Q 01/05

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

A) Hamlet

B) Greensboro

C) Durham

D) Rocky Mount

Answer · why

A) Hamlet

Hamlet. It was home for only a few months: Coltrane said his family moved to a larger town in the state while he was a baby, and he spent the next 17 ...

Q 02/05

Which elder statesman of jazz recorded an album with Coltrane in 1962, each man bringing his own bassist and drummer?

A) Duke Ellington

B) Count Basie

C) Louis Armstrong

D) Benny Goodman

Answer · why

A) Duke Ellington

Duke Ellington. Coltrane, 27 years younger, called the date an honour and wished he could redo every number, then conceded that second tries would hav...

Q 03/05

Coltrane said that hearing which saxophonist for the first time 'hit me right between the eyes'?

A) Lester Young

B) Johnny Hodges

C) Charlie Parker

D) Coleman Hawkins

Answer · why

C) Charlie Parker

Charlie Parker. Coltrane said that on alto his playing had been 'strictly a Bird thing', and that only taking up the tenor freed him from that one ove...

Q 04/05

Coltrane joined the US Navy on 6 August 1945, the day of which wartime 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

The atomic bombing of Hiroshima. Japan surrendered within days, so Coltrane never saw combat: he was shipped to Hawaii anyway and spent his year of se...

Q 05/05

Coltrane got his big break in 1955 by replacing which tenor saxophonist in a trumpeter's new quintet?

A) Stan Getz

B) Dexter Gordon

C) Sonny Stitt

D) Sonny Rollins

Answer · why

D) Sonny Rollins

Sonny Rollins. The swap later ran the other way: when Coltrane was dropped from the band in 1957, Rollins took the tenor chair back, and the two men r...