John William Coltrane (sometimes abbreviated "Trane"; September 23, 1926 – July 17, 1967 was an American jazz saxophonist and composer. Working in the bebop and hard bop idioms early in his career, Coltrane helped pioneer the use of modes in jazz and later was at the forefront of free jazz. He was prolific, organizing at least fifty recording sessions as a leader during his recording career, and appeared as a sideman on many other albums, notably with trumpeter Miles Davis and pianist Thelonious Monk.

As his career progressed, Coltrane and his music took on an increasingly spiritual dimension. His second wife was pianist Alice Coltrane, and their son Ravi Coltrane is also a saxophonist. Coltrane influenced innumerable musicians, and remains one of the most significant tenor saxophonists in jazz history. He received many posthumous awards and recognition, including a beatification by theAfrican Orthodox Church as Saint John William Coltrane. In 2007, Coltrane was awarded the Pulitzer Prize Special Citation for his "masterful improvisation, supreme musicianship and iconic centrality to the history of jazz
 
John Coltrane was born in Hamlet, North Carolina on September 23, 1926, and grew up in High Point, NC, attending William Penn High School (now Penn-Griffin School for the Arts). Beginning in December 1938 Coltrane's aunt, grandparents, and father all died within a few months of each other, leaving John to be raised by his mother and a close cousin. In June 1943 he moved to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He enlisted in the Navy in 1945, and played in the Navy jazz band once he was stationed in Hawaii. Coltrane returned to civilian life in 1946 and began jazz theory studies with Philadelphia guitarist and composer Dennis Sandole. Coltrane continued under Sandole's tutelage until the early 1950s. Originally an altoist, during this time Coltrane also began playing tenor saxophone with theEddie Vinson Band. Coltrane later referred to this point in his life as a time when "a wider area of listening opened up for me. There were many things that people like Hawk, and Ben, and Tab Smith were doing in the '40s that I didn't understand, but that I felt emotionally."

An important moment in the progression of Coltrane's musical development occurred on June 5, 1945, when he saw Charlie Parker perform for the first time. In a DownBeat article in 1960 he recalled: "the first time I heard Bird play, it hit me right between the eyes."Parker became an early idol, and they played together on occasion in the late 1940s.

Contemporary correspondence shows that Coltrane was already known as "Trane" by this point, and that the music from some 1946 recording sessions had been played for Miles Davis—possibly impressing the latter.

There are recordings of Coltrane from as early as 1945. He was a member of groups led by Dizzy Gillespie, Earl Bostic and Johnny Hodges in the early- to mid-1950s.
Miles and Monk period (1955–1957)

Coltrane was freelancing in Philadelphia in the summer of 1955 while studying with guitarist Dennis Sandole when he received a call from trumpeter Miles Davis. Davis, whose success during the late forties had been followed by several years of decline in activity and reputation, due in part to his struggles with heroin, was again active, and was about to form a quintet. Coltrane was with this edition of the Davis band (known as the "First Great Quintet" to distinguish it from Davis's later group with Wayne Shorter) from October 1955 through April 1957 (with a few absences), a period during which Davis released several influential recordings which revealed the first signs of Coltrane's growing ability. This First Quintet, represented by two marathon recording sessions for Prestige in 1956 that resulted in the albums Cookin', Relaxin', Workin', and Steamin', disbanded in mid April due partly to Coltrane's heroin addiction.


During the later part of 1957 Coltrane worked with Thelonious Monk at New York’s Five Spot, a legendary jazz club, and played in Monk's quartet (July–December 1957), but owing to contractual conflicts took part in only one official studio recording session with this group. A private recording made by Juanita Naima Coltrane of a 1958 reunion of the group was issued by Blue Note Records in 1993 as Live at the Five Spot-Discovery!. More significantly, a high-quality tape of a concert given by this quartet in November 1957 surfaced, and in 2005 Blue Note made it available on CD. Recorded by Voice of America, the performances confirm the group's reputation, and the resulting album, Thelonious Monk Quartet with John Coltrane at Carnegie Hall, is widely acclaimed.

Blue Train, Coltrane's sole date as leader for Blue Note, featuring trumpeter Lee Morgan, bassist Paul Chambers, and trombonist Curtis Fuller, is often considered his best album from this period. Four of its five tracks are original Coltrane compositions, and the title track, "Moment's Notice," and "Lazy Bird", have become standards. Both tunes employed the first examples of his chord substitution cycles known as Coltrane changes

Coltrane rejoined Davis in January 1958. In October of that year, jazz critic Ira Gitler coined the term "sheets of sound" to describe the style Coltrane developed during his stint with Monk and was perfecting in Davis' group, now a sextet. His playing was compressed, with rapid runs cascading in hundreds of notes per minute. He stayed with Davis until April 1960, working with alto saxophonist Cannonball Adderley; pianists Red Garland, Bill Evans, and Wynton Kelly; bassist Paul Chambers; and drummers Philly Joe Jones and Jimmy Cobb. During this time he participated in the Davis sessions Milestones and Kind of Blue, and the live recordings Miles & Monk at Newport and Jazz at the Plaza.

