John Coltrane (1926–1967) was the North Carolina-born saxophonist whose run from Giant Steps (1960) through A Love Supreme (1965) reshaped jazz. Start with either of those, then follow the classic quartet's Impulse! years out to Ascension and the free-jazz beyond. Explore John Coltrane vinyl, CDs, and reissues at Wax Trax Records.
John William Coltrane was born in Hamlet, North Carolina on September 23, 1926 and raised in High Point, North Carolina. He served in the US Navy from 1945 to 1946. He worked extensively as a sideman through the 1950s - most notably with Miles Davis's First Great Quintet (1955-1957) on landmark Prestige and Columbia material including Round About Midnight (1957), and with Thelonious Monk's quartet in 1957. His own Prestige and Atlantic Records material across 1957-1961 - including the landmark Giant Steps (1960) with its challenging harmonic progressions and My Favorite Things (1961, with his Atlantic quartet) - established him as a foundational soloist. He signed with Impulse! Records in 1961 and assembled his classic quartet (with McCoy Tyner on piano, Jimmy Garrison on bass, and Elvin Jones on drums) - recording landmark material including A Love Supreme (1965), Crescent (1964), and others. His final period explored free jazz and avant-garde directions through Ascension (1966) and Interstellar Space (1967). He died of liver cancer on July 17, 1967 at age 40. His wife Alice Coltrane continued musical work and his son Ravi Coltrane is also a jazz saxophonist.
John Coltrane's sound is foundational to multiple jazz traditions - combining hard bop, modal jazz, post-bop, free jazz, and avant-garde jazz with his distinctive virtuosic technical approach (the sheets of sound technique from his Coltrane changes era), spiritual and religious engagement (particularly from A Love Supreme onward), and his foundational influence on the broader saxophone tradition. His foundational influence on jazz and broader contemporary music is widely cited as one of the most important contributions to the form.
Original Atlantic and Impulse! pressings of the John Coltrane catalog are foundational items in jazz collecting. Multiple audiophile reissues including the Acoustic Sounds Impulse! series, Mobile Fidelity, Analogue Productions, and the comprehensive Coltrane: The Atlantic Years in Mono and Coltrane: The Impulse! Years box sets have been released.
Listeners new to John Coltrane typically start with A Love Supreme (1965) or Giant Steps (1960).
