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The John was an Australian sloop of 30 tons that was owned by John Palmer & Co. It was built at Woolloomooloo in Sydney and registered on 11 June 1803. In November 1806 it sailed from King Island in Bass Strait with a crew of five aboard and a cargo of seal skins. It was never seen again. ^[1]

References[link]

This article about a specific civilian ship or boat is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. v t e

John Warren Shipley, Baron Shipley, OBE, is a Liberal Democrat peer in the House of Lords.

Contested (as Liberal) Blyth February and October 1974, Hexham 1979, (as Liberal/SDP Alliance) Newcastle North 1983 and 1987 general elections.

Newcastle City Council: Councillor 1975-, Opposition Leader 1988-98, Former portfolio holder, Policy Co-ordination and Development, Council Leader 2006-10; Member: Northumbria Police Authority 1980s, Tyne and Wear Passenger Transport Authority 1990s, 2004–06; Former board member, Newcastle International Airport Local Authority Holding Company 2004-06; Board member, One North East 2005-; Vice-President, Local Government Association 2010-.

Raised to the peerage as Baron Shipley, of Gosforth in the County of Tyne and Wear 2010.

References[link]

• Parliament profile

This biographical article needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libelous or harmful. (November 2009)

Dr. John
Dr. John at the 2007 New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival
Background information
Birth name	Malcolm John Rebennack, Jr.
Also known as	Dr. John Creaux Mac Rebennack
Born	(1940-11-21) November 21, 1940 (age 71)
Origin	New Orleans, Louisiana, United States
Genres	Blues, rock, New Orleans rhythm and blues
Occupations	Vocalist, musician
Instruments	Vocals, piano, keyboards, guitar
Years active	1950s–present
Labels	Atco, Blue Note, Nonesuch, GRP, Trip, United Artists
Associated acts	John Mayall's Bluesbreakers, Ringo Starr & His All-Starr Band, Van Morrison, Dan Auerbach, Curious George (TV series), Eric Clapton, Bob Seger, Joe Walsh
Website	http://www.nitetripper.com/

Malcolm John "Mac" Rebennack, Jr. (born November 21, 1940), better known by the stage name Dr. John (also Dr. John Creaux, or Dr. John the Night Tripper), is an American singer-songwriter, pianist and guitarist, whose music combines blues, pop, jazz as well as zydeco, boogie woogie and rock and roll.^[1]

Active as a session musician since the late 1950s, he came to wider prominence in the early 1970s with a wildly theatrical stage show inspired by medicine shows, Mardi Gras costumes and voodoo ceremonies. Rebennack has recorded over 20 albums and in 1973 scored a top-20 hit with the jaunty funk-flavored "Right Place Wrong Time", still perhaps his best-known song.

The winner of five Grammy Awards, Rebennack was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame by singer John Legend on Monday, March 14, 2011.^[2]

Early life and career[link]

Born in New Orleans, Louisiana, United States, Dr. John's Acadian ancestry traces back to the imperial territory of Alsace-Lorraine. He claims that his lineage took root in New Orleans sometime in the early 1800s. Growing up in the Third Ward, Dr. John found early musical inspiration in the minstrel tunes sung by his grandfather and a number of aunts, uncles, and cousins who played piano. He did not take music lessons before his teens, he only endured a short stint in choir before getting kicked out.^[3] His father, the owner of an appliance store and record shop, exposed him as a young boy to prominent jazz musicians like King Oliver and Louis Armstrong. Throughout his adolescence his father's connections enabled him access to the recording rooms of burgeoning rock artists such as Little Richard and Guitar Slim. From these exposures he advanced into clubs and onto the stage with varying local artists, most notably, Professor Longhair. ^[4]

Dr. John met Professor Longhair when he was about 13 or 14 years old, the start to a period in his life that would mark rapid growth as a musician and the beginnings of his entry into professional music. He describes his initial impression of Professor Longhair with note, not only of his musical prowess, but of his style: "I was also fascinated that he was sitting out there in a turtleneck shirt with a beautiful gold chain with a watch hangin’ on it, and an Army fatigue cap on his head. And I thought, Wow, I never seen nobody dressed like this guy. Just everything about the man was totally hip. And he had gloves on him, too, beautiful silk gloves. I’ll never forget this^[5]."

At age 16 he was hired by Johnny Vincent as a producer at Ace Records. There, he worked with artists like James Booker and Earl King, his musical experience expanding notably. He struggled through intermittent years of high school, eventually focusing entirely on music. Thereafter an entry into heavy narcotics use would fuel his desire to get out of New Orleans and move to California where his character, Dr. John, was born.^[6]

In late 1950s New Orleans, Dr. John originally concentrated on guitar and he gigged with local bands including Mac Rebennack and the Skyliners, (Paul Staele/Dennis "Bootsie" Cuquet, drums; Earl Stanley, bass; Charlie Miller, trumpet; Charlie Maduell, sax; Roland "Stone" LeBlanc, vocals), Frankie Ford and the Thunderbirds, and Jerry Byrne and the Loafers. He had a regional hit with a Bo Diddley-influenced instrumental called "Storm Warning" on Rex Records in 1959. During these days he was an A&R man producing, with Charlie Miller, monophonic singles on 45s for Johnny Vincent and Joe Corona for such local labels as ACE, RON, RIC and others. For these sessions he oversaw A&R and the rhythm section while Miller wrote the horn arrangements and headed up the horns. It was a productive team until Miller decided to move to New York and to study music formally.

Rebennack's career as a guitarist came to an end when his left ring finger was injured by a gunshot while he was defending singer/keyboardist Ronnie Barron, his bandmate, Jesuit High School classmate, and longtime friend. After the injury, Rebennack concentrated on bass guitar before making piano his main instrument; pianist Professor Longhair was an important influence on Rebennack's piano-playing style.

