Q 01/05

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

A) Hamlet

B) Greensboro

C) Durham

D) High Point

Answer · why

A) Hamlet

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

Q 02/05

Which instrument is Coltrane chiefly associated with?

A) The double bass

B) The saxophone

C) The trumpet

D) The piano

Answer · why

B) The saxophone

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

Q 03/05

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

A) Lester Young

B) Dizzy Gillespie

C) Charlie Parker

D) Coleman Hawkins

Answer · why

C) Charlie Parker

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

Q 04/05

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

A) The atomic bombing of Hiroshima

B) The German surrender at Reims

C) The D-Day landings in Normandy

D) The Japanese surrender in Tokyo Bay

Answer · why

A) The atomic bombing of Hiroshima

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

Q 05/05

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

A) He could not read music

B) He had no musician's rating

C) He was under-age

D) They were an all-white outfit

Answer · why

D) They were an all-white outfit

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