At the end of this period Coltrane recorded his first album for Atlantic Records, Giant Steps, comprised exclusively of his own compositions. The album's title track is generally considered to have the most complex and difficult chord progression of any widely-played jazz composition. Giant Steps utilizes Coltrane changes. His development of these altered chord progression cycles led to further experimentation with improvised melody and harmony that he would continue throughout his career.

Coltrane formed his first group, a quartet, in 1960 for an appearance at the Jazz Gallery in New York City. After moving through different personnel including Steve Kuhn, Pete La Roca, and Billy Higgins, the lineup stabilized in the fall with pianist McCoy Tyner, bassist Steve Davis, and drummer Elvin Jones. Tyner, from Philadelphia, had been a friend of Coltrane's for some years and the two men long had an understanding that the pianist would join Coltrane when Tyner felt ready for the exposure of regularly working with him. Also recorded in the same sessions were the later released albums Coltrane's Sound and Coltrane Plays the Blues.
Still with Atlantic Records, for whom he had recorded Giant Steps, his first record with his new group was also his debut playing the soprano saxophone, the hugely successful My Favorite Things. Around the end of his tenure with Davis, Coltrane had begun playing soprano saxophone, an unconventional move considering the instrument's near obsolescence in jazz at the time. His interest in the straight saxophone most likely arose from his admiration for Sidney Bechet and the work of his contemporary, Steve Lacy, even though Miles Davis claimed to have given Coltrane his first soprano saxophone. The new soprano sound was coupled with further exploration. For example, on the Gershwin tune "But Not for Me", Coltrane employs the kinds of restless harmonic movement (Coltrane changes) used on Giant Steps (movement in major thirds rather than conventional perfect fourths) over the A sections instead of a conventional turnaround progression. Several other tracks recorded in the session utilized this harmonic device, including "26-2," "Satellite," "Body and Soul", and "The Night Has a Thousand Eyes".

In May 1961, Coltrane's contract with Atlantic was bought out by the newly formed Impulse! Records label. An advantage to Coltrane recording with Impulse! was that it would enable him to work again with engineer Rudy Van Gelder, who had taped both his and Davis's Prestige sessions, as well as Blue Train. It was at Van Gelder's new studio in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey that Coltrane would record most of his records for the label.

By early 1961, bassist Davis had been replaced by Reggie Workman while Eric Dolphy joined the group as a second horn around the same time. The quintet had a celebrated (and extensively recorded) residency in November 1961 at the Village Vanguard, which demonstrated Coltrane's new direction. It featured the most experimental music he'd played up to this point, influenced by Indian ragas, the recent developments in modal jazz, and the burgeoning free jazz movement. John Gilmore, a longtime saxophonist with musician Sun Ra, was particularly influential; after hearing a Gilmore performance, Coltrane is reported to have said "He's got it! Gilmore's got the concept!" The most celebrated of the Vanguard tunes, the 15-minute blues, "Chasin' the 'Trane", was strongly inspired by Gilmore's music.

During this period, critics were fiercely divided in their estimation of Coltrane, who had radically altered his style. Audiences, too, were perplexed; in France he was famously booed during his final tour with Davis. In 1961, Down Beat magazine indicted Coltrane, along with Eric Dolphy, as players of "Anti-Jazz" in an article that bewildered and upset the musicians. Coltrane admitted some of his early solos were based mostly on technical ideas. Furthermore, Dolphy's angular, voice-like playing earned him a reputation as a figurehead of the "New Thing" (also known as "Free Jazz" and "Avant-Garde") movement led by Ornette Coleman, which was also denigrated by some jazz musicians (including Trane's old boss, Miles Davis) and critics. But as Coltrane's style further developed, he was determined to make each performance "a whole expression of one's being".

In 1962, Dolphy departed and Jimmy Garrison replaced Workman as bassist. From then on, the "Classic Quartet", as it came to be known, with Tyner, Garrison, and Jones, produced searching, spiritually driven work. Coltrane was moving toward a more harmonically static style that allowed him to expand his improvisations rhythmically, melodically, and motivically. Harmonically complex music was still present, but on stage Coltrane heavily favored continually reworking his "standards": "Impressions", "My Favorite Things", and "I Want to Talk about You."

The criticism of the quintet with Dolphy may have had an impact on Coltrane. In contrast to the radicalism of Trane's 1961 recordings at the Village Vanguard, his studio albums in 1962 and 1963 (with the exception of Coltrane, which featured a blistering version of Harold Arlen's "Out of This World") were much more conservative and accessible. He recorded an album of ballads and participated in collaborations with Duke Ellington on the album Duke Ellington and John Coltrane and with deep-voiced ballad singer Johnny Hartman on an eponymous co-credited album. The Impulse compilation Coltrane for Lovers is largely drawn from these three albums. The album Ballads is emblematic of Coltrane's versatility, as the quartet shed new light on old-fashioned standards such as "It's Easy to Remember". Despite a more polished approach in the studio, in concert the quartet continued to balance "standard" and its own more exploratory and challenging music, as can be seen on the Impressions album (two extended jams including the title track along with "Dear Old Stockholm", "After the Rain" and a blues), Coltrane at Newport (where he plays "My Favorite Things") and Live at Birdland both from 1963. Coltrane later said he enjoyed having a "balanced catalogue."

