Saxophonist John Coltrane was born on this day in 1926.
John Coltrane, a great jazz musician and composer, grew up in High Point, North Carolina. There he learned to play the alto horn, clarinet, and alto saxophone.
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A Love Supreme
Saxophonist John Coltrane was born on this day in 1926.
John Coltrane, a great jazz musician and composer, grew up in High Point, North Carolina. There he learned to play the alto horn, clarinet, and alto saxophone.
After moving to Philadelphia, he enrolled at the Ornstein School of Music and the Granoff Studios. When his career took off, he collaborated with such well-known performers as Dizzy Gillespie, Miles Davis, Thelonious Monk, and Bill Evans. Coltrane's technical brilliance on the soprano, alto, and tenor saxophone and his richly textured, innovative compositions gained him the respect of fellow musicians and the adoration of music fans. Although he struggled with drugs and alcohol during the 1950s, his triumph over these addictions and his subsequent religious epiphany inspired one of his greatest works, 1964's "A Love Supreme."
Photographer Roy DeCarava captured "Trane" with Elvin Jones, the drummer in the quartet that Coltrane led in the 1960s. The group's increasingly radical musical experiments gained widespread popularity for avant-garde jazz and established Coltrane as a giant in jazz history.
Source: Barry Kernfeld, "Coltrane, John (William) [Trane]," New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians.
Pictured: Roy DeCarava, born 1919, Coltrane and Elvin, New York, 1960/printed 1982, gelatin silver print on paper, 10 7/8 x 13 7/8 in., Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase made possible by Henry L. Milmore.