50 Fun Facts About John Coltrane

In which North Carolina town was John Coltrane born in 1926?

He grew up in High Point, where he played clarinet and alto horn in a community band before switching to saxophone.

Which instrument is Coltrane chiefly associated with?

He started on alto, switched to tenor in 1947 with Eddie Vinson, and later added the soprano.

Which musician did Coltrane see perform on 5 June 1945, later saying 'it hit me right between the eyes'?

Parker became his idol, and the two occasionally played together in the late 1940s.

Coltrane enlisted in the US Navy on 6 August 1945, the day of what event?

He joined to avoid the Army draft and ended up playing in the Melody Masters swing band at Pearl Harbor.

Why was Coltrane treated as a 'guest performer' with the Navy's Melody Masters in Hawaii?

He continued kitchen and security duties when not playing, and his first recording was an informal 1946 session with Navy musicians.

Coltrane studied theory at Philadelphia's Granoff School with which guitarist-composer?

He kept studying with Sandole into the early 1950s, and was freelancing under him when Miles Davis called in 1955.

Which trumpeter hired Coltrane in 1955 for the band later called the 'First Great Quintet'?

The band with Red Garland, Paul Chambers and Philly Joe Jones recorded Cookin', Relaxin', Workin' and Steamin' in two marathon 1956 sessions.

Why did the First Great Quintet break up in 1957?

He rejoined Davis in December 1957 after recovering.

At which New York club did Coltrane play in Thelonious Monk's quartet in 1957?

A tape of the group at Carnegie Hall that November was rediscovered and issued by Blue Note in 2005.

The 1958 album with 'Moment's Notice' and 'Lazy Bird' was Coltrane's only date as leader for which label?

Lee Morgan and Curtis Fuller played on it, and four of its five tracks were Coltrane originals.

Which critic coined the phrase 'sheets of sound' in 1958 to describe Coltrane's rapid cascading style?

Coltrane said he had to group notes in fives and sevens to fit all the chord progressions in.

Coltrane played on which landmark 1959 album by his trumpeter boss?

Cannonball Adderley, Bill Evans, Paul Chambers and Jimmy Cobb completed the sextet at Columbia's 30th Street Studio.

Giant Steps (1960) was Coltrane's first album for which label?

It was also his first album consisting entirely of his own compositions.

The 'Coltrane changes' are noted for root movement by which unusual interval?

Moving through three keys a major third apart outlines an augmented triad; jazz normally moves around the circle of fifths.

The Giant Steps ballad 'Naima' is named after whom?

'Syeeda's Song Flute' honours her daughter, whom he adopted, and 'Mr. P.C.' honours bassist Paul Chambers.

'Countdown' on Giant Steps is a reharmonised version of which Eddie Vinson number?

Coltrane had studied Slonimsky's Thesaurus of Scales and Melodic Patterns; Ravel's 'Ondine' has similar changes.

Which instrument did Coltrane play for the first time on record on My Favorite Things (1961)?

Miles Davis bought him one on a European tour in 1960; the horn was then associated mostly with earlier jazz.

The title track of My Favorite Things comes from which musical?

Coltrane and Tyner soloed over vamps on E minor and E major instead of the written changes; he called it his favourite recording.

Who played piano in Coltrane's Classic Quartet?

A fellow Philadelphian, he had an understanding with Coltrane that he would join when he felt ready.

Who was the drummer in the Classic Quartet?

He left in early 1966 after Coltrane added a second drummer, saying of the new music that 'only poets can understand it'.

Which bassist replaced Reggie Workman in 1962 to complete the Classic Quartet?

He stayed on into the second quartet with Alice Coltrane, Pharoah Sanders and Rashied Ali.

Which label bought out Coltrane's recording contract in May 1961?

He recorded most of his Impulse! albums at Rudy Van Gelder's studio in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey.

Which multi-instrumentalist joined Coltrane in 1961 and drew a DownBeat charge of 'anti-jazz'?

After Dolphy died in 1964, his mother gave Coltrane his flute and bass clarinet.

Coltrane's 'Chasin' the Trane', recorded at the Village Vanguard in 1961, was inspired by which Sun Ra saxophonist?

