THE FORMATIVE YEARS AND FIRST PERIOD (1926 to mid-1957)

[A] Article

JOHN COLTRANE:
The Formative Years and First Period (1926 to mid-1957)

Excerpt from The Melodic and Spontaneous Development of John Coltrane's Spontaneous Composition in a Racist Society [Edwin Mellen Press, 1997. Lewiston, New York]

John William Coltrane was born in Hamlet, North Carolina on the equinox, September 23, 1926. His mother, Alice Blair, and John R. Coltrane, his father were both ministers' children and amateur musicians whose household maintained a religious influence that left ample freedom for John Jr. and his Cousin Mary who resided with them. Thus his study of music began in a church music program. Much like both of his parents, John was a quiet person who made a good impression on his teachers because of his academic achievements and his peaceful disposition. At an early age, he began to ask perceptive questions about God and demonstrated an ability to concentrate for long periods of time as he worked on his model airplanes. [i]

For the purpose of this examination of John Coltrane's musical development, his compositional evolution will be divided into the following stylistic periods: Formative Years = 1926 through 1954; First Period =1955 through mid - 1957; Second Period = mid - 1957 through the end of 1959; Third Period = 1960 until the end of 1964; and Fourth Period, from 1965 until his death on July 17, 1967. These demarcations are aligned with the four "loosely defined settings" proposed by Coltrane scholar Andrew White III, who has transcribed over four hundred and twenty saxophone solos taken from one hundred and six phonograph recordings made by John Coltrane over the twelve year period from 1955 to 1967. [ii]

When Coltrane was twelve he began studying the E-flat alto horn (a brass wind instrument) with Reverend Steele, who formed a community band, but later changed to the clarinet. He practiced day and night, sometimes until four in the morning, a fact his family learned to live with. His senior year in high school, Grace Yokley formed a new school band and Coltrane occupied the ensemble's principal clarinet chair. [iii] His mother soon bought him a used alto saxophone for his birthday. Jazz composer/performer Benny Golson recalls Coltrane's "exquisite sound" at this time that was "even bigger than Johnny Hodges's." [iv] In addition to Hodges, it was Lester Young and Coleman Hawkins who made the biggest impression on the young Coltrane.

I've been listening to jazzmen, especially saxophonists, since the time of the early Count Basie records, which featured Lester Young. Pres was my first real influence, but the first horn I got was an alto, not a tenor. I wanted a tenor, but some friends of my mother advised her to buy me an alto because it was smaller horn and easier for a youngster to handle. This was 1943.

Johnny Hodges became my first main influence on alto, and he still kills me. I stayed with alto through 1947, and by then I'd come under the influence of Charlie Parker. The first time I heard Bird play, it hit me right between the eyes. Before I switched from alto in that year, it had been strictly a Bird thing with me, but when I bought a tenor to go with Eddie Vinson's band, a wider area of listening opened up for me.

The reason I liked Lester so was that I could feel that line, that simplicity. My phrasing was very much in Lester's vein at this time.

I found out about Coleman Hawkins after I learned of Lester. There were a lot of things that Hawkins was doing that I knew I'd have to learn somewhere along the line. I felt the same way about Ben Webster. There were many things that people like Hawk, Ben and Tab Smith were doing in the '40s that I didn't understand but that I felt emotionally.

The first time I heard Hawk, I was fascinated by his arpeggios and the way he played. I got a copy of his Body and Soul and listened real hard to what he was doing. And even though I dug Pres, as I grew musically, I appreciated Hawk more and more. [v]

After High School he moved to Philadelphia where he enrolled in the Ornstein School of Music. He soon transferred to the Granoff Studios where he became one of the best students in the history of the school. C.O. Simpkins states that Coltrane continued post-graduate studies over a period of eight years after graduating (until around1951), at which time Mr. Granoff, his saxophone teacher, felt the school had no more to offer him. However, the degree or diploma he received at the completion of these studies is not mentioned.

Coltrane made his professional debut at the age of nineteen in a small group playing background music for the disinterested patrons of a Philadelphia club. [vi] Jazz musician Bill Barron remembered Coltrane's weekend trips during the summer to Wildwood, New Jersey where he and his friends would sit in and discuss Charlie Parker recordings with the local professional musicians. [vii] Shortly afterwards, he was drafted into the Navy Band and posted in Hawaii. While stationed in Hawaii he played clarinet with the marching band and the stage band, practicing the alto saxophone on the side. After being discharged in 1946, he joined Eddie 'Mr. Cleanhead' Vinson's uncompromising rhythm and blues band. Borrowing Golson's tenor saxophone, which he did not like at first because of the added weight and size of the horn, Coltrane toured with the band throughout most of 1947 and 1948 and began to develop his extraordinary confidence and firm blues roots. He had played alto saxophone until Red Garland convinced him to switch instruments so the two musicians could travel together in Vinson's band. Within this time frame (1947), he also played a few jobs with Sonny Rollins in Miles Davis' group and with Jimmy Heath, and later became a member of the Apollo Theater orchestra in Harlem during 1948.

Vinson had an agility and a way of bending and sustaining notes that Coltrane admired. Barry McRae suggests that some writers feel that this time with Vinson may have been wasted, [viii] but Coltrane was not prompted by the same sense of extreme urgency that musicians like Clarlie Parker apparently had. When not sight reading he would watch this superb technician and frequently asked questions about the arrangements, chord resolutions, etc.

