The DU Lounge

Miles Archer

(18,837 posts) Tue Jul 17, 2018, 01:13 PM Jul 2018

Remembering A Jazz Giant: John Coltrane, September 23, 1926 - July 17, 1967

The Man They Called ‘Trane’, Remembering A Jazz Giant

https://www.udiscovermusic.com/stories/man-called-trane/

Born in North Carolina in September 1926, Coltrane’s father was a tailor and amateur musician able to play several instruments. Coltrane also showed an aptitude for music, studying the E-flat tenor (alto) horn, clarinet and alto saxophone in high school. Both of his grandparents had been Methodist ministers, and his maternal grandfather had been a famous gospel preacher throughout that part of the Deep South. Churchgoing was part of his upbringing and gospel music provided the soundtrack. When he was thirteen, both his father and grandfather died within a month of each other and after Coltrane graduated from high school in 1943, the family moved north to Philadelphia to make a new start. There he studied at the Ornstein School of Music and Granoff Studios, before making his professional debut in 1945 playing in a lounge band.

Following a short term serving in the Navy, Coltrane returned home and having played in the Navy band while stationed in Hawaii (1945–1946), he expressed an earnest interest in the alto saxophone. He worked with a series of bands over the following decade including Eddie Vinson (1947–1948), and he played alto and tenor with Dizzy Gillespie (1949–1951) and Earl Bostic (1952–1953). His first proper recording session was with drummer Teddy Stewart’s Orchestra – made up mostly of Dizzy’s band members – backing Dinah Washington on some singles for Mercury.

From 1953, Coltrane focused on tenor saxophone, playing with Johnny Hodges from 1953 to 1954; during this time he appeared on several of Hodges’ Norgran albums. In 1955, Coltrane secured the gig that brought him to a wider audience, playing in Miles Davis’ new quintet, with Red Garland, Paul Chambers and Philly Joe Jones.

Coltrane cited 1957 as the year of his spiritual awakening, when he rid himself of heroin and alcohol addictions, catalyzed by being sacked from Miles Davis’ Quintet. Coltrane had previously been fired by Gillespie for his escalating drug taking, and this time losing such a great gig and experiencing a near overdose was the wake-up call that he needed. He went cold turkey and cleaned up. After some tough times straightening himself out, he soon returned to play the second half of 1957 with Thelonious Monk’s Quartet, before once again joining Davis at the beginning of 1958.