Jazz Articles about John Coltrane

John Coltrane: Coltrane Live At Birdland

by AAJ Staff
June 1, 1997

Critics have proclaimed John Coltrane as one of the most influential jazz musicians, one of the greatest innovators AND saxophonists of all time. Noted jazz critic Ira Gitler once described Coltrane's music as “sheets of sound." All very true statements from (mostly) well-respected individuals.

My personal favorite era of the John Coltrane Sound features arguably the greatest quartet of all time, pianist McCoy Tyner, drummer Elvin Jones and bassist Jimmy Garrison, the quartet formed in late 1961. Coltrane is so ...

John Coltrane: A Love Supreme

by Robert Spencer
June 1, 1997

Although this disc is relatively new in its packaging and 20-bit format, it enjoyed a popular run previously as one of the first Impulse CD reissues. The latest re-release is an attractive treatment: the original (first-rate) cover art is restored, the sound is markedly better, and John Coltrane's liner letter and poem are in a readable type size. So if there is any jazz fan on the planet who hasn't yet heard this one, now's the time. This is, of ...

John Coltrane: The Ultimate Blue Train

by Chris M. Slawecki
May 1, 1997

My soft spot in jazz has always been the blues, and artists who frequently employed blues tonalities--Oliver Nelson, Yusef Lateef, Mingus, Monk.

John Coltrane’s name doesn’t often come up in discussions of the blues. Other aspects of Coltrane’s music--like the sense of energy in his playing, of intuition and unquenchable fire--are discussed, but rarely the way he played the blues. Yet legend has it that Coltrane’s favorite album of his own music was Blue Train, his lush yet emotionally throbbing ...