John Coltrane Obituary

Jazz Journal in September 1967 published an article on John Coltrane by Barry McRae. It was #9 in a journal series - Column for The Newcomer to Jazz. Presumably Coltrane was chosen because he had passed away the month before the article was written. I haven't seen the August issue, but it doesn't appear to highlight a John Coltrane feature, so I’m not sure if it had anything more substantial. But if not, this presumably is his Jazz Journal obituary.

"As the face of jazz changed in the ‘fifties, certain
players emerged as the dominant voices. Men
such as Charles Mingus, Sonny Rollins, John
Coltrane and Ornette Coleman became central
figures in a jazz world that more than ever
before was fighting for its economic survival.
Saxophonist Coltrane was perhaps the most
fortunate, for his period under the Miles Davis
aegis gave him both the financial security and
the fame to support his later ventures as a
combo leader.

John Coltrane was born in Hamlet, North
Carolina in 1926 and made his musical debut
in Philadelphia in 1945. Much of his early career
was spent in the rhythm-and-blues bands of
Eddie ‘Cleanhead’ Vinson and Earl Bostic.
Periods with various Dizzy Gillespie and Johnny
Hodges units were more rewarding, however,
and also helped to provide a varied grounding
in jazz and blues principles.

In 1955 he joined Miles Davis and began a
partnership that was to last, on and off, until
1960. In theory they were incompatible, Davis
with his haunting tone and insinuating line
and Coltrane full of ebullient overstatement. In
fact, they jelled almost at once and their com-
mon meeting ground was to be their mutual
desire to free jazz from normal, sequential
harmonic improvisations. To do this Coltrane
followed the path that Davis had been exploring
independently for some years. ‘The trumpeter
had begun to base his solos on scales, a process
that did not predestine the length or shape of
his phrases to the same extent as more tradi-
tional forms of improvising.

The recordings they made together are among
the finest of the decade, although Coltrane was
beginning to record more frequently with his
own groups. A spell with Thelonious Monk in
1957 had further broadened the scope of his
playing and his quartet dates made for the
Atlantic label reflect his growing independence.
‘Giant Steps’ (1959) and ‘Coltrane Jazz’ were
important landmarks in his development and
yet they were to prove only stepping stones to
his finest achievement.

This came with his formation on a permanent
basis of the quartet comprising McCoy Tyner
(piano), Elvin Jones (drums) and first Steve
Davis and then Jimmy Garrison (bass). This
group brought the modal form in jazz to such
a peak as to be considered a yardstick of the
style. The modes set by Tyner freed Coltrane
from the restrictions of normal, extemporiz-
ational patterns. On the debit side there were
times when they forced him into a narrow
channel of scalar permutations but such was
his tremendous projection that he was never
contained emotionally. As proof of this, it is
the blues items that are most successful and
the 1960 recordings of Village Blues (on At-
lantic 1354) and Blues To Elvin (London HA-K
8017) are among the most passionate in jazz
history.

Although most of his work had been on tenor,
he was also a superb soprano saxophonist. No
player since Sidney Bechet had been able to
approach the instrument in a new and valid
manner. In translating his tenor to the language
of the higher pitched horn he employed greater
economy and made fewer excursions to its ex-
treme ranges. In so doing, he produced a style
that allowed the idiosyncrasies of the instru-
ment to be compatible with his musical aims.
In the early ‘sixties Coltrane’s style showed
signs of refinement—a course that has a notor-
iously detrimental effect on the jazzman. For-
tunately, it was only a stage and by the middle
‘sixties he had begun fostering the more out-
standing of the young, free form players.
Pharaoh Sanders worked with him and two
drummers were employed in Coltrane’s attempt
to extend the rhythmic possibilities of his music.
Perhaps his most successful performance in this
genre was ‘Ascension’ (1965)—a collective per-
formance that reaffirmed the emotional intensity
and rhythmic licence of his own playing yet
also drew outstanding contributions from new-
comers such as Archie Shepp and John Tchicai.
Last month Coltrane died suddenly in New
York and the young modernists lost not only a
spiritual leader but a man willing and able to
promote the new music in a practical sense.
‘Trane’ was only forty, but was indisputably one
of the most important jazz musicians since the
death of Charlie Parker.

Recommended Records:
Milestones (Miles Davis)
Kind of Blue (Miles Davis)
The Original Quintet (Miles Davis)
Transatlantic PR 7254
Coltrane On 42nd Street Realm RM 157
Trane Ride Realm RM 181
Tanganyika Strut Realm RM 226
Like Someone In Love Transatlantic PR 7188
Traneing In Transatlantic PR 7123
Giant Steps Atlantic 1311
Coltrane Jazz Atlantic 1354
Coltrane Plays The Blues
London HA-K 8017 (Deleted)
Coltrane Quartet Plays Chim Chim Cheree
H.M.V. CLP 1897 (Deleted)
Ascension H.M.V. CLP 3543
Meditation H.M.V. CLP 3575
Coltrane Live At The Village Vanguard Again
H.M.V. CLP 3599"