He moved to Los Angeles in 1963 where he became a "first call" session musician on the booming Los Angeles studio scene in the 1960s and 1970s, providing backing for Sonny & Cher (and some of the incidental music for Cher's first film, Chastity), and for Canned Heat on their albums Living the Blues (1968) Future Blues (1970), and Freak Out! for Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention (1966); along with many other acts.

HANDCUFFED[link]

Dr. John grew up with full exposure to the realities of New Orleans. Prostitutes, pimps, thieves and addicts all marked the same nightlife scene that contributed to his development as a musician.^[7] He was introduced to marijuana at a young age, among other drugs, ultimately gaining an addiction to heroin in his teen years. He recalls being "loaded" the first time while at high school, identifying the high he would chase for all of his life. Not so fondly, Dr. John looks back on the shortsighted moneymaking schemes he would devise through his teens and twenties, all to pay only for the next dose of heroin. He sold narcotics, ran a whorehouse, and even opened a business offering abortions (illegal at the time) during the 1950s. Drug-induced nightclub furies throughout Louisiana and into Florida would result in frequent shootouts and bouts with the police, and he picked up a list of arrests that finally led to prison time in Texas. His sentence ended in 1965 and he left for Los Angeles.

His characteristic, nameless genre of jazzy funk, emphasized with a flair of psychedelic rock, was a direct image of his drug habit throughout his hoodoo albums of the 1960s and up through the 1970s. He failed to heed the warnings of friends and paid no attention to his mother's concern; through the 1980s he continued his habit, failing to beat addiction after numerous stays at rehabilitation. Finally, after experiencing cardiac problems in New York, Dr. John exited his final rehabilitation stint, sober, in December, 1989. He went on to struggle with psychiatric problems through the 1990s, but, today, is sober and mentally stable with the help of medication.^[8]

TRYING TO ESCAPE THE HANDCUFFS (NO WAY)[link]

Dr. John was always fascinated with New Orleans voodoo, and in Los Angeles he developed the idea of the Dr. John persona for his old friend Ronnie Barron. He imagined it as an interesting stage show and an emblem to their New Orleans heritage. "Well, there was a guy the name of Dr. John, a hoodoo guy in New Orleans. He was competition to Marie Laveau. He was like her opposite. I actually got a clipping from the Times Picayune newspaper about how my great-great-great-grandpa Wayne was busted with this guy for runnin’ a voodoo operation in a whorehouse in 1860. I decided I would produce the record with this as a concept." Of course, he would assume the role of Dr. John himself, which he claims, came apprehensively.^[9]

He recalls reading about the original Doctor John in his youth, a purported Senegalese prince who came to New Orleans from Haiti, a medicinal and spiritual healer. The Doctor was a free man of color who lived on Bayou Road and claimed to have fifteen wives and over fifty children. He maintained a fascination with reptiles and kept an assortment of snakes and lizards, along with embalmed scorpions and animal and human skulls. His specialization was healing, and as such, in selling Gris-Gris, voodoo amulets that protected the wearer from harm. Gris Gris, would, of course, become of the name of Dr. John, the musician's famed debut album, his own form of "voodoo medicine."^[10]

1968-1971: HANDCUFFED AGAIN[link]

Beginning in the late 1960s, Rebennack gained fame as a solo artist after adopting the persona of "Dr. John, The Night Tripper". Dr. John's act combined New Orleans-style rhythm and blues with psychedelic rock and elaborate stage shows that bordered on voodoo religious ceremonies, including elaborate costumes and headdress (reflecting and presumably inspired by Screamin' Jay Hawkins's stage act). The name "Dr. John" came from a legendary Louisiana voodoo practitioner of the early 19th century.^[11] On the earliest Dr. John records, the artist billing was "Dr. John, The Night Tripper", while the songwriting credits billed him as "Dr. John Creaux". Within a few years the "Night Tripper" subtitle was dropped, and Rebennack resumed using his real name for writing and producing/arranging credits.

Gris-Gris, his 1968 debut album combining voodoo rhythms and chants with the New Orleans music tradition, was ranked 143rd on Rolling Stone's "The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time" list. Three more albums, 1969's Babylon, 1970's Remedies, and 1971's The Sun, Moon, And Herbs were released in the same vein of Gris-Gris, but none of them have enjoyed the popularity of his first album.

During early-to-mid-1969, Dr. John toured extensively, backed by supporting musicians Richard "Didymus" Washington (congas), Richard Crooks (drums), David Leonard Johnson (bass), Gary Carino (guitar), and singers Eleanor Barooshian, Jeanette Jacobs from The Cake, and Sherry Graddie. A second lineup formed later in the year for an extensive tour of the East Coast with Crooks and Johnson joined by Doug Hastings (guitar) and Don MacAllister (mandolin). Also in 1969, Dr. John contributed to the Music from Free Creek "supersession" project, playing on three tracks with Eric Clapton. Washington and Crooks also contributed to the project.

By the time The Sun, Moon, and Herbs was released, he had gained a notable cult following, including artists such as Eric Clapton and Mick Jagger, who both took part in the sessions for that album. This album would serve as a transition from his Night Tripper voodoo, psychedelic persona to one more closely associated with traditional New Orleans R&B and funk. His next album, Dr. John's Gumbo, proved to be a landmark recording which is one of his most popular to this day; with drummer Fred Staehle serving as the band's backbone.