"Any time you play your horn, it helps you," Coltrane said regarding his stay with Earl Bostic in 1952. "If you get down, you can help yourself even in a rock 'n' roll band. But I didn't help myself." His move to the group led by Johnny Hodges in 1953 was a more productive one. "We played honest music in this band, " he recalled. "it was my education to the older generation." [ix]

Vinson felt that Coltrane "was a fine young man" whom he loved "like a son". [x] Although Coltrane was experiencing problems with his teeth at this time, he was involved in an entertaining routine with the bandleader devised to "keep their chops up" and grab the audience's attention. Starting on alto, Vinson would play a long, loping blues on alto while John filled in the background on tenor. They would then begin to exchange horns (by flipping them) immediately duplicating what had just been played by the other. This exercise in coordination was rarely muffed.

Through such a diverse background Coltrane continued to develop a sound knowledge of earlier jazz forms. He played with the Dizzy Gillespie Big Band and was one of the few carefully selected sidemen asked to play with Gillespie's new combo when the big band broke up at the end of 1950. This ensemble included vibraphonist Milt Jackson, alto saxophonist Jimmy Heath, bassist Percy Heath, drummer Specs Wright, and Fred Strong on conga drums. Performing with Gillespie, renowned for his commitment to encouraging young reed men, enabled Coltrane to develop excellent timing and smooth out the rough rhythm and blues edges as he studied the master Bebop trumpeter's technique. In listening to recordings from this early period in Coltrane's career, one hears traditional tenor saxophone playing (with obvious Lester Young influence) that contrasts sharply with Gillespie's boppish style. In spite of this basic approach to style and sound at this time, his 1951 solos on A Night in Tunisia [xi] show the innovative, individualistic and risk-taking Coltrane experimenting in a fashion that is evocative even among such iconoclastic company. Coltrane mentioned his time with Gillespie.

What I didn't know with Diz was that what I had to do was really express myself, Cotrane remembered. I was playing cliches and trying to learn tunes that were hip, so I could play with the guys who played them.

Earlier, when I had first heard Bird, I wanted to be identified with him . . . to be consumed by him. But underneath I really wanted to be myself. You can only play so much of another man. [xii]

Subsequent to the rare and marvelous apprenticeship experienced thus far in his career, Coltrane spent time performing with Earl Bostic. Drummer Art Blakey feels that " If Coltrane played with Bostic, I know he learned a lot. . . Working with Earl Bostic is like attending a university of the saxophone." [xiii] During this period (early 1950's), Coltrane's style began to come under the influence of Charlie Parker. Vinson's band's book had contained a few Bird tunes among its essentially rhythm and blues songs and ballads. Coltrane explains: When I went with Eddie Vinson on tenor, a wider area of listening opened up for me. On alto, Bird had been my whole influence, but on tenor I found there was no one man whose ideas were so dominant as Charlie's were on alto. Therefore, I drew from all the men I heard during this period on tenor, especially Lester Young and his melodic phrasing. I found out about Coleman Hawkins later and became fascinated by his arpeggios and the way he played. I got a copy of Body and Soul and listened real hard. Even though I dug Pres, as I grew musically, I appreciated Hawk more and more. [xiv] Tenor saxophonist and vocalist Gay Croose asked Coltrane to be on a recording session in Nashville, Tennessee in 1952. John played alto saxophone on the the compositions Bittersweet and Fat Sam from Birmingham in Croose's band with Tommy Turrentine (trumpet), Stash O'Laughlin (piano), Alvin Jackson (bass), and Oliver Jackson (drums). [xv] In 1953 Coltrane went with Johnny Hodges to begin another phase of his development. Both men regarded Sidney Bechet as a brilliant jazzman and emulated elements of his smooth and enigmatic Creole style in their own playing. Like Bechet's, each of Coltrane's performances throughout his career would be full of intensity and utmost integrity. In addition to his more experimental ventures, Coltrane always returned to the 'roots' of jazz, and considered opportunities to work with older stylists both educational and gratifying. Although individual styles may differ, the emotionalism that results from such collaborations is noticeably amalgamated in the music such as that recorded by Coleman and Coltrane on Thelonious Monk - Monk's Music [xvi] (June 26, 1957) and other later recording sessions.

There were also some much less rewarding musical ventures. In 1954 Coltrane had worked in a rhythm and blues band with vocalist Big Maybelle, guitarist Jr. Walker, and others, where he was asked to walk the bar while playing his tenor. Everyone in the band was quite amused when the soft spoken Coltrane refused saying "Sorry, I've got ulcers." [xvii] With the exception of a few bootleg recordings, much of Coltrane's free lance work prior to 1955 is not well documented on phonograph records. [xviii]

A basic ingredient in Coltrane's (as well as most of his African-American peers') foundation is the intensely emotional spiritual of the typical African-American religious service. Both of his grandfathers were ministers of the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, so Coltrane was exposed to the religious music of the southern African-American church at a very young age. [xix] The importance of this factor cannot be overestimated, as it accounts for much of the basic melodic and rhythmic orientation that shapes the knowledge of many of the blues and jazz performers who are rooted in this musical/spiritual experience. The blues, in turn, is the foremost vehicle for individual expression in modern jazz.

In the hands of the innovative jazz performer, the blues becomes a highly complex and progressive musical form harmonically and melodically, leading to an endless variety of chromatic and pantonal possibilities. It employs very few Western chords and, when properly executed, allows for the judicious imposition of virtually any note on a given chord. Coltrane apparently felt that the simple blues form and blues essentials could serve as a foundation for his music. Like other classic blues shouters before him, the simple fundamentals involved combined with complex instrumental or vocal timbres (grunting, whailing, etc.) to produce high levels of emotional intensity in performance.

