John Coltrane the Experimental Musician
John Coltrane the Experimental MusicianJazz, 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 part of town.
He grew up in a typical southern black family, deeply religious, and
steeped in tradition. Both of his parents were musicians, his father
played the violin and ukulele, and his mother was a member of the
church choir. For several years, young Coltrane played the clarinet,
however with mild interest. It was only after he heard the great alto
saxophonist Johnny Hodges playing with the Duke Ellington band on the
radio, that he became passionate about music. He dropped the clarinet
and took up the alto saxophone, soon becoming very accomplished.
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. Within a year, his father, his
uncle, and his minister all died. He lost every important male
influence in his life. After graduating from high school in High
Point, he moved to Philadelphia in 1943, where he lived in a small
one-room apartment and worked as a laborer in a sugar-refinery. For a
year, Coltrane attended Ornstein School of Music. Then in 1945, he
was drafted into the Navy and sent to Hawaii where he was assigned to
play clarinet in a band called the Melody Makers.
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...
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