Jazz Articles about John Coltrane

About John Coltrane

History of Jazz

Philadelphia Jazz: A Brief History

by Jack McCarthy
May 24, 2017

This article was first published at the Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia website. Jazz began to emerge as a distinct musical style around the turn of the twentieth century, a merging of two vernacular African American musical styles—ragtime and blues—with elements of popular music. New Orleans, the “cradle of jazz," was the most important city in this process, with Chicago and New York playing particularly significant roles in the 1920s and 1930s. By the mid-twentieth century Philadelphia had become ...

Book Review

The Cultural Politics of Jazz Collectives: This Is Our Music

by Ian Patterson
April 27, 2017

The Cultural Politics of Jazz Collectives: This Is Our Music Edited by Nicholas Gebhardt and Tony Whyton 250 Pages ISBN: 978-1-138-780602-0 Routledge 2016 The recording of jazz history has overwhelmingly focused on individuals. Yet while biographies that lionize great jazz men--women are sorely underrepresented--abound, the socio-political environment in which all musicians make and play jazz--the networks and collaborations that help nourish the music--is often ignored, or considered only in passing. In The ...

Album Review

John Coltrane: Trane 90

Read "Trane 90" reviewed by Jim Trageser

by Jim Trageser
December 1, 2016

Along with Miles Davis, Duke Ellington and Louis Armstrong, the late saxophonist John Coltrane is one of the most anthologized figures in the history of jazz. He is also one of the most studied, with at least four full biographies on Amazon, and dozens of other books looking at various aspects of his music. The number of magazine articles about Coltrane surely runs into the tens of thousands. And so the first question regarding a new, four-disc box ...

Hi-Res Jazz

John Coltrane: Coltrane And Crescent—Shadows And Light

by Mark Werlin
October 12, 2016

Visual art is a play of shadow and light, and contrast makes the forms visible. In the best jazz music, there is a kind of inner light that emanates from the musicians, the light of creative impulse, the light of spontaneous artistic expression. Some jazz musicians--too many--cast their own shadows of addiction and self-destructiveness. But often--too often--new directions and developments in jazz are shadowed not by the musicians themselves, but by their detractors. A series of Impulse albums ...

Top Ten List

John Coltrane: My Favorite Things (Not Including “My Favorite Things”)

by Matt J. Popham
September 22, 2016

John Coltrane died on July 17, 1967 at the age of forty. Had he lived, he would have turned 90 on September 23rd of this year. When one considers the profound effect he had--not just on jazz, but on music as a whole--in the brief two decades of his career, it's not only daunting, but depressing, to try and imagine what he might have done with four or five more. Initially a gifted Hard Bop player, his own musical and ...

The Vinyl Post

John Coltrane: The Atlantic Years in Mono

by C. Andrew Hovan
August 4, 2016

Much has been made lately in audiophile circles about whether mono or stereo versions of vintage back catalog items best represent the truest form of the music. Of course, back before stereo was widely accepted and available to most consumers, monophonic was the only way to go. Stereo allowed for more choices in placement of the individual instruments, although some engineers were more skilled at such mixing than others. Still, mono often seems to present the music with a wider ...

Album Review

John Coltrane: Meditations

Read "Meditations" reviewed by Sacha O'Grady

by Sacha O'Grady
June 4, 2016

One man's meditation can be a migraine to another. By the early '60's, John Coltrane found himself moving ever further away from traditional forms of musical expression, and into what could be described as uncharted territory, even for jazz. So much so that the saxophonist's influence and ability to break down barriers not only within his own relatively elite circle extended itself into the ever growing rock fraternity, to the extent that bands such as The Byrds and Santana cited ...