John Coltrane Popular Books
John Coltrane Biography & Facts
John William Coltrane (September 23, 1926 – July 17, 1967) was an African-American jazz saxophonist, bandleader and composer. He is among the most influential and acclaimed figures in the history of jazz and 20th-century music. Born and raised in North Carolina, Coltrane moved to Philadelphia after graduating from high school, where he studied music. Working in the bebop and hard bop idioms early in his career, Coltrane helped pioneer the use of modes and was one of the players at the forefront of free jazz. He led at least fifty recording sessions and appeared on many albums by other musicians, including trumpeter Miles Davis and pianist Thelonious Monk. Over the course of his career, Coltrane's music took on an increasingly spiritual dimension, as exemplified on his most acclaimed album A Love Supreme (1965) and others. Decades after his death, Coltrane remains influential, and he has received numerous posthumous awards, including a special Pulitzer Prize, and was canonized by the African Orthodox Church. His second wife was pianist and harpist Alice Coltrane. The couple had three children: John Jr. (1964–1982), a bassist; Ravi (born 1965), a saxophonist; and Oran (born 1967), a saxophonist, guitarist, drummer and singer. Biography 1926–1945: Early life Coltrane was born in his parents' apartment at 200 Hamlet Avenue in Hamlet, North Carolina, on September 23, 1926. His father was John R. Coltrane and his mother was Alice Blair. He grew up in High Point, North Carolina, and attended William Penn High School. While in high school, Coltrane played clarinet and alto horn in a community band before switching to the saxophone, after being influenced by the likes of Lester Young and Johnny Hodges. Beginning in December 1938, his father, aunt, and grandparents died within a few months of one another, leaving him to be raised by his mother and a close cousin. In June 1943, shortly after graduating from high school, Coltrane and his family moved to Philadelphia, where he got a job at a sugar refinery. In September that year, his 17th birthday, his mother bought him his first saxophone, an alto. From 1944 to 1945, Coltrane took saxophone lessons at the Ornstein School of Music with Mike Guerra. From early to mid-1945, he had his first professional work as a musician: a "cocktail lounge trio" with piano and guitar. 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 magazine article in 1960 he recalled: "the first time I heard Bird play, it hit me right between the eyes." 1945–1946: Military service To avoid being drafted by the Army, Coltrane enlisted in the Navy on August 6, 1945, the day the first U.S. atomic bomb was dropped on Japan. He was trained as an apprentice seaman at Sampson Naval Training Station in upstate New York before he was shipped to Pearl Harbor, where he was stationed at Manana Barracks, the largest posting of African American servicemen in the world. By the time he got to Hawaii in late 1945, the Navy was downsizing. Coltrane's musical talent was recognized, and he became one of the few Navy men to serve as a musician without having been granted musician's rating when he joined the Melody Masters, the base swing band. Because the Melody Masters was an all-white band, Coltrane was treated as a guest performer to avoid alerting superior officers of his participation in the band. He continued to perform other duties when not playing with the band, including kitchen and security details. By the end of his service, he had assumed a leadership role in the band. His first recordings, an informal session in Hawaii with Navy musicians, occurred on July 13, 1946. He played alto saxophone on a selection of jazz standards and bebop tunes. He was officially discharged from the Navy on August 8, 1946. He was awarded the American Campaign Medal, Asiatic–Pacific Campaign Medal and the World War II Victory Medal. 1946–1954: Immediate post-war career After being discharged from the Navy as a seaman first class in August 1946, Coltrane returned to Philadelphia, where the city's bustling jazz scene offered him many opportunities for both learning and playing. Coltrane used the G.I. Bill to enroll at the Granoff School of Music, where he studied music theory with jazz guitarist and composer Dennis Sandole. Coltrane would continue to be under Sandole's tutelage from 1946 into the early 1950s. Coltrane also took saxophone lessons with Matthew Rastelli, a saxophone teacher at Granoff once a week for about two or three years, but the lessons stopped when Coltrane's G.I. Bill funds ran out. After touring with King Kolax, he joined a band led by Jimmy Heath, who was introduced to Coltrane's playing by his former Navy buddy, trumpeter William Massey, who had played with Coltrane in the Melody Masters. Although he started on alto saxophone, he began playing tenor saxophone in 1947 with Eddie Vinson. Coltrane called this a time when "a wider area of listening opened up for me. There were many things that people like Hawk [Coleman Hawkins], and Ben [Webster] and Tab Smith were doing in the '40s that I didn't understand, but that I felt emotionally." A significant influence, according to tenor saxophonist Odean Pope, was the Philadelphia pianist, composer, and theorist Hasaan Ibn Ali. "Hasaan was the clue to...the system that Trane uses. Hasaan was the great influence on Trane's melodic concept." Coltrane became fanatical about practicing and developing his craft, practicing "25 hours a day" according to Jimmy Heath. Heath recalls an incident in a hotel in San Francisco when after a complaint was issued, Coltrane took the horn out of his mouth and practiced fingering for a full hour. Such was his dedication; it was common for him to fall asleep with the horn still in his mouth or practice a single note for hours on end. Charlie Parker, who Coltrane had first heard perform before his time in the Navy, became an idol, and he and Coltrane would play together occasionally in the late 1940s. He was a member of groups led by Dizzy Gillespie, Earl Bostic, and Johnny Hodges in the early to mid-1950s. 1955–1957: Miles and Monk period In 1955, Coltrane was freelancing in Philadelphia while studying with Sandole when he received a call from trumpeter Miles Davis. Davis had been successful in the 1940s, but his reputation and work had been damaged in part by heroin addiction; he was again active and about to form a quintet. Coltrane was with this edition of the Davis band (known as the "First Great Quintet"—along with Red Garland on piano, Paul Chambers on bass, and Philly Joe Jones on drums) from October 1955 to April 1957 (with a few absences). During this period Davis released several influential recordings that revealed the first signs of Coltrane's growing ability. This quintet, represented by two marathon recording sessions for Prestige in 1956, resulted in the albu.... Discover the John Coltrane popular books. Find the top 100 most popular John Coltrane books.