The Classic Quartet produced their most famous record, A Love Supreme, in December 1964. A culmination of much of Coltrane's work up to this point, this four-part suite is an ode to his faith in and love for God. These spiritual concerns would characterize much of Coltrane's composing and playing from this point onwards, as can be seen from album titles such as Ascension, Om and Meditations. The fourth movement of A Love Supreme, "Psalm", is, in fact, a musical setting for an original poem to God written by Coltrane, and printed in the album's liner notes. Coltrane plays almost exactly one note for each syllable of the poem, and bases his phrasing on the words. Despite its challenging musical content, the album was a commercial success by jazz standards, encapsulating both the internal and external energy of the quartet of Coltrane, Tyner, Jones and Garrison. Indeed the previous albumCrescent recorded only a few months before already shows the adventurousness and rapport between these musicians. The album was composed at Coltrane's home in Dix Hills on Long Island.
The quartet only played A Love Supreme live once—in July 1965 at a concert in Antibes, France. By then, Coltrane's music had grown even more adventurous, and the performance provides an interesting contrast to the original.




Avant-garde jazz and the second quartet (1965–1967)

In his late period, Coltrane showed an increasing interest in avant-garde jazz, purveyed by Ornette Coleman, Albert Ayler, Sun Ra and others. In developing his late style, Coltrane was especially influenced by the dissonance of Ayler's trio with bassist Gary Peacock and drummer Sunny Murray, a rhythm section honed with Cecil Taylor as leader. Coltrane championed many younger free jazz musicians, (notably Archie Shepp), and under his influence Impulse! became a leading free jazz record label.

After A Love Supreme was recorded, Ayler's apocalyptic style became more prominent in Coltrane's music. A series of recordings with the Classic Quartet in the first half of 1965 show Coltrane's playing becoming increasingly abstract, with greater incorporation of devices like multiphonics, utilization of overtones, and playing in the altissimo register, as well as a mutated return to Coltrane's sheets of sound. In the studio, he all but abandoned his soprano to concentrate on the tenor saxophone. In addition, the quartet responded to the leader by playing with increasing freedom. The group's evolution can be traced through the recordings The John Coltrane Quartet Plays, Living Space, Transition (both June 1965),New Thing at Newport (July 1965), Sun Ship (August 1965), and First Meditations (September 1965).
In June 1965, he went into 's studio with ten other musicians (including Shepp, Pharoah Sanders, Freddie Hubbard, Marion Brown, and John Tchicai) to record Ascension, a 40-minute long piece that included adventurous solos by the young avant-garde musicians (as well as Coltrane), and was controversial primarily for the collective improvisation sections that separated the solos. After recording with the quartet over the next few months, Coltrane invited Pharoah Sanders to join the band in September 1965.
By any measure, Sanders was one of the most abrasive, virtuosic saxophonists then playing. While Coltrane used over-blowing frequently as an emotional exclamation-point, Sanders would opt to overblow his entire solo, resulting in a constant screaming and screeching in the altissimo range of the instrument. The more Coltrane played with Sanders, the more he gravitated to Sanders' unique sound.



Adding to the quartet

By late 1965, Coltrane was regularly augmenting his group with Sanders and other free jazz musicians. Rashied Ali joined the group as a second drummer. This was the end of the quartet; claiming he was unable to hear himself over the two drummers, Tyner left the band shortly after the recording of Meditations. Jones left in early 1966, dissatisfied by sharing drumming duties with Ali. Both Tyner and Jones subsequently expressed displeasure in interviews, after Coltrane's death, with the music's new direction, while incorporating some of the free-jazz form's intensity into their own solo projects.
In 1965 Coltrane may have begun using LSD - informing the sublime, "cosmic" transcendence of his late period, and also its incomprehensibility to many listeners. After Jones's and Tyner's departures, Coltrane led a quintet with Pharoah Sanders on tenor saxophone, his second wife Alice Coltrane on piano, Jimmy Garrison on bass, and Rashied Alion drums. Coltrane and Sanders were described by Nat Hentoff as "speaking in tongues". When touring, the group was known for playing very lengthy versions of their repertoire, many stretching beyond 30 minutes and sometimes even being an hour long. Concert solos for band members regularly extended beyond fifteen minutes in duration.



Despite the radicalism of the horns, the rhythm section with Ali and Alice Coltrane had a more relaxed, random but meditative feel than with Jones and Tyner. The group can be heard on several live recordings from 1966, including Live at the Village Vanguard Again! and Live in Japan. In 1967, Coltrane entered the studio several times; though pieces with Sanders have surfaced (the unusual "To Be", which features both men on flutes), most of the recordings were either with the quartet minus Sanders (Expression and Stellar Regions) or as a duo with Ali. The latter duo produced six performances which appear on the album Interstellar Space.