[edit] 1972-1974: Gumbo, In the Right Place, and Desitively Bonnaroo

Along with Gris-Gris, Dr. John is perhaps best known for his recordings during 1972-1974. 1972's Dr. John's Gumbo, an album covering several New Orleans R&B standards with only one original, is considered a cornerstone in New Orleans music. In his 1994 autobiography, Under a Hoodoo Moon, Dr. John writes, "In 1972, I recorded Gumbo, an album that was both a tribute to and my interpretation of the music I had grown up with in New Orleans in the 1940s and 1950s. I tried to keep a lot of the little changes that were characteristic of New Orleans, while working my own funknology on piano and guitar." The lead single from the album, "Iko Iko", broke into the Billboard top 40 singles chart. In 2003, Dr. John's Gumbo was ranked number 402 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time. It also earned a place on Offbeat magazine's 1999 listing of the Top 100 Louisiana CDs.

With Gumbo, Dr. John expanded his career beyond the psychedelic voodoo music and theatrics that had driven his career since he took on the Dr. John persona, although it has always remained an integral part of his music and identity. It wasn't until 1998's Anutha Zone that he would again concentrate on this aspect of his music wholly for a full album. "After we cut the new record", he wrote, "I decided I'd had enough of the mighty-coo-de-fiyo hoodoo show, so I dumped the Gris-Gris routine we had been touring with since 1967 and worked up a new act—a Mardi Gras revue featuring the New Orleans standards we had covered in Gumbo."

In early 1973 Thomas Jefferson Kaye produced an album featuring a collaboration with Dr. John, Mike Bloomfield and John Paul Hammond. This album, Triumvirate, was recorded in Columbia Studios, San Francisco, and Village Recorders, Los Angeles.

In 1973, with Allen Toussaint producing and The Meters backing, Dr. John released the seminal New Orleans funk album, In the Right Place. In the same way that Gris-Gris introduced the world to the voodoo-influenced side of his music, and in the manner that Dr. John's Gumbo began his career-long reputation as an esteemed interpreter of New Orleans standards, In the Right Place established Dr. John as one of the main ambassadors of New Orleans funk. In describing the album, Dr. John states, "The album had more of a straight-ahead dance feel than ones I had done in the past, although it was still anchored solid in R&B." It rose to #24 on the Billboard album charts, while the single "Right Place Wrong Time" landed at #9 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart. A second single, "Such a Night", peaked at #42. Still in heavy rotation on most classic rock stations, "Right Place Wrong Time" remains his single most recognized song. Artists such as Bob Dylan, Bette Midler, and Doug Sahm contributed single lines to the lyrics, which lists several instances of ironic bad luck and failure.

Dr. John attempted to capitalize on In the Right Place's successful formula, again collaborating with Allen Toussaint and The Meters for his next album, Desitively Bonnaroo, released in 1974. Although similar in feel to In the Right Place, it failed to catch hold in the mainstream like its predecessor. It would be his last pure funk album until 1994 with Television, although like his voodoo and traditional New Orleans R&B influences, funk has continued to heavily influence most of his work to the present day, especially in his concerts. While Dr. John stated in an interview during 1990s that he'd like to work with Toussaint again for a full album, this has yet to come to fruition.

In the mid-1970s Dr. John began an almost twenty-year-long collaboration with the R&R Hall of Fame/Songwriters Hall of Fame writer Doc Pomus to create songs for Dr. John's releases City Lights and Tango Palace and for B.B. King's Stuart Levine-produced There Must Be a Better World Somewhere, which won a Grammy for Best Ethnic or Traditional Recording in 1982. Dr. John also recorded "I'm On a Roll", the last song written with Pomus prior to Pomus' death in 1991, for the now out-of-print Rhino/Forward Records 1995 tribute to Pomus titled Til the Night Is Gone: A Tribute to Doc Pomus that also included covers of Pomus-penned songs by Bob Dylan, John Hiatt, Shawn Colvin, Brian Wilson, the Band, Los Lobos, Dion, Rosanne Cash, Solomon Burke and Lou Reed. According to Doc Pomus' daughter, Dr. John and her father were very close friends as well as writing partners; Dr. John delivered one of a number of eulogies and performed with singer Jimmy Scott at Pomus' funeral on March 17, 1991, in New York City.

On Thanksgiving Day 1976 he performed at the farewell concert for the Band, which was filmed and released as The Last Waltz. In 1979, he collaborated with the legendary Professor Longhair on Fess's (another nickname for Henry Byrd) last recording Crawfish Fiesta as a guitarist and co-producer. The album was awarded the first W.C. Handy Blues Album of the Year in 1980, and was released shortly after Longhair's death in January, 1980.

Later work[link]

Dr. John at the 2006 Jazz à Vienne festival, in Vienne, France.

By the mid-1970s, Rebennack began focusing on a blend of music that touched on blues, New Orleans R&B, Tin Pan Alley standards and more.

In 1975 Dr. John's manager, Richard Flanzer, hired legendary producer Bob Ezrin. Hollywood Be Thy Name was recorded live at Cherokee Studios in Los Angeles, California. The studio was transformed into a New Orleans nightclub for the sessions.

In 1981 and 1983 Dr. John recorded two solo piano albums for the Baltimore-based Clean Cuts label. In these two recordings Dr. John plays many of his own compositions in boogie-woogie.

He has also been a prominent session musician throughout his career, playing piano on the Rolling Stones' 1972 song "Let It Loose", as well as backing Carly Simon and James Taylor in their duet of "Mockingbird" in 1974 and Neil Diamond on 1976's Beautiful Noise. He also contributed the song "More and More" to Simon's Playing Possum album. He played on three songs on Maria Muldaur's 1973 solo debut album, including his composition "Three Dollar Bill". He sang on four songs and played piano on two songs on Muldaur's 1992 Louisiana Love Call. He was co-producer on Van Morrison's 1977 album A Period of Transition and also played keyboards and guitar. He contributed three songs as writer or co-writer ("Washer Woman", "The Ties That Bind", and "That's My Home") and also played guitar and keyboards on Levon Helm's 1977 release, Levon Helm and the RCO Allstars. He performed on the March 19, 1977 episode of NBC's Saturday Night Live. He played keyboards on the highly successful 1979 solo debut album by Rickie Lee Jones and has toured with Willy DeVille and contributed to his Return to Magenta (1978), Victory Mixture (1990), Backstreets of Desire (1992), and Big Easy Fantasy (1995) albums. His music has been featured in many films including "Such a Night" in Colors in 1988. In 1992 Dr. John released the album Goin' Back to New Orleans which included many classic songs from New Orleans and many great New Orleans based musicians like Aaron Neville, the Neville brothers, Al Hirt and Pete Fountain backed up Dr. John on this album. He performed as the first American artist at the Franco Follies festival in 1992.