Blues has evolved harmonically through various stylistic periods, progressing from the minimum number of chords contained in the original forms of the performer-centered rural blues, through the intricate chord substitutions involved in Bebop, then ultimately back to a minimum use of chords in the music of many contemporary jazz innovators. This cycle parallels the movement from nineteenth century forms of original African- American music that retained many traditional African features (such as call and response, a highly vocal oriented instrumental sound, a freedom from Western formal structures, etc.), through music that began to incorporate more aspects of Western music; then returning to a utilization and understanding of traditional African music, as well as scrupulous exploitation of other world music from around the globe. This also appears to be an unconscious cycle to which Coltrane's music succumbed.

Miles Davis remembers that in September, 1955, Sonny Rollins disappeared from the jazz scene "like he said he would" and Miles could not track him down. In trying to find a replacement for him, Davis tried John Gilmore (who was playing with Sun Ra at the time) but he didn't fit Miles' needs. Philly Joe Jones then brought up Coltrane, with whom both Miles and Rollins had performed at the Audubon a few years prior. Miles felt that Sonny had "blown him away that night," so Miles was not extremely excited about Coltrane as a prospect. Much to his surprise, however, Coltrane "had gotten a lot better" in the interim. [xx] Working earlier part of the year in Philadelphia with the aim of "creating forcefully," Coltrane had spent time with Bill Carney's group where he felt "We were too musical for certain rooms." [xxi]

Miles and Coltrane did not get along at first because Davis felt "Trane liked to ask all these mother fucking questions back then about what he should or shouldn't play." Miles felt that his silence and evil glances turned Coltrane off, and refused to comment because a professional musician should always " find their own place in the music." [xxii] Frustrated, Coltrane left for home only to accept another invitation to rejoin Davis' band later the same year. Coltrane confides:

After I joined Miles in 1955, I found that he doesn't talk much and will rarely discuss his music. He's completely unpredictable; sometimes he'd walk off stage after just playing a few notes, not even completing one chorus. If I ask him something about his music, I never knew how he was going to take it. [xiii] Beyond extreme differences in temperament, it would seem that Coltrane's hard bop style would be incompatible with Miles' Cool approach to some listeners. Although this cleavage remained to some degree, it was in fact an artistic advantage and the partnership lasted off and on until 1960. Along with Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers and the Charles Mingus band, Davis had one of the most notable bands in jazz in the mid-to-late fifties. It was here that Coltrane was able to put the eclectic grounding of jazz principles that now formed his musical foundation to proper use, which rapidly gained him national recognition. The recording of 'Round About Midnight with the original Miles Davis group brought Coltrane to the attention of the segment of the jazz public which had been ignoring him. [xxiv]

Having always profited from associating with musicians such as Tadd Dameron and others more adroit than himself, his work with Miles was his main source of knowledge in those days. With pianist Red Garland, bassist Paul Chambers, drummer Philly Joe Jones, and, later, alto saxophonist Julian Cannonball "Adderley," Coltrane shaped his style while Miles produced some of his best work. Gradually Coltrane's style became more confident and progressively more assertive, while his now distinguished full tone acquired a hard resilient sound. Some jazz historians feel that the period of "Cannonball" Adderley's association with Miles and Coltrane marked Davis' creative peak. [xxv] Of course there were other classic Miles Davis ensembles featuring musicians such Wayne Shorter, Herbie Hancock, and the like. Miles, however, predicted the importance of this new band, but recalls some of the difficulties that had to be overcome prior to the initial launching. His group "almost didn't happen" when Coltrane went back to Philadelphia to play with Jimmy Smith.

We practically had to beg him (Coltrane) to come join the band for this gig we had in Baltimore, in late September 1955 . . . But after we started playing together for a while, I knew that this guy was a bad motherfucker who was just the voice I needed on tenor to set off my voice . . . (Faster) than I could have imagined, the music . . . was unbelievable. It sent chills through me at night and did the same to the audience. [xxvi] Coltrane decided to return because of the room he had to stretch out in Miles' band. Although Miles and Coltrane utilized contrasting approaches to performance, they shared a more important mutual aspiration and worked along similar lines to achieve their objectives. During his Bebop days, Davis' technique had been criticized as being suspect; perhaps due to this criticism Miles had always tended to play with simplicity. The severance of his solos from the chord changes upon which a song was built facilitated his aims, and this initiated the transition into the modal approach he would codify in the near future. While Coltrane, on the other hand, continued to emphasize the potential harmonic functions within a given composition, he too began to base his improvisation upon scales. The resulting "modal" approach to jazz improvisation was the most significant innovation to occur in jazz since Bebop. Miles recognized Coltrane's value and the gravity of this historic encounter. The group I had with Coltrane made me and him a legend. . . put me on the map in the music world, with all those great albums we made for Prestige and later Columbia Records. . . (it) made all of us stars. [xxvii] Unlike the Bebop era, Hard bop produced a large number of excellent tenor saxophone players. Just as the trumpet had been the predominant force in early jazz, Sonny Rollins and John Coltrane were indisputably the most outstanding tenor saxophone players in an age dominated by their wind instrument. Their radical note placement and other stylistic characteristics influenced rhythm sections as well as front line jazz instrumentalists. [xviii] Although there was little indication of the substantial involvement with Oriental music that would take place within modern jazz in a few years, the late fifties found Rollins employing themes with bitonal implications where the piano was omitted to provide maximum freedom of improvisational interpretation of the harmonic structures. Coltrane's approach was equally explorative as he continued to discover material that would serve as a springboard for a significant portion of his later development.

