John Coltrane Slept Here: Preserving His Home in Philadelphia
This All About Jazz column involves the preservation of the house in which John Coltrane lived from 1952 to ’58 in Philadelphia, where he was raised. Philly is only 90 minutes from New York City, but it seems worlds away. It’s a more provincial, insular community than Manhattan, which may be why all the great jazz musicians that it generated, including Coltrane, Lee Morgan, Benny Golson, Ray Bryant, the Heath brothers and dozens more left Philly to make their mark on the world.
-Michael Cuscuna
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“Seaman John Coltrane, reporting for duty, sir!”
Would the history of American music have been different, if John Coltrane had stayed in the Navy way past his enlistment date of 1945? Read this and speculate.
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Re-live at the Five Spot
This Jerry Jazz Musician feature compiles music, art and literature that takes us back to the Five Spot in 1957, where Thelonious Monk held court and the new artists and writers who would define the era gathered.
-Michael Cuscuna
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Why John Coltrane Chose Johnny Hartman
In the midst of John Coltrane’s “ballad period,” an artistic period perhaps as popular and embedded in jazz culture as Picasso’s “blue period” is in modern art, Coltrane was searching for a vocalist for his next ballad album. The result immortalized Johnny Hartman. Why did Coltrane choose Hartman as his partner for that album? Jazz Times gives us a glimpse at Coltrane’s thinking, from Gregg Akkerman’s recently published book, The Last Balladeer: The Johnny Hartman Story.
-Nick Moy
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Read MoreAhmad Jamal on Jazz and the American Song
Pianist Ahmad Jamal, no shrinking violet, and still raising eyebrows with his 2012 release, “Blue Moon,” holds court on his prodigious beginnings, the great jazz interpreters of American song, from Ellington to Parker to Coltrane — “Lester Young, Polka Dots and Moonbeams, when he played that — come on!” — his relationship with Miles Davis, and the virtues of the mute button.
-Nick Moy
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John Coltrane Quartet - 1965
Tim Niland posted these insightful descriptions and comments about the John Colrane Quartet’s performances at the 1965 Antibes/Juan Les Pin jazz festival in southern France. It was a time of turnoil and change for Coltrane and he performed both “A Love Supreme” and the recently record “Ascension” with the group. A mutual friend Michel DeLorne told me that Coltrane was playing a reel-to-reel tape of Albert Ayler in his dressing room on one of these days and wondering out loud where he should go from there.
-Michael Cuscuna
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Coltrane Speaks
This September 1960 Down Beat article by John Coltrane as told to his friend Don DeMichael is an amazing piece of history. Just weeks away from the launch of his amazing classic quartet, he reviews his early professional life and influences. It is quite amazing and wonderful to hear Coltrane in his own words.
-Michael Cuscuna
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Read MoreJohn Coltrane
This hypnotic performance comes from Coltrane’s 1962 European tour, the only tour that Eric Dolphy made with the band. The rhythm section is McCoy Tyner, Reggie Workman and Elvin Jones. Magnificent does not quite cover it.
-Michael Cuscuna
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”When I first recorded Trane, the guy from the record company, said, Miles, who is that out there playing saxophone? I said, man, just record the shit. You want us to play, we’ll play, if not we’ll go home.”
Wow, this is a great interview with Miles Davis, conducted by the late Richard Cook in 1985 for The Guardian. Miles is more candid than usual as he speaks freely about Bird, Coltrane, Wayne Shorter, Tony Williams and many more. Juicy stuff.
-Michael Cuscuna
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How Nat Hentoff wrote John Coltrane liner notes.
When most Coltrane albums came out in the ‘60s, one thing that used to amuse me was how Nat Hentoff could write a full set of liners talking about how John Coltrane didn’t want liner notes and that the music should speak for itself. Nat explains the process here. And in reality, Coltrane was evolving so quickly that his albums needed liner notes far more than most. (Read the article here.)
-Michael Cuscuna
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