Dr. John has also done vocals for Popeyes Chicken & Biscuits' "Luv dat chicken..." jingle, as well as the theme song ("My Opinionation") for the early-1990s television sitcom Blossom. A version of "Do You Know What It Means To Miss New Orleans" with Harry Connick, Jr. was released on Connick's album 20 and VHS Singin' & Swingin' in 1990. Dr. John's longtime confidant and personal manager, Paul Howrilla was responsible for moving Dr. John from Los Angeles, California to New York, New York and securing the "crossover" work, as well as modifying Dr. John's image from the 1970's to the 1990's. Paul Howrilla was the brains behind the scenes, as Dr. John would attest. They remain very close friends to the present day.

His movie credits include Martin Scorsese's documentary The Last Waltz (in which he joins the Band for a performance of his song "Such a Night"), the 1978 Beatles-inspired musical "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band", and Blues Brothers 2000 (in which he joins the fictional band the Louisiana Gator Boys to perform the songs "How Blue Can You Get" and "New Orleans"). His version of the Donovan song "Season of the Witch" was also featured in this movie and on the soundtrack.

He also wrote and performed the score for the film version of John Steinbeck's "Cannery Row" released in 1982. In 1993, his hit song "Right Place Wrong Time" was used extensively in the movie Dazed and Confused.

Dr. John has also been featured in several video and audio blues and New Orleans piano lessons published by Homespun Tapes. In addition to the instructional value, there is historical context about many other blues artists. Other documentary film scores include the New Orleans dialect film Yeah You Rite! (1985) and American Tongues in 1987.

Between July and September 1989 Dr. John toured in the first Ringo Starr & His All-Starr Band, alongside Levon Helm, Rick Danko, Nils Lofgren, Jim Keltner, Joe Walsh, Billy Preston and Clarence Clemons. The tour produced the 1990 live album Ringo Starr and His All-Starr Band.

Dr.John at the Liri Blues Festival, Italy.

In 1997, he appeared on the charity single version of Lou Reed's "Perfect Day". In the same year, he played piano on the Spiritualized song "Cop Shoot Cop...", from their critically acclaimed album Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space. Frontman Jason Pierce, a fan of John's music, reciprocated by guesting on John's 1998 album Anutha Zone along with drummer Damon Reece and guitarist Thighpaulsandra.

He recorded the live album Trippin' Live with drummer Herman Ernest, David Barard, bass, Tommy Moran, guitar, trumpeter Charlie Miller, tenor Red Tyler, and baritone sax Ronnie Cuber.

In September 2005 he performed Fats Domino's "Walkin' to New Orleans", to close the Shelter from the Storm: A Concert for the Gulf Coast telethon. This was for the relief of Hurricane Katrina victims; following the devastation of his hometown of New Orleans.

In November 2005, he released a four-song EP, Sippiana Hericane, to benefit New Orleans Musicians Clinic, Salvation Army, and the Jazz Foundation of America. On February 5, 2006, he joined fellow New Orleans native Aaron Neville, Detroit resident Aretha Franklin and a 150-member choir for the national anthem at Super Bowl XL as part of a pre-game tribute to New Orleans. On February 8, 2006, he joined Allen Toussaint, Bonnie Raitt, The Edge, and Irma Thomas to perform "We Can Can" as the closing performance at the Grammy Awards of 2006.

On May 12, 2006, Dr. John recorded a live session at Abbey Road Studios for Live from Abbey Road. His performance was aired alongside those of LeAnn Rimes and Massive Attack on the Sundance Channel in the USA and Channel 4 in the UK.

Dr. John performing at Le Poisson Rouge, New York City, 2011.

On July 30, 2006, Dr. John performed a solo piano benefit for New Orleans composer and arranger Wardell Quezergue (King Floyd's "Groove Me") at a New Orleans Musicians Relief Fund benefit at the Black Orchid Theatre in Chicago.^[12] Special guest Mike Mills of R.E.M. was in attendance, along with an all-star funk band.

Dr. John performed the theme music to the Fox drama K-Ville. He also performed and co-produced the theme song for the PBS children's show Curious George.

In 2007, Dr. John accepted an invitation to contribute to Goin' Home: A Tribute to Fats Domino. He contributed his version of Domino's "Don't Leave Me This Way".

In January 2008, Mac Rebennack, Dr. John, was inducted into The Louisiana Music Hall of Fame. Later, in February, he performed at All-Star Saturday Night, part of the NBA All-Star Weekend hosted by New Orleans.

In the 2009 Disney film The Princess and the Frog, Dr. John sings the opening tune, "Down in New Orleans".

He reigned as King of the Krewe du Vieux for the 2010 New Orleans Mardi Gras season.

Dr. John played keyboards and had a major role in shaping Gregg Allman's 2011 album Low Country Blues which was produced by T-Bone Burnett.^[13]

In 2011 he collaborated with Hugh Laurie on the song "After You've Gone" on his album Let Them Talk.

In 2011 Dr. John, Allen Toussaint and The Meters performed Desitively Bonnaroo at the Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival in Manchester, Tennessee as part of the festival's tenth year celebration. The name of the festival was inspired by the album.

