1947-48 Singer Eddie Vinson
1949 Altoist in Dizzy Gillespie’s big band
1950-51 Switched to Tenor Sax in Dizzy’s small group
54-54 Stints with Earl Bostic and Johnny Hodges
55-58 Miles “Two Bass Hit” Jazz Classic CD
The excessive length of his
performances were criticized by critics including Miles, to whom Coltrane once
admitted that he was sometimes at a loss to know how to stop playing.
56 Monk—School of Monk (difficult, untraditional chord changes)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
“He felt he had absorbed all that he could of his predecessors and contemporaries, and after the years with Dizzy Gillespie, Johnny Hodges, Davis and Monk he was ready to strike out in pursuit of a wholly personal objective. So while belonging to the hard-bop movement for several years, his long-term commitment lay elsewhere”. (B. Kernfield)
57 “Blue Train” –hardbop tinged
Pre-1960s his improvisations demonstrated a fascination for chord changes
He devoured chord changes
He tried to play every note in every chord and every scale that might be compatible with it.
Hence, journalist Ira Gitler coined: “Sheets of Sound” (furiously paced streams of notes)
--Huge biting sound low and high
--Inspired instrumental proficiency
59 “Giant Steps” Two beats per chord---exercise to gain mastery over a difficult and
unconventional situation for an improviser
1
May 1960 Classic quartet ---McCoy Tyner, Jimmy Garrison, Elvin Jones
1960 “My Favorite Things” – soprano
Inspired from Modal version, melody, then blow on two-chord repeating pattern
1961 “Impressions” 15 minutes of uninterrupted solo improvisation
1963 “Your Lady”
Jazz Classic CD
“Alabama”
Live at Birdland
Fashionable message, combining both spirituality and Civil Rights, secured for Coltrane a wide audience among the large White Hippie culture in the mid 1960s and symbolized what Miles termed a “beautiful, black, revolutionary pride.”
1964 - Career peaked with the quartet album “A Love Supreme” which sold half a
million copies in a year
Thematic economy (4 note pattern)
“Psalm” poem each syllable set to tones his personal poem printed in the
sleeve notes---a song without words
Model for later ‘concept’ albums
1965—“Ascension”
Coltrane moved away from modal improvising toward the direction of Free Jazz
1965 ON
Recorded other albums using similar approaches with smaller bands “Avant garde” not really “Free”
2