Naturally, Coltrane's early recordings with the Miles Davis Quintet (1956 -1957) lack the confidence and clarity of his later work. Where public acceptance is concerned, Coltrane became a somewhat controversial figure in the Miles Davis group. His Hard bop tenor style was diametrically opposed to the Cool style and, consequently, divided the jazz audience into two opposing camps; one was negative and critical while the other was highly enthusiastic. Many of those opposed to Coltrane's approach still desired a familiar sound such as that which included the lazy vibrato that the great New Orleans clarinetists displayed to instill a feeling of pathos, and felt that Coltrane's unrelenting tone exuded anger. [xxix] In fact, Coltrane was moving beyond the tone quality and the expressive way of bending notes that had been applied to his earlier approach (influenced by the styles of Lester Young and Dexter Gordon in the late 1940's), to a more personal sound. As he began to gain in confidence and precision of execution to an extent that surpassed all his predecessors and his peers on the tenor saxophone, his musical power began to overwhelm the uninitiated. In the four stylistic periods of Coltrane's career to be discussed in the chapters that follow, we will see the numerous shapes that this power takes. The composer mentions some of the musical influences that helped formulate this power.

As far as musical influences, aside from saxophonists, are concerned, I think I was first awakened to musical exploration by Dizzy Gillespie and Bird. It was through their work that I began to learn about musical structures and the more theoretical aspects of music.

Also, I had met Jimmy Heath, who, besides being a wonderful saxophonist, understood a lot about musical construction. I joined his group in Philadelphia in 1948. We were very much alike in our feeling, phrasing, and a whole lot of ways. Our musical appetites were the same. We used to practice together, and he would write out some of the things we were interested in. We would take things from records and digest them. In this way we learned about the techniques being used by writers and arrangers.

Another friend and I learned together in Philly-Calvin Massey, a trumpeter and composer who now lives in Brooklyn. His musical ideas and mine often run parallel, and we've collaborated quite often. We helped each other advance musically by exchanging knowledge and ideas. [xxx]

In retrospect, Coltrane's musical contribution was a dominant and pervasive force which influenced mightily the mid-twentieth-century transformation of jazz style. While most of the older jazzmen tended to mix their artistic creation with a desire to please their audiences, Coltrane and other musicians of his generation rejected this aesthetic. This attitude became increasingly more apparent as the saxophonist matured, as Coltrane's discussion regarding his audience (in an interview at Shelly's Manne Hole in Los Angeles) reveals. I never even thought about whether or not they understand what I'm doing," he said. "The emotional reaction is all that matters; as long as there is some feeling of communication, it isn't necessary that it be understood. After all, I used to love music myself long before I could even identify a G Minor Seventh chord. [xxxi] During the year and a half that comprises his first period, Coltrane developed his own repertory of formulas distinguishing his voice from all others. The seed of his later tendencies toward motivic development was planted through his occasional development of a motive introduced as an opening gesture of his improvisation. This technique was particularly evident in the improvisations that occurred within the relatively flexible harmonic framework of the blues. Coltrane's music required of the listener more than an abstract interest. As author Lewis Porter indicates, Coltrane's music, while retaining the goal of intellectual involvement, contains a spiritual element that created an aesthetic with far reaching influence on the style and repertoire of countless jazz groups and inspired cultish devotion among his public. [xxxii] Porter also notes that most of the writing about jazz has been produced by classically trained composers, performers, and scholars such as Gunther Schuller and Lawrence Gushee. [xxxiii] As a consequence, the importance of the spirituality as well as more tangible musical components commonly observed in the classical idiom (the importance of texture, long-range structural connections, and a new definition of consonance in Coltrane's compositional approach) remain undetected. Of course, with the exception of a few composers such as Beethoven, Alexander Scriabin and Dane Rudhyar, spirituality is not frequently discussed even in writings about Western European music. It becomes a basic element in Coltrane's late music. Coltrane biographer J. C. Thomas agrees with this appraisal of the spiritual aspects of his music. John Coltrane was more mystic than musician. This is the only logical explanation for the effect his music had on many members of his audience; in fact, many of them knew nothing whatsoever about any kind of music, including jazz, yet they were mesmerized, entranced, and quite often . . . had their lives changed from continuous exposure to Coltrane's music. There had to be something else besides the music there; in reality, there was a force beyond music that was communicating with Trane's audience on quite a different, higher level of meaning.

Call it Universal Consciousness, Supreme Being, Nature, God. Call this force by any name you like, but it was there . . . [xxxiv]

Lewis Porter, in his dissertation on Coltrane, shares Stephen Horenstein's opinion regarding the "shortcomings" of the biographies by Simpkins, Thomas, and Cole on the life of the saxophonist:

The first utilizes his life as the pretext for mediocre poetry, the author of the second wallows in the myths that people love to bring up about black musicians (drugs, marital problems), and, finally, the third offers an outmoded, boring method of melodic analysis, flagrant hyper- intellectualization, and religious extrapolations that Coltrane himself judged too personal to put in writing. [xxxv]

Coltrane may have also felt that his music was too personal to be subjected to the kinds of "blow-by-blow" systematic analysis that methodically examines the various structural and ornamental components of his music without considering the spiritual context that the composer so carefully mentions in almost every public statement he made regarding his music in his last late periods. Whether or not one agrees with Horenstein's position or that of J. C. Thomas is less important than the fact that most of those musicians who were closely associated with Coltrane during his career expressed comments similar to those expressed by Thomas regarding the impact of Coltrane's music. It is also clear from statements made by Coltrane regarding creative expression, his life-long inquiry into the nature of the Creator, as well as from the titles of his later compositions, that he was aligned with many mystical principles in his thinking.