Death and funeral

Coltrane died from liver cancer at Huntington Hospital on Long Island on July 17, 1967, at the age of 40. His funeral was held on Friday, July 21 at St. Peters Lutheran Church in New York City. The Albert Ayler Quartet and The Ornette Coleman Quartet respectively opened and closed the service. He is buried at Pinelawn Cemetery in Farmingdale, N.Y.
Biographer Lewis Porter has suggested, somewhat controversially, that the cause of Coltrane's illness was hepatitis, although he also attributed the disease to Coltrane's heroin use.In a 1968 interview Albert Ayler claimed that Coltrane was consulting a Hindu meditative healer for his illness instead of Western medicine, though Alice Coltrane later denied this.
His death surprised many in the musical community who were not aware of his condition. Miles Davis commented: "Coltrane's death shocked everyone, took everyone by surprise. I knew he hadn't looked too good... But I didn't know he was that sick—or even sick at all."

The Coltrane family reportedly remains in possession of much more as-yet-unreleased music, mostly mono reference tapes made for the saxophonist and, as with the 1995 releaseStellar Regions, master tapes that were checked out of the studio and never returned.[citation needed] The parent company of Impulse!, from 1965 to 1979 known as ABC Records, purged much of its unreleased material in the 1970s. Lewis Porter has stated that Alice Coltrane, who died in 2007, intended to release this music, but over a long period of time; her son Ravi Coltrane, responsible for reviewing the material, is also pursuing his own career.[citation needed]



Instruments

Coltrane played the clarinet and the alto horn in a community band before taking up the alto saxophone during high school. In 1947, when he joined King Kolax's band, Coltrane switched to tenor saxophone, the instrument he became known for playing primarily.
In the early 1960s, during his engagement with Atlantic Records, he increasingly played soprano saxophone as well. The cover of his album My Favorite Things features Coltrane playing soprano. Toward the end of his career, he experimented with flute in his live performances and studio recordings.



Religious beliefs

Coltrane was born and raised in a Christian home, and was influenced by religion and spirituality from childhood. His maternal grandfather, the Reverend William Blair, was a preacher at an African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church in High Point, North Carolina, and John's paternal grandfather, Reverend William H. Coltrane, was an A.M.E. Zion minister in Hamlet, North Carolina. John's parents met through church affiliation, and married in 1925. John was born in 1926. As a youth, John practiced music in the southern African-American church. In A Night in Tunisia: Imaginings of Africa in Jazz, Norman Weinstein notes the parallel between Coltrane's music and his experience in the southern church.

In 1955, Coltrane married Juanita Naima Grubbs, a Muslim convert, (for whom he later wrote the piece "Naima"), and came into contact with Islam. Coltrane explored Hinduism, the Kabbalah, Jiddu Krishnamurti, African history, and the philosophical teachings of Plato and Aristotle.Coltrane also became interested in Zen Buddhism and, later in his career, visited Buddhist temples during his 1966 tour of Japan.



Since 1948, Coltrane had struggled with heroin addiction as well as alcoholism.In 1957, Coltrane changed his life for the better. He had a religious experience which may have been what finally led him to overcome his addictions to alcohol and heroin. In the liner notes of A Love Supreme (released in 1965) Coltrane states "during the year 1957, I experienced, by the grace of God, a spiritual awakening which was to lead me to a richer, fuller, more productive life. At that time, in gratitude, I humbly asked to be given the means and privilege to make others happy through music." In his 1965 album Meditations, Coltrane wrote about uplifting people, "...To inspire them to realize more and more of their capacities for living meaningful lives. Because there certainly is meaning to life."



John and Naima Coltrane had no children together and were separated by the summer of 1963, and not long after that John met pianist Alice McLeod (who soon became Alice Coltrane). John and Alice moved in together and had two sons before he was "officially divorced from Naima in 1966, at which time John and Alice were immediately married."John Jr. was born in 1964, Ravi was born in 1965, and Oranyan (Oran) was born in 1967. According to Lavezzoli, "Alice brought happiness and stability to John's life, not only because they had children, but also because they shared many of the same spiritual beliefs, particularly a mutual interest in Indian philosophy. Alice also understood what it was like to be a professional musician".

Moustafa Bayoumi, an associate professor of English at Brooklyn College, City University of New York, argues that Coltrane's A Love Supreme (recorded in December 1964 and released in 1965) features Coltrane chanting, "Allah Supreme." However, in Lewis Porter's book John Coltrane: His Life and Music (2000), on page 242, he describes the lyrics this way: "Coltrane and another voice - probably himself overdubbed - chant the words "a love supreme" in unison with the bass ostinato". In Peter Lavezzoli's book The Dawn of Indian Music in the West: Bhairavi (2006), on page 283, he says, "Certainly in his opening solo in "Acknowledgment," with his constant modulations of the same phrase in different keys, Coltrane assumes the role of the preacher. After stating the theme in every possible key, Coltrane concludes his solo and quietly begins to chant, "A love supreme . . . . a love supreme," singing the same four notes played by Garrison on the bass. After chanting "A love supreme" sixteen times, Coltrane and the band shift from F minor down to E flat minor, and the chant slowly tapers off." Whatever the case may be, the liner notes to A Love Supreme appear to mention God in a Universalist sense, and do not advocate one religion over another.Further evidence of this universal view regarding spirituality can be found in the liner notes of Meditations (1965), in which Coltrane declares, "I believe in all religions."

