John Coltrane
Jazz, taking its roots in African American folk music, has evolved, metamorphosed, and transposed itself over the last century to become a truly American art form. More than any other type of music, it places special emphasis on innovative individual interpretation. Instead of relying on a written score, the musician improvises. For each specific period or style through which jazz has gone through over the past seventy years, there is almost always a single person who can be credited with the evolution of that sound. From Thelonius Monk, and his bebop, to Miles Davis' cool jazz, from Dizzy Gillespie's big band to John Coltrane's free jazz; America's music has been developed, and refined countless times through individual experimentation and innovation. One of the most influential musicians in the development of modern jazz is John Coltrane. In this paper, I examine the way in which Coltrane's musical innovations were related to the music of the jazz greats of his era and to the tribulations and tragedies of his life.John William Coltrane was born in Hamlet, North Carolina, on September 23, 1926. Two months later, his family moved to High Point, North Carolina, where he lived in a fairly well-to-do par
With his mature style, and new sobriety, he was ready to set out on his own. He dropped the clarinet and took up the alto saxophone, soon becoming very accomplished. Upon his return from Hawaii a year later, Coltrane launched his music career. "With all those years of constant practice in High Point behind him, possessing a powerful inner strength from being raised in a deeply religious family, and with a foundation in musical theory and an innate curiosity about life, Coltrane was well prepared to seriously enter a battle. He and Naima moved from New York to Philadelphia in November of that year and lived in his mother's house there. Davis was dubbed the rising star of the new avant-garde movement, cool jazz. He once said that the sound for which he was searching was like holding a seashell to his ear. It emphasized experimentation with chords, keys, and modes, improvising on scales rather than on sequences of chords, producing music that at times was very bizarre. When Coltrane was thirteen, he experienced several tragedies that would leave a lasting impression on him and would have a great impact on the music of his later years. It purposely avoided the structured sounds of the cool jazz and bebop movements. Within a year, his father, his uncle, and his minister all died. More than anyone, she was able to help Coltrane pick up the broken pieces of his life. A man of mysticism, whose life was dedicated to sharing his vision of music with others, Coltrane was clearly a creative genius. In 1949, Dizzy Gillespie invited Coltrane to play in his big band. "He believed that his humanity, his music, the material world, and God were all one, and that feeling of unity governed his life.
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