Composer Dane Rudhyar felt that it is difficult for those restricted to Western processes of thought to fully comprehend more ethereal qualities of progressive music.

The most creative and future-oriented musicians of the twentieth century - which does not mean the most famous and most often performed! - have been attempting to expand their musical feeling and their approach to composing and performing music. The more or less conscious and consistent urge to dis-Europeanize and even deculturalize music has driven them to repudiate the organizational rules and patterns of their Western traditional (the European tonality system) and try to free their musical consciousness from the exclusive use of traditional instruments that produce that produce only particular qualities of sound. [xxxvi] Many twentieth composers outside of jazz, like Morton Feldman, have indeed thrown aside every concept and all the materials that the history of Western music has developed - serial music included. Avant-garde painters Jackson Pollock and De Kooning have done likewise. John Cage's use of the I Ching ,

and the mystical elements contained in Alexander Scriabin's multimedia futuristic works near the end of his career, were all looking beyond the vocabulary of European music to discover new modes of expression.

Responding to Frank Kofsky in an interview in the sixties where the question was put forth - "Do the musicians who play in these newer styles look to Africa and Asia for some of their musical inspiration?" - Coltrane said he felt that the musicians had been exposed to European concepts and were not exposed to others. Speaking for himself, he sought a well rounded education. [xxxvii]In keeping with the African tradition of improvising on tone quality, Coltrane produced a wide range of sound qualities; from smooth

to guttural, and from robust to shrieking. During his first period, densely organized streams of notes became a part of his musical vocabulary along with a quadruple timing solo approach that was based on a sixteenth note feeling (as opposed to the quarter note emphasis of Louis Armstrong and the eighth note basic unit that Charlie Parker utilized) which commonly incorporated carefully chosen melodic pitches often approached by sweeping runs. Added to the acceptance of expanded blues harmonies (containing chords that would be considered dissonant outside of jazz) was a group telepathy that eventually became the motivating factor and the basis for formal coherence in many of the ensembles with which Coltrane was associated. Rudhyar would have referred to the collective musical elements involved in Coltrane's method as a pleroma of sound or a holistic resonance. [xxxviii]

Rudhyar defined a pleroma of sound as "an all-encompassing organization of sound produced by the interaction and interpenetration of a multiplicity of relationships, each ensouled by its own tone, all these tones actualizing diverse aspects of the Tone of the whole pleroma." [xxxix] He thought the pleroma concept was opposed to the tonality concept in much the same manner in which consonant harmony differs from dissonant harmony. Since the basic fundamentals of tonality rest upon the assumption (psychologically and philosophically) that an urge exists to refer the multiplicity of sound- relationships (intervals) to a primordial tonic or fundamental tone, it conflicts with an inclination towards a process of harmonization based on tension and release which defies this notion. Therefore, trying to analyze Coltrane's (the pleroma) musical approach with the empirical formulas of Western music can prove as fruitless as translating Yoruba rituals with an English dictionary. Cecil Poole, a long time student of mysticism, made a related observation.

In the physical sciences man is limiting his observations to the physical world which he inhabits. The tendency of physical science is to isolate its findings and to interpret what it studies. The result of the research of many individuals is to try to arrange these findings into a complete pattern so that reason will gradually evolve a full meaning. It is the scope of metaphysics to attempt to view such a complete picture. Metaphysics does not content itself with a partial or abstract view of life and reality, even from a scientific standpoint these partial glimpses may each be accurate. The entire phenomenal world might be compared to the pieces of a picture puzzle. Each piece is as important as another, but the ultimate aim in trying to solve the puzzle is to put it together so that a whole picture may be formed. [xl]

In addition to the Western technical or historical analytic tools typically imposed upon Coltrane's life and music, some emphasis must also be directed toward all of the factors that were involved in the process of development. Norma McLeod states in her dissertation that "since music is a complex sound phenomenon, its description requires that the various types of sound which combine in its basic structure be described both separately and together." [xli] This implies that a utilization of both deductive and inductive reasoning should be involved in arriving at a full understanding of any music. This is extremely important in jazz and other Western or non-Western musics that are not conceived from an empirical frame of reference. With this position in mind, beyond an examination of the impact of racism or of metaphysical concepts on Coltrane's music, each element of the musical environment surrounding his spontaneous compositions must be examined individually and collectively with an objective and holistic intent. Viewing music in this fashion immediately brings forth the realization that jazz composition in not aspiring to emulate Western musical values. This understanding would be of value to both critics and the general listening audience alike, as jazz big band leader Artie Shaw points out in reference to Coltrane's music.

I listen to the new music including his but the public, whose ears are not so specialized take a long time to make the historical discovery of the obvious. Also, as artist, Coltrane was creating in public and not expecting to create a masterpiece each time he picked up his horn. But he was going to try each time for a classic performance and hope before he was through that he'd say a few things worthwhile. [xlii]

Since African-American jazz has produced the first generation of composers to create their music primarily in public in the history of Western music, a different set of criteria is obviously called for other than that used for the more typical "sketch book" composers.