In 2012, he released Locked Down, a collaboration with Dan Auerbach of The Black Keys, who produces and plays guitar.^[11] The album received very positive reviews for its raw, Afrobeat-influenced sound. The Los Angeles Times said it showed Dr. John "exiting a period of relative creative stagnation by creating something magical, the embodiment of everything he’s done but pushed in a clear new direction."^[14]

Cover versions[link]

Dr. John's song "I Walk On Gilded Splinters" was covered in 1969 by Marsha Hunt and produced by Tony Visconti; also in June 1969 by Cher on her 3614 Jackson Highway album, and was released as a single; and in July 1970 by Johnny Jenkins, whose supporting musicians included slide guitarist Duane Allman and drummers Butch Trucks and Jai Johanny Johanson; Allman also performed on Ton Ton Macoute, the album that contained it. Allman Brothers bass guitarist Berry Oakley also appeared on other tracks on the album). "I Walk on Gilded Splinters" was also covered in the 1970s by Humble Pie on their album Performance Rockin' the Fillmore, and is track 3 on Paul Weller's 1995 album Stanley Road. Widespread Panic and The Allman Brothers Band also perform this song regularly.

Discography[link]

As leader[link]

• Gris-Gris (1968) (Atco, SD 33-234)
• Babylon (1969)
• Remedies (1970) (Atco, SD 33-316)
• The Sun, Moon & Herbs (1971) (Atco, SD 33-362)
• Dr. John's Gumbo (1972)
• In the Right Place (1973) (Atco, SD 7018)
• Desitively Bonnaroo (1974) (Atco, SD 7043)
• Hollywood Be Thy Name (1975) (UA-LA552G)
• City Lights (1978)
• Tango Palace (1979) (Horizon, SP-740)
• Dr. John Plays Mac Rebennack Vol. 1 (1981)
• Dr. John Plays Mac Rebennack Vol. 2 (The Brightest Smile in Town) (1983)
• In a Sentimental Mood (1989)
• ZuZu Man (1989) (Trip Records TLP-9518)
• Bluesianna Triangle , w/ Art Blakey and David 'Fathead' Newman (1990) (Windham Hill)
• Goin' Back to New Orleans (1992)
• Television (1994)
• Afterglow (1995)
• Trippin' Live
• Anutha Zone (1998)
• Duke Elegant (1999) (Parlophone, 7243 5 23220 2 2)
• Creole Moon (2001)
• All By Hisself, Live At The Lonestar (2003) (Skinji Brim) recorded live Dec. 22 & 23, 1986
• N'Awlinz: Dis Dat or d'Udda (2004)
• Sippiana Hericane (2005)
• Mercernary (2006) (Blue Note 54541)
• The City That Care Forgot (2008)
• Tribal (2010)
• Locked Down (2012)

With Bluesiana Triangle[link]

• Bluesiana Triangle (Windham Hill, 1990)
• Bluesiana Triangle II (Windham Hill, 1991)

Other contributions[link]

• Levon Helm and the RCO Allstars, Levon Helm (Edsel, 1977).
• Ringo Starr and His All-Starr Band, Ringo Starr (EMI, 1990), Rykodisc RALP-10190 (CD: Rykodisc RCD-10190)
• Boogie to Heaven Gayle Wynters, featuring Dr. John and Roger Kellaway (VWC Records, 1995)^[15]
• Perfect Day BBC corporate film and charity release in 1997 - featuring, amongst others, Dr John ("Perfect Day")
• Jools Holland's Big Band Rhythm & Blues - "The Hand That Changed Its Mind" (Rhino, 2002)^[16]
• Goin' Home: A Tribute to Fats Domino (Vanguard, 2007)^[17]
• Let Them Talk (Warner Bros. Records, 2011)^[18]
• My Kind of Christmas, Christina Aguilera (RCA, 2000)^[19]
• Use Me, David Bromberg (Appleseed, 2011)^[20]

Dr. John in popular culture[link]

• Dr. John was featured in the third episode of the HBO series Treme, as well as three episodes of the second season, playing himself in all of them.^[21]
• Dr. John was the inspiration for Jim Henson's Muppets character, Dr. Teeth.^[22]

Recognition[link]

Grammy Awards[link]

• 1989 Best Jazz Vocal Performance, Duo Or Group - Makin' Whoopee
• 1992 Best Traditional Blues Album - Goin' Back To New Orleans
• 1996 Best Rock Instrumental Performance - SRV Shuffle
• 2000 Best Pop Collaboration With Vocals - Is You Is, Or Is You Ain't (My Baby)
• 2008 Best Contemporary Blues Album - City that Care Forgot

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame[link]

• 2011 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Inductee ^[23]

References[link]

Further reading[link]

• Under a Hoodoo Moon: the Life of Dr. John the Night Tripper by Dr. John (Mac Rebennack) and Jack Rummel, New York: St. Martin's Press, 1994. ISBN 0-312-10567-3

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Dr. John

• Official website
• Allmusic

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. 

External links[link]

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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

John Cale
John Cale playing the electric viola at a concert in Belgium, 2006
Background information
Birth name	John Davies Cale[1]
Born	(1942-03-09) 9 March 1942 (age 70) Garnant, Carmarthenshire, Wales
Genres	Art rock, classical, drone music, experimental rock, folk rock, protopunk, spoken
Occupations	Musician, composer, singer-songwriter, record producer, visual artist
Instruments	Vocals, viola, violin, guitar, bass, organ, piano, harpsichord, keyboards, harmonica, cello, double bass, saxophone, mellotron, celesta
Years active	1965–present
Labels	SPY, Ze, Island, Reprise, Beserkley, A&M, Rhino, Domino, Double Six
Associated acts	Theater of Eternal Music, The Velvet Underground, John Cage, Phil Manzanera, Nico, Lou Reed, Brian Eno, Kevin Ayers
Website	john-cale.com

John Davies Cale, OBE (born 9 March 1942) is a Welsh musician, composer, singer-songwriter and record producer who was a founding member of the experimental rock band The Velvet Underground.