Lavezzoli points out that "After A Love Supreme, most of Coltrane's song and album titles had spiritual implications: Ascension, Om, Selflessness, Meditations, "Amen," "Ascent," "Attaining," "Dear Lord," "Prayer and Meditation Suite," and the opening movement of Meditations, "The Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost," the most obvious Christian reference in any of Coltrane's work."Coltrane's collection of books included The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, the Bhagavad Gita, Paramahansa Yogananda's Autobiography of a Yogi, which, Lavezzoli points out, "recounts Yogananda's search for universal truth, a journey that Coltrane had also undertaken. Yogananda believed that both Eastern and Western spiritual paths were efficacious, and wrote of the similarities between Krishna and Christ. This openness to different traditions resonated with Coltrane, who studied the Qur'an, theBible, Kabbalah, and astrology with equal sincerity."

In October 1965, Coltrane recorded Om, referring to the sacred syllable in Hinduism, which symbolizes the infinite or the entire Universe. Coltrane described Om as the "first syllable, the primal word, the word of power". The 29-minute recording contains chants from the Bhagavad-Gita, a Hindu holy book, as well as Coltrane and Pharoah Sanders chanting from aBuddhist text, The Tibetan Book of the Dead, and reciting a passage describing the primal verbalization "om" as a cosmic/spiritual common denominator in all things.

Coltrane's spiritual journey was interwoven with his investigation into world music. He believed not only in a universal musical structure which transcended ethnic distinctions, but in being able to harness the mystical language of music itself. Coltrane's study of Indian music led him to believe that certain sounds and scales could "produce specific emotional meanings." According to Coltrane, the goal of a musician was to understand these forces, control them, and elicit a response from the audience. Coltrane said: "I would like to bring to people something like happiness. I would like to discover a method so that if I want it to rain, it will start right away to rain. If one of my friends is ill, I'd like to play a certain song and he will be cured; when he'd be broke, I'd bring out a different song and immediately he'd receive all the money he needed."



Legacy

The influence Coltrane has had on music spans many different genres and musicians. Coltrane's massive influence on jazz, both mainstream and avant-garde, began during his lifetime and continued to grow after his death. He is one of the most dominant influences on post-1960 jazz saxophonists and has inspired an entire generation of jazz musicians. In 1965, he was inducted into the Down Beat Jazz Hall of Fame. In 1972, A Love Supreme was certified gold by the RIAA for selling over half a million copies in Japan. This album, as well as My Favorite Things, was certified gold in the United States in 2001. In 1982 Coltrane was awarded a posthumous Grammy for "Best Jazz Solo Performance" on the album Bye Bye Blackbird, and in 1997, was awarded the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.
His widow, Alice Coltrane, after several decades of seclusion, briefly regained a public profile before her death in 2007. Coltrane's son, Ravi Coltrane, named after the great Indian sitarist Ravi Shankar, who was greatly admired by Coltrane, has followed in his father's footsteps and is a prominent contemporary saxophonist.



A former home, the John Coltrane House in Philadelphia, was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1999. His last home, the John Coltrane Home in the Dix Hills neighborhood of Huntington, New York, where he resided from 1964 until his death in 1967, was added to the National Register of Historic Places on June 29, 2007.

His revolutionary use of multi-tonic systems in jazz has become a widespread composition and reharmonization technique known as "Coltrane changes".

In 2002, scholar Molefi Kete Asante listed John Coltrane on his list of 100 Greatest African Americans.

Coltrane's tenor (Selmer Mark VI, serial number 125571, dated 1965) and soprano (Selmer Mark VI, serial number 99626, dated 1962) saxophones were auctioned on February 20, 2005 to raise money for the John Coltrane Foundation. The soprano raised $70,800 but the tenor remained unsold.



Sainthood

The African Orthodox Church has beatified Coltrane and declared him a saint in 1971. Its services incorporate Coltrane's music, using his lyrics as prayers.A documentary on Coltrane, featuring the church, presented by Alan Yentob was produced for the BBC in 2004.
Top Albums by John Coltrane

Earl Bostic
Earl Bostic and his Orchestra (1952) (78)
Earl Bostic and his Alto Sax, Vol. 4 (1952) (LP)

Gay Crosse
Fat Sam from Birmingham b/w Bittersweet (1952) (45)
Easy Rockin’ b/w G.C. Rock (1952) (45)
No Better for You b/w Tired of Being Shoved Around (1952) (45)

Dexter Culbertson’s U.S. Navy Band
Dexter Culbertson’s U.S. Navy Band (1946) (4 unnumbered 78s)

Dizzy Gillespie
Strictly Bebop (1950) (78)
The Complete Recordings with Dizzy (1949-1951) (LP)
The Champ (1951) (Coltrane on 2 tracks only) (78)
Trane’s First Ride 1951 (2 volumes) (1951) (LP)
School Days (1951) (78)
The Champ (1951) (78)
Birk’s Works (1951) (LP)

Johnny Hodges
At a Dance, In the Studio, On the Radio (1954) (78)
Used to Be a Duke (Coltrane on 2 tracks only) (1954) (78)

Dinah Washington
The Good Old Days (1949) (45)
The Blues (1949) (45)
Fast Movin’ Mama b/w Juice Head Man of Mine (1949) (45)
The Richest Guy in the Graveyard b/w unknown (1949) (45)
With Miles Davis

See Miles Davis for more information on Coltrane’s recordings with Davis.