'He's got it! Gilmore's got the concept!' Coltrane is said to have exclaimed after hearing him.

With which baritone singer did Coltrane record a celebrated 1963 album of ballads?

The session came the day after the 'lost album' was recorded, in March 1963.

How many parts make up the suite A Love Supreme?

'Acknowledgement', 'Resolution', 'Pursuance' and 'Psalm'; Coltrane plays tenor throughout.

On which date was A Love Supreme recorded, in a single session?

The album was composed at his home in Dix Hills, Long Island, and released by Impulse! the following month.

What is unusual about the tenor line in 'Psalm', the final part of A Love Supreme?

The poem is Coltrane's own address to God, and his phrasing follows the words.

How many times did the Classic Quartet perform A Love Supreme live?

Two were recorded: Antibes in July 1965 and Seattle in October 1965, the latter released only in 2021.

Roughly how many copies had A Love Supreme sold by 1970, against Coltrane's usual 30,000?

It never charted on the Billboard 200 but was later certified gold in both Japan and the United States.

Ascension (1965) was recorded by Coltrane with how many other musicians?

The 38-minute piece was controversial for its collective improvisation sections between solos by Shepp, Sanders, Hubbard and others.

Which tenor saxophonist did Coltrane invite to join his band in September 1965?

Gary Giddins wrote that Sanders 'appeared to have little contact with earth'.

Why did the pianist leave Coltrane's band in late 1965?

Rashied Ali had joined as a second drummer; Elvin Jones followed Tyner out in early 1966.

Which instrument, rare in jazz, did Alice Coltrane become known for?

Born Alice McLeod in Detroit, she was also a pianist and later founded a Vedantic ashram in California.

Coltrane's 1967 duo album Interstellar Space paired him with which drummer?

Six duo performances came from his final studio sessions.

Of what did Coltrane die in July 1967, aged 40?

He died at Huntington Hospital on Long Island and is buried at Pinelawn Memorial Park in Farmingdale.

Why was the 1963 session released as Both Directions at Once called 'the lost album'?

It survived because Coltrane had given a spare copy to his wife; Impulse! released it in 2018.

Which denomination canonised Coltrane, and has a congregation named for him in San Francisco?

The San Francisco church was founded in 1969 and joined the AOC in 1982.

In what year was Coltrane awarded a special Pulitzer Prize?

The citation praised his 'masterful improvisation, supreme musicianship and iconic centrality to the history of jazz'.

For which album did Coltrane win a posthumous Grammy for Best Jazz Solo Performance in 1982?

He also received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1997.

Coltrane's saxophonist son, born in 1965, was named after which musician?

He was less than two years old when his father died; Flying Lotus is his cousin.

In which town did Coltrane grow up and attend William Penn school?

In 1943 the family moved to Philadelphia, where he took a job in a sugar refinery and got his first alto sax for his 17th birthday.

The 2016 documentary about Coltrane directed by John Scheinfeld was titled what?

An earlier documentary, The World According to John Coltrane, was produced by Robert Palmer in 1990.

Coltrane sometimes used two bassists at once, comparing the effect to what?

One bass held a pulsating low register while the other improvised; Olé Coltrane and Africa/Brass used the device.

Which two groups opened and closed Coltrane's funeral at St. Peter's Lutheran Church in 1967?

He is buried at Pinelawn Memorial Park in Farmingdale, New York.

Whose flute and bass clarinet did Coltrane receive from the late musician's mother in 1964?

Coltrane experimented with flute late in his career on Live at the Village Vanguard Again! and Expression.

Where was Coltrane stationed in Hawaii, the largest posting of African American servicemen in the world?

By the time he arrived in late 1945 the Navy was already downsizing.

In which Philadelphia bassist's home did Coltrane meet his first wife Naima?

Davis later played bass in Coltrane's first working quartet in 1960 alongside Tyner and Elvin Jones.

Which company gave Coltrane a prototype alto saxophone as an endorsement in 1966?

He and Pharoah Sanders played the altos on the 1966 Live in Japan recordings.

Coltrane's maternal grandfather, the Reverend William Blair, was a minister in which church?

Coltrane was raised in a Christian home in High Point and was influenced by spirituality from childhood.