Though best known for his work in rock music, Cale has worked in various genres including drone and classical. Since departing from the Velvet Underground in 1968 he has released approximately 30 albums. Of his solo work, Cale is perhaps best known for his album Paris 1919, and his cover version of Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah", plus his mid-1970s Island Records trilogy of albums: Fear, Slow Dazzle, and Helen of Troy.

Cale has produced or collaborated with Lou Reed, Nico, La Monte Young, John Cage, Terry Riley, Cranes, Nick Drake, Mike Heron, Kevin Ayers, Brian Eno, Patti Smith, The Stooges, The Modern Lovers, Art Bergmann, Manic Street Preachers and frontman James Dean Bradfield, Marc Almond, Squeeze, Happy Mondays, LCD Soundsystem and Siouxsie and the Banshees.

Early life and career[link]

John Cale was born 9 March 1942 in Garnant in the heavily industrial Amman Valley of Wales to Will Cale and Margaret Davies.^[2] His mother was a primary teacher and his father was a coal miner.^[2] Although Will only spoke English, Margaret brought John up to speak only Welsh.^[2] Being unable to speak the same language as his father naturally hindered their relationship.^[2] John finally began learning English around age seven at primary.^[2] Cale was molested by two different men during his childhood;^[2][3] one of the men was a priest, and the incident occurred in a church.^[2][3]

Having discovered a talent for viola, he studied music at Goldsmiths College, University of London. Whilst there he organised an early Fluxus concert, A Little Festival of New Music, 6 July 1963. He also contributed the short film Police Car and two scores published in Fluxus Preview Review, July 1963, to the nascent avant-garde collective.^[4] He conducted the first performance in the UK of Cage's Concert for Piano and Orchestra with the composer and pianist Michael Garrett as soloist. He felt an affinity for the U.S. and rock music from an early age, and subsequently travelled to America to continue his musical training, thanks to the help and influence of Aaron Copland.

Arriving in New York City, he met a number of influential composers. On 9 September 1963, with John Cage and several others, Cale participated in an 18-hour piano-playing marathon that was the first full-length performance of Erik Satie's "Vexations". After the performance, Cale appeared on the television panel show I've Got a Secret. Cale's secret was that he had performed in an 18-hour concert, and he was accompanied by a man whose secret was that he was the only audience member who had stayed for the duration.^[5]

Cale also played in La Monte Young and Tony Conrad's ensemble the Theater of Eternal Music also known as the Dream Syndicate (not to be confused with the 1980s band of the same name). The heavily drone-laden music he played there proved to be a big influence in his work with his next group, the Velvet Underground. One of his collaborators on these recordings was Velvet Underground guitarist Sterling Morrison. Three albums of his early experimental work from this period were released in 2001.

The Velvet Underground[link]

In early 1965, he co-founded The Velvet Underground with Lou Reed, recruiting Reed's college friend Sterling Morrison and Cale's flatmate Angus Maclise to complete the initial line-up. Cale left the band in September 1968, due in part to creative disagreements with Reed.

The very first commercially available recording of the Velvet Underground, an instrumental track called "Loop" given away with Aspen Magazine, was a feedback experiment written and conducted by Cale. His creative relationship with Reed was integral to the sound of the Velvet Underground's first two albums, The Velvet Underground & Nico (recorded in 1966, released in 1967) and White Light/White Heat (recorded in 1967, released in 1968). On these albums he plays viola, bass guitar and piano, and sings occasional backing vocals. White Light/White Heat features Cale on organ (on "Sister Ray") as well as two vocal turns: "Lady Godiva's Operation", an experimental song where he shares lead vocal duties with Reed, and "The Gift", a long spoken word piece written by Reed. Though Cale co-wrote the music to several songs, his most distinctive contribution is the electrically amplified viola.

Cale also played on Nico's 1967 debut album, Chelsea Girl, which features songs co-written by Velvet Underground members Cale, Reed and Morrison, who also feature as musicians. Cale makes his debut as lyricist on "Winter Song" and "Little Sister".

Apart from appearing on these three albums, he also played organ^[6] on the track "Ocean" during the practice sessions to produce demos for the band's fourth album Loaded, nearly two years after he left the band. He was enticed back into the studio by the band's manager, Steve Sesnick, "in a half-hearted attempt to reunite old comrades", as Cale put it.^[7] Although he does not appear on the finished album, the demo recording of "Ocean" was included in the 1997 Loaded: Fully Loaded Edition re-issue. Finally, five previously unreleased tracks recorded in late 1967 and early 1968 were included on the outtakes compilations VU (1985) and Another View (1986).

Arguably, the artistic frictions between Cale and Reed are what shaped the group's early sound much more than any other members. The pair often had heated disagreements about the direction of the group, and this tension was central to their later collaborations. When Cale left, he seemed to take the more experimentalist tendencies with him, as is noticeable in comparing the noise-rock experimental White Light/White Heat (which Cale co-created) to the more pop-oriented The Velvet Underground, recorded after his departure.

Solo career[link]

1970s[link]

After leaving the Velvet Underground, Cale worked as a record producer and arranger on a number of albums, including Nico's The Marble Index, Desertshore and (later on Island) The End.... On these he accompanied Nico's voice and harmonium using a wide array of instruments to unusual effect. He also produced The Stooges' self-titled debut. He appeared on Nick Drake's second album, Bryter Layter, playing viola and harpsichord on two of the album's tracks. While meeting with producer Joe Boyd, he came across Drake's music and insisted on collaborating with him. After a quick meeting, they collaborated on "Northern Sky" and "Fly".

