John Coltrane Research Paper

"I've got to keep experimenting. I feel that I'm just beginning. I have part of what I'm looking for in my grasp, but not all."



John Coltrane

This phrase, from the liner notes of "My Favorite Things" clearly defines Coltrane's life and his search for the incorporation of his spirituality with his music. John Coltrane was not only an essential contributor to jazz, but also music itself. John Coltrane died thirty-two years ago, on July 17, 1967, at the age of forty. In the years since, his influence has only grown, and the stellar avant-garde saxophonist has become a jazz legend of a stature shared only by Louis Armstrong and Charlie
The same month saw the birth of "Spiritual," featuring exotic and otherworldly solos by Coltrane on soprano sax and Dolphy on bass clarinet. Recorded at the Village Vanguard, the piece made clear, if any doubts remained, that Coltrane was attempting to raise jazz from the saloons to the heavens. No jazzman had attempted so overtly to offer his work as a form of religious expression. If Ornette Coleman was, as some have argued, the seminal stylistic force in sixties avant-garde jazz, Coltrane's Eastern imports were the main influence on the East- West "fusion" in the jazz and rock of the late sixties and afterward. In his use of jazz as prayer and meditation Coltrane was beyond all doubt the principal spiritual force in music. This is further evident in "Alabama," a riveting elegy for the victims of the infamous Sunday-morning church bombing in Birmingham in 1963. Here, as in the early version of his most famous ballad, "Naima," Coltrane is as spare in phrasing as he is bleak in tone. That tone, criticized by many as hard-edged and emotionally impoverished, is inseparable from Coltrane's achievement, conveying as it does a sense of absolute purity through the abnegation of sentimentality. Sonny Rollins, the contemporary tenor most
One of them being his nickname "Train". There are many explanations how it came into life, however, it has never been determined how exactly he got his nickname. It is known that Trane was given his nickname through an unknown person Many people have analyzed his nickname and they find it very fitting. Here's how the metaphor of a train fits his life. He was a man in control of himself (similar to the conductor of a train). He was always conscious of where came his roots or his heritage (a train has a starting point and a destination). He was self-disciplined and built his power and strength step by step (similar to how a train's speed increases as it moves along over time). He gradually increased his speed through enhancing this thoughts and his music. Even though there were some rough spots along the way, he made it safely to his destination and in good condition (sometimes the train ride is little bumpy or we get lost along the way, but in the end we get there safe and sound). Many people question whether it is true that Coltrane had problems with teeth. It is true. John's teeth gave him a lot of trouble. His teeth problems came from eating too much sweet foods. He hated dentists, and he never went to them. There was one time he did go see a dentist. It took almost everyone in the office to hold him down when the drill got near. The down side was that his teeth problems made it hard for him