Compilations:
The Legendary Prestige Quintet Sessions [Prestige] (4 discs)
Columbia] (1 disc)
The Complete Columbia Recordings of Miles Davis with John Coltrane [Columbia] (6 discs)

1955:
Circle in the Round (1955) (released in 1979)
'Round About Midnight (1955)
Basic Miles (1955)
Miles: The New Miles Davis Quintet (1955)

1956:
Workin' (1956)
Steamin' (1956)
Relaxin' (1956)
Cookin' (1956)
Miles Davis Quintet at Peacock Alley (1956)
Miles Davis and the Modern Jazz Giants (1956) (Coltrane on 1 track only)

1958:
Circle in the Round (1958) (released in 1979)
Milestones (1958)
Makin' Wax (1958)
Jazz Track (1958)
'58 Sessions (1958)
Black Giants (1958)
Miles & Monk at Newport (1958)
Miles Davis All Stars featuring John Coltrane with Cannonball Adderley [radio broadcast](1958)

1959:
Kind of Blue (1959)

1960:
Live at Olympia Paris (1960)
Miles Davis and John Coltrane Live in Stockholm (1960)

1961:
Someday My Prince Will Come (1961) (Coltrane on 2 tracks only)
With Thelonious Monk

1957:
Thelonious Himself
Monk's Music
Thelonious Monk with John Coltrane
The Complete 1957 Riverside Recordings
Thelonious Monk Quartet with John Coltrane at Carnegie Hall (released 2005)
Albums by label
Prestige

In 1957, Coltrane signed a two-year contract to record exclusively with Prestige Records. Many of Coltrane's recordings for Prestige could be classified as "sidemen" recordings, as these albums were the results of rather informal jam sessions (“blowing sessions,” in the then-current terminology) under various leaders, most often Mal Waldron. When Coltrane began to gain prominence in the early 1960s, Prestige also reissued a number of Coltrane’s recordings as a sideman under his own name to capitalize on his success. The leaders of such albums are indicated below. The The Prestige Recordings collects all of Coltrane’s recordings for Prestige with the exception of his work with Miles Davis.

Compilations:
The Prestige Recordings [Prestige] (16 discs) (1991)
The Legendary Prestige Quintet Sessions (4 discs) (Miles Davis, leader) (2006)
Fearless Leader (6 discs) (2006)
Interplay (5 discs) (2007)
Side Steps (5 discs) (2009)

1956:
Informal Jazz (with Elmo Hope)
Mating Call (Tadd Dameron, leader)
Tenor Conclave
Tenor Madness (Sonny Rollins, leader) (Coltrane on title track only)

1957:
Chambers' Music (Paul Chambers, leader) (1956)
Whims Of Chambers (Paul Chambers, leader) (1956)
The Cats (with Tommy Flanagan and Kenny Burrell)
Cattin' with Coltrane and Quinichette (with Paul Quinichette)
Coltrane [Prestige]
Dakar [Prestige]
The Dealers (with Mal Waldron)
Interplay for 2 Trumpets and 2 Tenors
Mal-2 (with Mal Waldron)
Traneing In [Prestige]
Wheelin' and Dealin' (with Mal Waldron)
Winner's Circle (Oscar Pettiford, leader)
The Ray Draper Quintet featuring John Coltrane (1957)
All Mornin' Long (1957) (with Red Garland)
Soul Junction (1957) (with Red Garland)
High Pressure (1957) (with Red Garland)
Dig It! (1958) (with Red Garland)
Taylor's Wailers (Art Taylor, leader)
'


Art Blakey Big Band

1958:
Bahia [Prestige]
The Believer [Prestige]
Black Pearls [Prestige]
The Last Trane [Prestige]
Lush Life [Prestige]
Mainstream 1958 (with Wilbur Harden and Tommy Flanagan)
Settin' the Pace [Prestige]
Soultrane [Prestige]
Standard Coltrane [Prestige]
Stardust [Prestige]
A Tuba Jazz (1958) (with Ray Draper)
Groove Blues (Gene Ammons, leader) (1958)
The Big Sound(Gene Ammons, leader) (1958)
Kenny Burrell and John Coltrane (1958)




Blue Note

1956:
High Step (Paul Chambers, leader)

1957:
Sonny's Crib (Sonny Clark, leader)
A Blowin' Session (Johnny Griffin, leader)
Whims of Chambers (Paul Chambers, leader)

1958:
Blue Train
Trane's Blues
Coltrane Time (Cecil Taylor, leader)
[edit]Savoy

1958:
Countdown: The Savoy Sessions (with Wilbur Harden)
Dial Africa: The Savoy Sessions (with Wilbur Harden)
Gold Coast (with Wilbur Harden
Jazz Way Out (with Wilbur Harden)
Tanganyika Strut (with Wilbur Harden)



Atlantic

Coltrane signed a two-year contract with Atlantic Records in 1959. He was the leader of all of these sessions except Bags and Trane and The Avant-Garde, where he was featured with Milt Jackson and Don Cherry respectively. Coltrane made many of his most famous recordings for Atlantic, including Giant Steps and his soprano debut, the popular My Favorite Things. The Heavyweight Champion box collects all of Coltrane’s recordings for Atlantic, including all known out takes.