Best Seller John Coltrane Books of 2024
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John Coltrane Favorites Songbook
John ColtraneFor use with all Bb, Eb, Bass Clef and C instruments, the Jazz PlayAlong series is the ultimate learning tool for all jazz musicians. With musicianfriendly lead sheets, melody cues...
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The Trane Book - The John Coltrane Real Book
John ColtraneThis collection pays tribute to one of the most influential players in jazz history with over 125 of Coltrane's most memorable works arranged in fake book notation, including: Afro...
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Blue Trane
Lewis PorterJohn Coltrane, il più grande sax tenore di tutti i tempi, rimane oggi per molti versi una figura ancora misteriosa: ingabbiata nello stereotipo dell’artista geniale e maledetto ma ...
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Fugitive Tilts
Ishion HutchinsonIshion Hutchinson turns his poetic sensibility to questions of home, displacement, and memory in his beautiful and searingly brilliant prose debut.In Fugitive Tilts, Ishion Hutchin...
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The Church of John Coltrane
Chad TaylorTen years after the events of Heaven, Robert Marling has blown it all. Ducking his creditors, he retreats to the apartment of his late father. Alone with the dead man's jazz collec...
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John Coltrane - Biografie
Karl LippegausJohn Coltrane und Miles Davis sind die Säulenheiligen des modernen Jazz ein ungleiches Paar: Des einen Musik lässt sich nur durch sein Leben erklären, des anderen Leben nur durch ...
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3 Shades of Blue
James KaplanThe national bestseller!“A superb book...[Kaplan is] a master biographer, a dogged researcher and shaper of narrative, and this is his most ambitious book to date.” Los Angele...
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A Love Supreme
Ashley KahnFew albums in the canon of popular music have had the influence, resonance, and endurance of John Coltrane's 1965 classic A Love Supremea record that proved jazz was a fitting medi...
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The Penguin Jazz Guide
Brian Morton & Richard CookThe Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings is firmly established as the world's leading guide to recorded jazz, a mine of fascinating information and a source of insightful often wittil...
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La filosofia di John Coltrane
Giacomo D. GhidelliUna biografia “di riflesso” del più grande sassofonista jazz. Giacomo Ghidelli ripercorre l’opera del leggendario John Coltrane mescolando analisi musicologica e ricordi personali,...
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John Coltrane - Omnibook for Bass Clef Instruments
John Coltrane52 jazz solo transcriptions as played by the legendary John Coltrane, including: Blue Train (Blue Trane) Countdown Cousin Mary Giant Steps Impressions Lazy Bird Lush Life Mr...
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Clawing at the Limits of Cool
Farah Jasmine Griffin & Salim WashingtonWhen the renowned trumpeter and bandleader Miles Davis chose the members of his quintet in 1955, he passed over wellknown, respected saxophonists such as Sonny Rollins to pick out ...
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Slapstick
Roger McGoughIf Philosophy is the Why?And Science is the How?Then Poetry is the Wow!In this stunning, brandnew volume, you'll discover poems about poems, poems about life, poems about kangaroos...
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Coltrane
Paolo Parisi'My music is the spiritual expression of what I am: my faith, my knowledge, my being...' John Coltrane rose from a hard and impoverished childhood in North Carolina to become one o...
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John Coltrane Standards Songbook
John ColtraneFor use with all Bb, Eb, Bass Clef, and C instruments, the Jazz PlayAlong series is the ultimate learning tool for all jazz musicians. With musicianfriendly lead sheets, melody cue...
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Spirit Seeker
Gary GolioGrowing up, John was a seeker. He wondered about spirit, and the meaning of life. And whether music could be a key to unlocking those mysteries. Like his grandfather’s preaching an...
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Essential Jazz Lines in the Style of John Coltrane, Eb Instruments
Corey ChristiansenSaxophonist John Coltrane was one of the most innovative, creative, and influential jazz artists of the 20th Century. Both stylistically and harmonically, he opened doors for other...