In 1970, in addition to his career as a producer, Cale began to make solo records. His first, the pastoral Vintage Violence, is generally classified as folk-pop. Shortly thereafter, his collaboration with another classical musician, Terry Riley, on the mainly instrumental Church of Anthrax, was released, although it was actually recorded almost a year prior. His classical explorations continued with 1972's The Academy in Peril. He would not compose in the classical mode again until he began composing for soundtracks in the 1980s.

In 1972, he signed with Reprise Records as performer and in-house producer. The Academy in Peril was his first project for Reprise. His fourth solo record Paris 1919 (1973) steered back towards the singer-songwriter mode; made up of songs with arcane and complex lyrics, it has been cited by critics^[8] as one of his best. While at Reprise he produced albums by Jennifer Warnes (her third, Jennifer), Chunky, Novi & Ernie, and The Modern Lovers, their first, which Reprise chose not to release: it subsequently appeared on Beserkley Records, the first of a number of important Cale-produced protopunk records. In 1974 he joined Island, working on records with Squeeze, Patti Smith, and Sham 69, among others. During this period, he also worked as a talent scout with Island's A&R department.

John Cale, playing in Toronto, 1977
Photo: Jean-Luc Ourlin

Mid-1970s[link]

Moving back to London, Cale made a series of solo albums which moved in a new direction. His records now featured a dark and threatening aura, often carrying a sense of barely suppressed aggression. A trilogy of albums – Fear, Slow Dazzle, and Helen of Troy – were recorded with other Island artists including Phil Manzanera and Brian Eno of Roxy Music, and Chris Spedding, who featured in his live band. This era of Cale's music is perhaps best represented by his somewhat disturbing cover of Elvis Presley's iconic "Heartbreak Hotel", featured both on Slow Dazzle and the live album June 1, 1974, recorded with Kevin Ayers, Nico and Eno, and by his frothing performance on "Leaving It Up To You", a savage indictment of the mass media first released on Helen of Troy (1975), but quickly deleted from later editions of the record due perhaps^{[citation needed]} to the song's pointed Sharon Tate reference. Both "Leaving It Up To You" and "Fear Is A Man's Best Friend" (from Fear) begin as relatively conventional songs that gradually grow more paranoid in tone before breaking down into what critic Dave Thompson calls "a morass of discordance and screaming".^[9]

In 1977, he released the Animal Justice EP, notable particularly for the epic "Hedda Gabler", based very loosely on the Ibsen play. His often loud, abrasive and confrontational live performances fitted well with the punk rock scene developing on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean. Cale took to wearing a hockey goaltender's mask onstage: see the cover of the Guts compilation (1977). This look predated Friday the 13th's villain, Jason Voorhees, by several years. During one gig in Croydon he chopped the head off a dead chicken with a meat cleaver, and his band walked offstage in protest. Cale's drummer – a vegetarian – was so bothered he quit the group. Cale mocks his decision on "Chicken Shit" from the Animal Justice EP. Cale has admitted that some of his paranoia and erratic behaviour at this time was associated with heavy cocaine use.^[10]

In December 1979, Cale's embrace of the punk rock ethic culminated in the release of Sabotage/Live. This record, recorded live at CBGB that June, features aggressive vocal and instrumental performances. The album consists entirely of new songs, many of which grapple confrontationally with global politics and paranoia. The band used includes Deerfrance on vocals and percussion. An earlier live set, consisting mostly of new material, was recorded at CBGB the previous year. It was released in 1991 as Even Cowgirls Get the Blues. The band on that recording includes Ivan Kral of the Patti Smith Group on bass and Judy Nylon on vocals.

1980s[link]

Cale performing in Toronto, 1980

In 1980, Cale signed with A&M Records and moved in a more commercial direction with the album Honi Soit. He worked with producer Mike Thorne towards this end.^[11] Andy Warhol provided the cover art, in black and white, but against Warhol's wishes Cale colourised it. The new direction did not succeed commercially, however, and his relationship with A&M ended.

He signed with Ze Records, a company he had influenced the creation of and which had absorbed Spy Records, the label he had co-founded with Jane Friedman. The next year, Cale released the sparse Music for a New Society. Seeming to blend the refined music of his early solo work with the threatening music that came later, it is by any standard a bleak, harrowing record. It's been called "understated, and perhaps a masterpiece."^[12]

He followed up with the album Caribbean Sunset, also on Ze Records. This work, with much more accessible production than Music for a New Society, was still extremely militant in some ways. It has never seen release on CD. A live album, John Cale Comes Alive, followed it and included two new studio songs, "Ooh La La" and "Never Give Up On You". Different mixes of the two studio tracks appeared on both sides of the Atlantic. His daughter Eden Cale was born in July 1985.

In a last effort at commercial success, Cale recorded Artificial Intelligence, his only album for Beggars Banquet records. This album, written in collaboration with Larry "Ratso" Sloman, was characterised by synthesisers and drum machines and is entirely written in the pop idiom. It was not significantly more successful than its predecessors, despite the relative success of the single "Satellite Walk". However, "Dying on the Vine" is generally regarded as one of Cale's best songs.

In part because of his young daughter, Cale took a long break from recording and performing. He made a comeback in 1989 with vocal and orchestral settings of poems by Dylan Thomas. Notable among these is "Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night", which he performed on stage in the concert held in Cardiff in 1999 to celebrate the opening of the Welsh Assembly. The music was recorded in 1992 with a Welsh boys' choir and a Russian orchestra, on an Eno-produced album: Words for the Dying. This album also included a pair of electric piano "Songs Without Words" and a Cale/Eno collaboration, "The Soul of Carmen Miranda".

1990s[link]

	John Cale "Hallelujah" noicon John Cale selected the verses by Leonard Cohen which most covers have since followed. First recorded by Cale in 1991 for the Cohen tribute album I'm Your Fan.
Problems listening to this file? See media help.