Compilations:

The Very Best of John Coltrane (2000)
Heavyweight Champion: The Complete Atlantic Recordings (7 discs)
The Very Best of the Atlantic Years (2007)

1959:
Bags and Trane (with Milt Jackson)

1960:
Alternate Takes (released 1975)
The Avant-Garde (with Don Cherry) (released 1966)
The Coltrane Legacy (released 1970)
Coltrane's Sound (released 1964)
Giant Steps
Coltrane Jazz
My Favorite Things
Coltrane Plays the Blues
Olé Coltrane



Impulse

Coltrane was the first artist to sign with the new Impulse! Records label which started in 1961 and where he spent the rest of his career. Coltrane was able to release albums as often as he wished (with a minimum of two albums a year). The Classic Quartet box set collects all of the recordings of the quartet of Coltrane, McCoy Tyner, Jimmy Garrison and Elvin Jones. The rest of Coltrane’s Impulse! recordings are not collected.

Compilations:
The Classic Quartet: The Complete Impulse! Recordings (8 discs)
The Impulse Albums: Volume One (5 discs) (2007)
The Impulse Albums: Volume Two (5 discs) (2008)
The Impulse Albums: Volume Three (5 discs) (2009)
My Favorite Things: Coltrane at Newport (2007)

1961:
Africa/Brass
Impressions
The Complete 1961 Village Vanguard Recordings (1961) (4 discs)

1962:
Ballads
Coltrane
Duke Ellington & John Coltrane

1963:
John Coltrane and Johnny Hartman
Live at Birdland
Newport '63

1964:
Crescent
A Love Supreme (RIAA: Gold)

1965:
Ascension
First Meditations
Gleanings
Infinity
The John Coltrane Quartet Plays
Kulu Sé Mama
Live at the Half Note: One Up, One Down
Live in Seattle
Living Space
The Major Works of John Coltrane
Meditations
Om
To the Beat of a Different Drum
Transition
Selflessness: Featuring My Favorite Things
Sun Ship
New Thing at Newport [Coltrane on one side, Archie Shepp on the other]

1966:
Cosmic Music
Live in Japan (4 discs)
Live at the Village Vanguard Again!

1967:
Expression
Interstellar Space
The Olatunji Concert: The Last Live Recording
Stellar Regions
Pablo

Pablo Records has posthumously released a number of Coltrane’s live recordings, including the celebrated Afro-Blue Impressions.
Afro-Blue Impressions (1961) [Pablo]
European Tours (1961) [Pablo] (7 discs)
Bye Bye Blackbird [Pablo Records]
The Paris Concert [Pablo]
Other labels

Most of the labels listed below have posthumously released live recordings, including releases from foreign labels recorded off the radio.



The Bethlehem Years (1957) (Art Blakey, leader) [Bethlehem]
Legrand Jazz (1958) (Michel Legrand, leader) (Coltrane on 3 tracks only)
New York. N.Y. (1958) (George Russell, leader) (Coltrane on 1 track only)
Cannonball Adderley Quintet in Chicago [aka Cannonball and Coltrane] (1959) [Mercury]
Like Sonny (1959) [Roulette]
The Complete Copenhagen Concert (1961) [Magnetic]
The Complete Paris Concerts (1961) [Magnetic]
The 1961 Helsinki Concert (1961) [Gambit]
Live in Stockholm 1961 (1961) [LeJazz]
The Complete 1962 Stockholm Concert [Magnetic]
The Complete Graz Concert (1962) [Charly]
Live at Birdland 1962 (1962) [LeJazz]
Live in Stockholm 1963 (1963)[Charley]
Brazilia (1965) [Blue Parrot]
Creation (1965) [Blue Parrot]
Live in Antibes [French Radio Classic Concerts]
Live in Paris (album) [Charley]



Compilations/Box sets



The Best of John Coltrane (1970)
The Prestige Recordings (16 discs)
The Classic Quartet: The Complete Impulse! Recordings (8 discs)
The Heavyweight Champion: The Complete Atlantic Recordings (7 discs)
The Complete Columbia Recordings of Miles Davis with John Coltrane (6 discs)
The Last Giant: Anthology (2 discs)
Ken Burns Jazz: John Coltrane (Verve Records) (1 disc)
Coltrane for Lovers (Verve Records) (1 disc)



Videos



Jazz Casual: John Coltrane (1963)
The World According to John Coltrane (1990)
Coltrane and Cannonball (1998)
John Coltrane: A True Innovator (2004)
Trane Tracks: The Legacy of John Coltrane (2005)
John Coltrane: Impressions of John Coltrane (2006)
Impressions of Coltrane (2007)

Besides the appearances listed below, Coltrane made a couple dozen appearances on various European television outlets in the 1960s.
The Steve Allen Show – 10/18/1955 mp3
The Sounds of Miles Davis – CBS - 1959
The Robert Herridge Show– 4/2/1959
Sudwestfunk TV Studio – Baden-Baden, West Germany - 11/4/1961



