Coltrane, John William 1926-67
US jazz saxophonist and composer

Born in Hamlet, North Carolina, he emerged in the 1950s as one of the most influential jazz performers of the post-bebop era. His early engagements included working with Dizzy Gillespie and Bud Powell, but his distinctive style coalesced with the Miles Davis Quintet from 1955, and then with pianist Thelonious Monk in 1957. His so-called 'sheets of sound' style of harmonic exhaustiveness reached a logical culmination in Giant Steps (1959), by which time he was already immersed in the modal jazz experiments of Miles Davis. The freedom from conventional harmonic structures profoundly affected his improvising style. The intensity of his attack and dense flow of notes influenced a generation of future saxophone players, as did his adoption of the soprano saxophone as a second instrument to the tenor. His post-1960 quartet with pianist McCoy Tyner and drummer Elvin Jones helped redefine the process of interaction within the jazz group, and led to some of his most important recordings, notably A Love Supreme (1964). His music grew increasingly experimental toward the end of his life, when his collaborators (in both music and eastern philosophy) included his wife, Alice Coltrane (n�e McLeod, 1937- ), who went on to have a significant musical career in her own right. Their sons, Ravi and Omar, are also musicians.

Bibliography: B Cole, John Coltrane (1976)