In 1990, he again collaborated with Eno on an album entitled Wrong Way Up, the accessible and uptempo album at odds with Cale's description of the fraught relationship between the pair.

Then in 1991 Cale contributed one song, "Hallelujah", to the tribute album to Leonard Cohen, I'm Your Fan. Cale's uptempo version was performed on piano, and his cover forms the basis of most subsequent performances since.^[13]

In 1992, Cale performed vocals two songs, "Hunger" and "First Evening" on French producer Hector Zazou's album Sahara Blue. All lyrics on the album were based on the poetry of Arthur Rimbaud. In 1994, Cale performed a spoken-word duet with Suzanne Vega on the song "The Long Voyage" on Zazou's album Chansons des mers froides. The lyrics were based on the poem "Les Silhouettes" by Oscar Wilde, and Cale co-wrote the music with Zazou. It was later released as a single (retitled "The Long Voyages" as it featured several remixes by Zazou, Mad Professor, and more).

Songs for Drella saw him reunited with Reed, in a tribute to one-time Velvet Underground manager and mentor Andy Warhol. In his autobiography, Cale revealed that he resented letting Lou take charge of the project. The longstanding friction between the two contributed to the passion and lurching frustration evident in the sound of the album, similarly driven by the ambivalent relationship Reed had to Andy. The collaboration eventually led to the brief reunion of the Velvet Underground in 1993.

Nico, an instrumental ballet score and tribute to the singer, was performed by Scapino Rotterdam plus an added selection from The Marble Index in 1998, with the score released as Dance Music. That same year, Cale was also the organiser of the "With a Little Help from My Friends" festival that took place at the Paradiso in Amsterdam.^[14] The concert was shown on Dutch national television and featured a song specially composed for the event and still unreleased, "Murdering Mouth", sung in duet with Siouxsie Sioux.^[15]

Cale has also written a number of film soundtracks, often using more classically influenced instrumentation. His autobiography, What's Welsh for Zen?, was published in 1999 by Bloomsbury, a collaboration with Victor Bockris, author of a controversial biography of Lou Reed.

2000s to present[link]

In 2001, the motion picture Shrek featured Cale's recording of the Leonard Cohen song "Hallelujah", which greatly popularised the song with younger audiences.

Signing to EMI in 2003 with the EP Five Tracks and the album HoboSapiens, Cale again returned as a regular recording artist, this time with music influenced by modern electronica and alternative rock. The well received album was co-produced with Nick Franglen of Lemon Jelly. That record was followed with 2005's album BlackAcetate.

In 2005, Cale produced Austin singer-songwriter Alejandro Escovedo's eighth album, The Boxing Mirror, which was released in May 2006. In June 2006, Cale released a radio and digital single, "Jumbo in tha Modernworld", that was unconnected to any album. A video was created for the song as well.

In March 2007 a 23-song live retrospective, Circus Live, was released in Europe. This two-disc album, composed of recordings from both the 2004 and 2006 tours, featured new arrangements and reworkings of songs from his entire career. Of particular interest is the Amsterdam Suite, a set of songs from a performance at the Amsterdam Paradiso in 2004.^[16] A studio-created drone has been edited into these songs. The set also included a DVD, featuring electric rehearsal material and a short acoustic set, as well as the video for "Jumbo in tha Modernworld", a 2006 single.

In May 2007, Cale contributed a cover of the LCD Soundsystem song "All My Friends" to the vinyl and digital single releases of the LCD Soundsystem original. Cale has continued to work with other artists, contributing viola to Replica Sun Machine, the Danger Mouse-produced second album by London psychedelic trio The Shortwave Set and producing the second album of American indie band Ambulance Ltd.

On 11 October 2008, Cale hosted an event to pay tribute to Nico called "Life Along the Borderline" in celebration of what, five days later, would have been her 70th birthday.^[17] This event featured many artists including James Dean Bradfield, Mark Lanegan, Mark Linkous of Sparklehorse, The Fiery Furnaces, Guillemots, Nick Franglen of Lemon Jelly, Peter Murphy, Liz Green, and Lisa Gerrard of Dead Can Dance. The event was reprised at the Teatro Communale in Ferrara, Italy on 10 May 2009, with Mercury Rev, Mark Lanegan, Lisa Gerrard, Peter Murphy, Soap&Skin and Mark Linkous.

Cale represented Wales at the 2009 Venice Biennale, collaborating with artists, filmmakers, and poets, and focusing the artwork on his relationship with the Welsh language.^[18]

In January 2010 Cale was invited to be the first Eminent Art in Residence (EAR) at the Mona Foma festival curated by Brian Ritchie held in Hobart, Tasmania, Australia. His work for the 2009 Venice Biennale 'Dyddiau Du (dark days)'^[19] was shown at the festival, along with a number of live performances at venues around Hobart.

The Paris 1919 album was performed, in its entirety, at the Coal Exchange Cardiff on 21 November 2009, at the Royal Festival Hall in London on 5 March 2010, and the Theatre Royal in Norwich on 14 May 2010. These performances were reprised in Paris on 5 September 2010, Brescia, Italy on 11 September 2010, Los Angeles, CA on 30 September 2010 at UCLA's Royce Hall, Melbourne, Australia on 16 October 2010, Barcelona, Spain, 28 May 2010 and Essen, Germany, 06 Oktober 2011.

Cale was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2010 Birthday Honours.^[20]

In February 2011 Cale signed a record deal with Domino Records subsidiary Double Six and released an EP, Extra Playful, in September 2011.

In May 2011, Cale and his band appeared at the Brighton Festival, performing songs to the theme of Émigré/Lost & Found. Cale appeared at the invitation of the human rights advocate and Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi, who was the festival's guest director.

Personal life[link]

In 1968, John Cale married fashion designer Betsey Johnson.^[21] The couple divorced less than a year later.^[22]