A similar broadening of perspective is needed in viewing jazz harmony, rhythm, approaches to texture, melody, form, and the like. In contrast to earlier jazz forms, Coltrane's music ( as well as the music of other spontaneous jazz composers) becomes increasingly farther removed from the "fake book" notation that earlier jazz forms used, where root position is assumed in the bass line and inversions are specifically notated. Although "swinging rhythms" are still the norm during his first period, flexible relationships between recurring cells and the beat create a new function for the motive. An inability to perceive this relationship often led the uninformed jazz critic to pull repeated motives out of musical context to make sophistic comments such as "Coltrane repeats more than he recreates." [xliii] Like most good composers and improvisers, Coltrane's early music uses many characteristic formulas with a sufficient amount of variation to avoid repetiveness. If a generalization must be made it should also be remembered that, when examining the music of one of the paramount rhythmic saxophone players in jazz, one must consider the rhythmic, harmonic and over-all dynamic positioning of any motive within the context of the polyrhythmic texture in which it occurs. Extracting isolated motives or cells from this genre of music can otherwise lead to erroneous conclusions similar to those of musicologists who produce inauspicious analyses of folk music outside their culture. Meki Nzewi's comments related to the study of rhythm in Nigerian folk music is germane to this principle.

A certain measure of adjustment to the prevailing cultural ethos of an alien culture should be prerequisite to making a balanced appreciation, creditable assessment, and meaningful content judgement of its folk music. This is hardly ever the case in practice, though there are exceptional cases of a few talented scholars who have produced authentic analyses of and reports on folk music outside their culture. The adjustment advocated above would enable us to view with sympathetic understanding some erroneous attempts and, at times, assaults on the true content and character of some folk music cultures which some scholars have committed with commendable enthusiasm, although in ignorance or through academic mal-equipment. [xliv]

As Coltrane's music evolves towards the complete elimination of a written score, acquiring long-range structural goals as its sole point of reference, it becomes progressively more difficult to judge whether a tone is harmonic or non-harmonic. Likewise, it is often neither a simple nor a productive process to merely classify his motives according to rhythmic or harmonic types. To further complicate these already extremely complex requirements, it must also be understood that, in addition to applying these principles to Coltrane's approach, they must also be applied to each of the other spontaneous composers (i.e., each member of the rhythm section) in each of the music ensembles with which he was affiliated. It soon becomes apparent that Coltrane's music can only be approached in the same spirit in which it was created if any valuable information is to be derived from it.

The genesis of the ideas that were to become basic ingredients in Coltrane's spontaneous compositional vocabulary took place in a variety of settings. Beginning with The New Miles Davis Quintet, [xlv] his first period would place Coltrane in a variety of recording situations ranging from two engagements with his cohort Paul Chambers, to tenor saxophone collaborations with Hank Mobley (May 7,1956), Sonny Rollins (May 24, 1956), Johnny Griffin (April 6, 1957), and the Four Tenor Saxes - Tenor Conclave recording with Al Cohn, Hank Mobley, and Zoot Sims (September 7, 1956). His fisrt encounter with Miles and his work with other leaders was discussed by the saxophonist.

I first met Miles Davis about 1947 and played a few jobs with him and Sonny Rollins at the Audubon ballroom in Manhattan. During this period he was coming into his own, and I could see him extending the boundaries of jazz even further. I felt I wanted to work with him. But for the time being, we went our separate ways.

I went with Dizzy's big band in 1949. I stayed with Diz through the breakup of the big band and played in the small group he organized later.

Afterwards, I went with Earl Bostic who I consider a very gifted musician. He showed me a lot of things on my horn. He has fabulous tedchnical facilities on his instrument and knows many a trick.

Then I worked with one of my first loves, Johnny Hodges; I really enjoyed that job. I liked every tune in the book. Nothing was superficial. It all had meaning, and it all swung. And the confidence with which Rabbit plays; I wish I could play with the confidence that he does.

But besides enjoying my stay with Johnny musically, I also enjoyed it because I was getting firsthand information about things that happened way before my time. I'm very interested in the past, and even though there's a lot I don't know about it, I intend to go back and find out. I'm back to Sidney Bechet already. [xlvi]

Coltrane was basically involved in exploring the possibilities available within the standard jazz repertoire and new compositions based on a similar language and structure. Inside the limits of the standard blues and song form formats, his innovations were centered upon incorporating uneven subdivisions of the beat (i.e., note groupings of five, seven, eleven, etc.) into his post-bop lyricism, and developing a crystal clear tone that extended throughout the range of the tenor. His extraordinary facility often led listeners to believe that he was playing an alto saxophone when Coltrane performed in his middle and upper registers. [xlvii] This clarity would become extremely important in his future work where the density of notes would cause the typical tenor saxophone player's execution to sound muddy. With Miles, Coltrane would gain an opportunity to develop an individual style and approach that provided the perfect setting in which to develop an unorthodox jazz vocabulary. By the time the band made its first tour, Miles appreciation of Coltrane's contribution had grown to a new level. I think a lot of people had expected Sonny Rollins to be in the band. Nobody in St. Louis had ever heard of Trane, so a lot of them were disappointed until he played.Then he just fucked everybody up, though some people still didn't like him yet.

By the time Sonny Rollins came back from Lexington to New York, Trane was a fixture in the band and had taken over the place reserved for Sonny. And Trane's playing was so bad by then that it even made Sonny go out and change his style - which was a great style - and go back to woodshedding. . .