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Essential Jazz Lines in the Style of John Coltrane, Trumpet Edition
Corey ChristiansenSaxophonist John Coltrane was one of the most innovative, creative, and influential jazz artists of the 20th Century. Both stylistically and harmonically, he opened doors for other...
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John Coltrane
Peter KemperDer Beitrag des Saxophonisten John Coltrane zur Entwicklung des Jazz – die (Über)Dehnung der Funktionsharmonik und ihre schließliche Überwindung – war der bislang letzte Riesenschr...
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John Coltrane - Omnibook for C Instruments
John Coltrane43 jazz solo transcriptions as played by the legendary John Coltrane, including: Acknowledgement (Part I) Airegin Alabama All Blues All or Nothing at All Bessie's Blues Blue ...
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John Coltrane - Omnibook - B-Flat Instruments
John ColtraneMore than 50 Coltrane classics, transcribed exactly from his recorded solos. Includes: All Blues Blue Train (Blue Trane) Body and Soul Bye Bye Blackbird Countdown Cousin Mary ...
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John Coltrane
John Coltrane20 selections of the greatest tunes from Trane in piano solo arrangements with chord symbols. Includes: All or Nothing at All Blue Train (Blue Trane) Central Park West Equinox ...
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The Jazz of Physics
Stephon AlexanderA spectacular musical and scientific journey from the Bronx to the cosmic horizon that reveals the astonishing links between jazz, science, Einstein, and ColtraneMore than fifty ye...
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Essential Jazz Lines in the Style of John Coltrane, Tenor Sax
Corey ChristiansenSaxophonist John Coltrane was one of the most innovative, creative, and influential jazz artists of the 20th Century. Both stylistically and harmonically, he opened doors for other...
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American Veda
Philip GoldbergA fascinating look at India’s remarkable impact on Western culture, this eyeopening popular history shows how the ancient philosophy of Vedanta and the mindbody methods of Yoga hav...
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La sonrisa de John Coltrane
Arturo López ZamoraHay secretos que al ser descubiertos pueden trastocar tu universo.La sonrisa de John Coltrane narra la historia de dos personajes singulares. Hugo, un muchacho superficial y sin d...
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The Last Days of Roger Federer
Geoff DyerOne of Esquire's best books of spring 2022An extended meditation on late style and last works from "one of our greatest living critics" (Kathryn Schulz, New York).When artists and ...
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Essential Jazz Lines in the Style of John Coltrane
Corey ChristiansenSaxophonist John Coltrane was one of the most innovative, creative, and influential jazz artists of the 20th Century. Both stylistically and harmonically, he opened doors for other...
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John Coltrane - Omnibook - E-Flat Instruments
John Coltrane52 jazz solo transcriptions for EFlat instruments as played by the legendary John Coltrane, including: Blue Train (Blue Trane) Countdown Cousin Mary Giant Steps Impressions La...
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Essential Jazz Lines in the Style of John Coltrane, Flute
Corey ChristiansenSaxophonist John Coltrane was one of the most innovative, creative, and influential jazz artists of the 20th Century. Both stylistically and harmonically, he opened doors for other...
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Advanced Steps Vol.1 for Jazz Tenor Saxophone Improvisation
Jeff HackworthThis book contains 10 advanced etudes I wrote based on the chord progression from John Coltrane’s “Giant Steps”. His composition uses the cycle of major 3rd key relationships, a ha...
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Thelonious Monk Quartet with John Coltrane at Carnegie Hall
Gabriel SolisIn early 2005, an engineer at the Library of Congress accidentally discovered, in an unmarked box, the recording of Thelonious Monk's and John Coltrane's performance at a 1957 bene...
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John Coltrane Biography
Emily WhitemanIn "Trane's Evolution: A Compelling Biography of John Coltrane's Impact on Music and Beyond," dive deep into the life and legacy of one of the most revered figures in the world of ...
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Fat Bloke Slims
Bruce ByronBruce Byron is a popular character in The Bill. He's about three to four stones overweight, nearing fifty and, in his own words, a heart attack waiting to happen. 'You see, I have ...
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John Coltrane
Jean FrancheteauCet ouvrage est un voyage au long du parcours de John Coltrane, à la découverte de sa personnalité complexe et de son oeuvre musicale et à laquelle on ne cesse de rendre hommage. J...
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La filosofia di John Coltrane
Giacomo D. GhidelliUna biografia “di riflesso” del più grande sassofonista jazz. Giacomo Ghidelli ripercorre l’opera del leggendario John Coltrane mescolando analisi musicologica e ricordi personali,...
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John Coltrane Michael Brecker Legacy
Olegario Diaz & Hector BecerraMy 3rd book on music, post bop jazz improvisation for all instruments by Olegario Diaz.
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Beyond A Love Supreme
Tony WhytonRecorded by his quartet in a single session in 1964, A Love Supreme is widely considered John Coltrane's magnum opus and one of the greatest jazz albums of all time. In Beyond A...
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Cliff
Stafford Hildred & Tim EwbankFifty years ago he was just the boy Harry Webb, performing in a local youth club. Now he is Sir Cliff Richard, the first rock star to be knighted, with a massive international fan ...