By John Coltrane
"There is never any end. There are always new sounds to imagine; new feelings to get at. And always, there is the need to keep purifying these feelings and sounds so that we can really see what we've discovered in its pure state. So that we can see more and more clearly what we are. In that way, we can give to those who listen the essence, the best of what we are. But to do that at each stage, we have to keep on cleaning the mirror."
"The main thing a musician would like to do is to give a picture to the listener of the many wonderful things he knows of and senses in the universe."
"My goal is to live the truly religious life, and express it in my music. If you live it, when you play there's no problem because the music is part of the whole thing. To be a musician is really something. It goes very, very deep. My music is the spiritual expression of what I am - my faith, my knowledge, my being."
"I think the majority of musicians are interested in truth."
"Change is inevitable in music - things change."
"On alto, Bird had been my whole influence, but on tenor I found there was no one man whose ideas were so dominant as Charlie's were on alto. Therefore, I drew from all the men I heard during this period. I have listened to about all the good tenor men, beginning with Lester [Young], and believe me, I've picked up something from them all... The reason I liked Lester so was that I could feel that line, that simplicity..." (on his early influences.)
By Nat Hentoff
"Coltrane's trademark was his unique sound which bespoke a relentless search for perfection yet was always, even in the most elevated realms of abstraction, compellingly passionate and alive."
"Rarely, I think, in any form of music has one man so thoroughly revealed himself in the act of music."
"Above all else, Cotrane is an honest musician and accordingly, he is never afraid of his feelings. At times, they rear forth in a spiral of yearning and searching. At other times, they are softer but no less open and penetrating."
By McCoy Tyner
"The Coltrane quartet I was in was like four pistons in an engine. John, Elvin, Jimmy and I were all working together to make the car go."
By Elvin Jones
"To me John Coltrane was like an angel on earth. He struck me that deeply."
By Al McKibbon
"[Coltrane was] A practicer. He would practice that horn all the time."
By Lewis Porter
"Coltrane wanted his music to be a force for good, and I think it has
been. One doesn't have to be religious to find Coltrane's expression of
spirituality profoundly moving and important. Listen to "Dear Lord,"
recorded in May 1965 with Tyner and Garrison and Roy Hanes on drums. The
theme that Coltrane plays on tenor begins with three notes going up a
scale, each held for four measures with slight embellishments, floating
over the support of the rhythm section. The very simplicity of it is
daring. Somehow those three notes epitomize what so many people love
about John Coltrane's music- the strength, the concentration, the
purity, the aching directness of it. There will never be three notes
quite like them."
By Martin Williams
"...We know that we miss him sorely; we have known that for a long
time... For John Coltrane's talent was a rare (if not impossible)
combination. He was leading jazzman, leading not only because of his
abilities, technical and imaginative, but also because he was one of the
most advanced musicians around. He was into all things that all
musicians and true lovers of the music believed were breaking new ground
and outlining the future..."
By David Wild
"Coltrane the shape-changer, the restless explorer riding virtuoso
skills into the far corners of jazz- whatever drove him to search so
cesaselessly in the end left us immeasurably enriched. He pushed
continually at the boundaries of his music, sought constantly to hear
differently, to renew what had scarcely had time to grow familiar. What
remains for us now are the sounds of his spirit, the creations of his
mind, the moment's notes permanently preserved [on recording.]"
By Michael Cuscuna
"I remember countless nights at Birdland, going to see the classic
Coltrane quartet. I remember being totally captured, awed, and inspired
by that music. Rocking back and forth in my chair, taken to the outer
limits of my own existence and filled with an unexplainable beauty, I
allowed Coltrane to reach me. I often wonder if he ever realized what he
did for me or any of the other hundreds of thousands of fans that he had
on the planet. By reaching inside himself, he reached inside all of
us..."