By the time we got back to New York and opened at the Cafe Bohemia, a club down in the Village on Barrow Street, the band was playing great, and Trane was blowing his ass off. George Avakian from Columbia records used to come down almost every night to hear the band. He loved the band, thought it was a great group, but he especially loved the way Coltrane was playing now. I remember he told me one night that Trane "seemed to grow taller in height and larger in size with each note that he played," that he "seemed to be pushing each chord to its outer limits, out into space." [xlviii]

This enthusiasm led to a recording contract with Columbia Records for Miles and his group even before his obligations to Prestige were completed. While Coltrane's relatively conservative beginning with Miles is evident in his solo on the October 27, 1955 recording of Budo , [xlix] where Coltrane's improvisation stays fairly closely related to Miles straight ahead (but "cool") bebop stylistic conception. This bears sharp contrast to the more trenchant tenor solo on the September 10, 1956 recording of Sweet Sue, Just You , recorded as a part of an album put together by Leonard Bernstein titled What Is Jazz . The recording came out of a television series ("Omnibus") Bernsteinhosted wherein he explained music in its various forms. Notwithstanding the difference in maturity levels, both recordings demonstrate Coltrane's remarkably flexible sense of timing and his rich and beautiful tone.

Although progress had obviously been made, Coltrane was not satisfied. After performing with Miles throughout 1955 and 1956, Coltrane decided to return home to woodshed and to resolve personal problems. In addition to his work with Davis, however, he had found time to record the album Mating Call with Tadd Dameron on November 30, 1956, and a third album with Chambers.

Upon returning to New York, Coltrane joined Thelonious Monk and his highly innovative quartet. This would prove to be a challenge that would permanently alter Coltrane's approach to music, as recordings made during 1957 demonstrate; his technical and creative authority increased dramatically.

In 1955, I joined Miles on a regular basis and worked with him 'til the middle of 1957. I went with Thelonious Monk for the remainder of that year.

Working with Monk brought me close to a musical architect of the highest order. I felt I learned from him in every way-through the senses, theoretically, technically. I would talk to Monk about musical problems, and he would sit at the piano and show me the answers just by playing them. I could watch him play and find out the things I wanted to know. Also, I could see a lot of things that I didn't know about at all.

Monk was one of the first to who me how to make two or three notes at one time on tenor. (John Glenn, a tenor man in Philly, also showed me how to do this. He can play a triad and move notes inside it-like passing tones!) It's done by false fingering and adjusting your lip. If everything goes right, you can get triads. Monk just looked at my horn and "felt" the mechanics of what had to be done to get this effect.

I think Monk is one of the true greats of all time. He's a real musical thinker-there're not many like him. I feel myself fortunate to have had the opportunity to work with him. If a guy needs a little spark, a boost, he can just be around Monk, and Monk will give it to him. [l]

In contrast to Miles' quintet, Monk's music was difficult and based upon densely constructed chords that were innovative, exciting, and in defiance of traditional song form and blues formats Coltrane had grown accustomed to. Even his approach to performance presentation was iconoclastic. After ending a piano solo, Monk would often leave the piano bench frequently for more than a half hour, leaving Coltrane to solo alone as he ventured out on an uninhibited spiraling and lurching dance to the music. Of course Monk's repertoire also contained many pieces that adhered to traditional song form and blues formats, to some degree, such as Ruby, My Dear (song form),Straight, No Chaser (blues), and others.

In Monk's band Coltrane expanded his harmonic conception, gained independence from the keyboard function of the rhythm section, and learned the principles of multiphonics on the saxophone.

(Monk) also got me into the habit of playing long solos on his pieces, playing the same piece for a long time to find new conceptions for solos. It got so I would go as far as possible on one phrase until I ran out of ideas. The harmonies got to be an obsession for me. Sometimes I'd think I was making music through the wrong end of a magnifying glass. [li] Their collaboration at the Five Spot Cafe in New York demonstrated Coltrane's immediate sympathy for Monk's progressive style. Monk's assistance on Coltrane's harmonic explorations led him to new methods of superimposing supplementary intervals on the fundamental chords of bebop (Example 1). The saxophonist said "I would talk to Monk about musical problems, and he would sit at the piano and show me the answer." [lii] Coltrane took this a step further into the realms of polytonality by stacking related chords upon fundamental chords, a system that was most probably arrived at through contemplative theoretical study and through experiments at the piano before the results were applied to spontaneous composition. Coltrane reveals a few years later: I've been devoting quiet a bit of my time to harmonic studies on my own in libraries and places like that. I've found you've got to look back at old things and see them in a new light. [liii] As a result of this beneficial association, Coltrane recorded an album of Monk originals for the Jazzland record label on June 26, 1957 which shows both men adapting toward a mutual musical vocabulary. Monk's harmonic punctuations behind Coltrane's improvisational embarkations are sensitively executed. By the time the collaboration ended, Coltrane felt ready to rejoin Miles.

