 1957 Carnegie Hall Performance in Transcription and Analysis
• "John Coltrane". Find a Grave. http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=218. Retrieved March 31, 2008. 
• Infography about John Coltrane
• "John Coltrane: Images of Trane", Jazz Times, June 1997, Lee Tanner
• Discography