Endnotes:

- [i] Cuthbert O. Simpkins, Coltrane: A Biography (New York: Black Classic Press, 1989), p. 8. Cited hereafter as Coltrane.
- [ii] Andrew Nathaniel White III, Trane 'n Me: A Treatise on the Music of John Coltrane Washington D. C.: Andrew's Musical Enterprises, 1981), p. 43. Cited hereafter as Trane 'n Me.
- [iii] J. C. Thomas, Chasin' the Trane (Garden City, New York: Doubleday, 1975), p. 34. Cited hereafter as Chasin'.
- [iv] Chasin', pp. 34-35.
- [v] Coltrane, John in Collaboration with Don DeMicheal. "Coltrane on Coltrane." Down Beat, September 29, 1960, p. 17.
- [vi] Barry McRae, The Jazz Cataclysm (New York: Da Capo Press, 1985), p. 101. Cited hereafter as Jazz Cataclysm.
- [vii] Chasin', p. 34.
- [viii] Jazz Cataclysm, p. 102.
- [ix] Ira Gitler, "'Trane on the Track," Down Beat, October 16, 1958, p. 16. Cited hereafter as " 'Trane on the Track."
- [x] Chasin', p. 42.
- [xi] Coltrane 1951: Trane's First Ride (First Broadcasts : Never Available Before), Vol. 1, Oberon 5100, and Vol. 2, Broadcast Tributes 0009.
- [xii] " 'Trane on the Track," p. 16.
- [xiii] Chasin', p. 58.
- [xiv] Ibid. p. 42
- [xv] Bill Cole, John Coltrane (New York: Schirmer, 1978), p. 211. Cole does not indicate the record label this date was for. Cited hereafter as John Coltrane.
- [xvi] Riverside Records, OJC - 084.
- [xvii] Chasin', p. 66
- [xviii] Bootleg recordings on the Oberon, Broadcast Tributes, Ozone, and Session record labels are included in the discography.
- [xix] John Coltrane, p. 24.
- [xx] Davis, Miles. Miles: The Autobiography (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1989), pp. 194 - 195. Cited hereafter as Miles.
- [xxi] "Train on the Tracks," p. 16.
- [xxii] Miles. p.195.
- [xxiii] Chasin' the Trane. p. 81.
- [xxiv] Joe Goldberg, Jazz Masters of the Fifties (New York: Da Capo Press, 1980) p. 147.
- [xxv] Mark Gridley, Jazz Styles: History and Analysis. Second Edition. (Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 1985. p. 213. Cited hereafter as Jazz Styles.
- [xxvi] Miles, p. 195.
- [xxvii] Ibid., p. 147.
- [xxviii] Jazz Cataclysm, p. 11.
- [xxix] Jazz Cataclysm, p. 103.
- [xxx] Coltrane, John in collaboration with Don DeMicheal, "Coltrane On Coltrane," Down Beat, September 29, 1960, p. 17.
- [xxxi] Feather, Leonard, "Coltrane Shaping Musical Revolt," New York Post (Jazz Beat), October 18, 1964.
- [xxxii] Lewis Porter, "John Coltrane's A Love Supreme: Jazz Improvisation as Composition." Journal of the American Musicological Society, 1985, vol. 38, p. 593.
- [xxxiii] For example, Gunther Schuller, "Sonny Rollins and Thematic Improvising," Jazz Review , I(1958), p. 6-11. Also Lawrence Gushee, "Lester Young's 'Shoe Shine Boy,'" International Musicological Society, Report of the Twelfth Congress Berkeley, 1977, ed. Daniel Heartz and Bonnie Wade (Kassel, 1981), pp. 151-69.
- [xxxiv] Chasin' , p. 171.
- [xxxv] Stephen Horenstein's "L'Offrande Musicale de Coltrane," Jazz Magazine 283 (February, 1980), pp. 32-33. Translation by Lewis R. Porter, as cited in "John Coltrane's Music of 1960 Through 1967: Jazz Improvisation as composition" (Ph. D. Dissertation. Brandeis University, 1983), p. 35.
- [xxxvi] Dane Rudhyar, The Magic of Tone and the Art of Music (London: Shambhala, 1982), p. 137. Cited hereafter as Magic.
- [xxxvii] Frank Kofsky, Black Nationalism and the Revolution in Music (New York: William Morrow and Company, 1972) p. 230.
- [xxxviii] Magic, p. 139.
- [xxxix] Ibid.
- [xl] Poole, Cecil A., "The Metaphysical Concept," Rosicrucian Digest, Sept./Oct. 1989, p 21.
- [xli] Norma McLeod. "Some Techniques of Analysis for Non-Western Music." Ph.D. dissertation (Northwestern University, 1966) Abstract.
- [xlii] Quoted in Chasin' the Trane. p.180.
- [xliii] Barry Kernfeld. "Adderley, Coltrane, and Davis at the Twilight of Bebop. The search for Melodic Coherence (1958-59)," vols. I and II, Ph. D. Thesis (Cornell University, 1981), p.48.
- [xliv] Meki Nzewi, "Melo-Rhythmic Essence and Hot Rhythm in Nigerian Folk Music", The Black Perspective In Music 2/1: 23-28 (1974).
- [xlv] The New Miles Davis Quintet, Prestige 7254, October 27, 1955.
- [xlvi] "Coltrane On Coltrane," p. 17.
- [xlvii] Trane 'n Me. p. 44.
- [xlviii] Miles Davis, Miles: The Autobiography (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1989), p. 199.
- [xlix] Miles first recording for Columbia with his new band.
- [l] "Coltrane On Coltrane," p. 17.
- [li] Chasin'. p. 90.
- [lii] "Coltrane on Coltrane," pp.17 and 53.
- [liii] Ekkehard Jost, Free Jazz (New York: Da Capo Press, 1981), p. 20.

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Living Encyclopedia of Global African Music
Received September 2001
Posted 07/25/2002