Albums by year

1946



Dexter Culbertson’s U.S. Navy Band (Dexter Culbertson, leader) (4 unnumbered 78s)

1949



The Good Old Days (Dinah Washington, leader) (45)
The Blues (Dinah Washington, leader) (45)
Fast Movin’ Mama b/w Juice Head Man of Mine (Dinah Washington, leader) (45)
The Richest Guy in the Graveyard b/w unknown (Dinah Washington, leader) (45)
The Complete Recordings with Dizzy (1949-1951) (Dizzy Gillespie, leader) (LP/CD)

1950
Strictly Bebop (Dizzy Gillespie, leader) (78)
The Champ (Dizzy Gillespie, leader) (Coltrane on 2 tracks only) (78)
Used to Be a Duke (Johnny Hodges, leader) (Coltrane on 2 tracks only) (78)

1951
Trane’s First Ride 1951 (2 volumes) (Dizzy Gillespie, leader) (LP)
School Days (Dizzy Gillespie, leader) (78)
The Champ (Dizzy Gillespie, leader) (78)
Birk’s Works (Dizzy Gillespie, leader) (LP)

1952
Earl Bostic and his Orchestra (Earl Bostic, leader) (78)
Earl Bostic and his Alto Sax, Vol. 4 (Earl Bostic, leader) (LP)
Fat Sam from Birmingham b/w Bittersweet (Gay Crosse, leader) (45)
Easy Rockin’ b/w G.C. Rock (Gay Crosse, leader) (45)
No Better for You b/w Tired of Being Shoved Around (Gay Crosse, leader) (45)

1954:
At a Dance, In the Studio, On the Radio (Johnny Hodges, leader) (78)
Used to Be a Duke (Coltrane on 2 tracks only) (1954) (78)

1955:
Circle in the Round (Miles Davis, leader) (Coltrane on 3 tracks only)
'Round About Midnight (Miles Davis, leader)
Basic Miles (Miles Davis, leader)
Miles: The New Miles Davis Quintet (Miles Davis, leader)

1956:
Workin' (Miles Davis, leader)
Steamin' (Miles Davis, leader)
Relaxin' (Miles Davis, leader)
Cookin' (Miles Davis, leader)
Miles Davis Quintet at Peacock Alley (Miles Davis, leader)
Miles Davis and the Modern Jazz Giants (Miles Davis, leader) (Coltrane on 1 track only)
High Step (Paul Chambers, leader)
Informal Jazz (with Elmo Hope)
Mating Call (Tadd Dameron, leader)
Tenor Conclave
Chambers' Music (Paul Chambers, leader)
Whims Of Chambers (Paul Chambers, leader)
A Blowing Session (with Johnny Griffin)
Tenor Madness (Sonny Rollins, leader) (Coltrane on title track only)

1957:
Thelonious Himself (Thelonious Monk, leader)
Monk's Music (Thelonious Monk, leader)
Thelonious Monk with John Coltrane (Thelonious Monk, leader)
The Complete 1957 Riverside Recordings (Thelonious Monk, leader)
Thelonious Monk Quartet with John Coltrane at Carnegie Hall (Thelonious Monk, leader) (released 2005)
The Cats (with Tommy Flanagan and Kenny Burrell)
Cattin' with Coltrane and Quinichette (with Paul Quinichette)
Coltrane
Dakar
The Dealers (with Mal Waldron)
Interplay for 2 Trumpets and 2 Tenors
Mal-2 (with Mal Waldron)
Traneing In
Wheelin' and Dealin' (with Mal Waldron)
Winner's Circle (with Oscar Pettiford)
The Ray Draper Quintet featuring John Coltrane
All Mornin' Long (Red Garland, leader)
Soul Junction (Red Garland, leader)
High Pressure (Red Garland, leader)
Dig It! (Red Garland, leader)
Bahia
Taylor's Wailers (Art Taylor, leader)
Art Blakey Big Band
The Bethlehem Years (Art Blakey, leader)

1958:
Milestones (Miles Davis, leader)
Makin' Wax (Miles Davis, leader)
Jazz Track (Miles Davis, leader)
'58 Sessions (Miles Davis, leader)
Black Giants (Miles Davis, leader)
Miles & Monk at Newport (Miles Davis, leader)
Miles Davis All Stars featuring John Coltrane with Cannonball Adderley [radio broadcast] (Miles Davis, leader)
The Believer
Black Pearls
The Last Trane
Lush Life
Mainstream 1958 [with Wilbur Harden and Tommy Flanagan]
Settin' the Pace
Soultrane
Standard Coltrane
Stardust
A Tuba Jazz (Ray Draper, leader)
Groove Blues (Gene Ammons, leader)
The Big Sound(Gene Ammons, leader)
Sonny's Crib (Sonny Clark, leader)
Blue Train
Trane's Blues
Hard Driving Jazz (Cecil Taylor, leader) (aka. Hard Driving Jazz)
Countdown: The Savoy Sessions (with Wilbur Harden)
Dial Africa: The Savoy Sessions (with Wilbur Harden)
Gold Coast (with Wilbur Harden)
Jazz Way Out (with Wilbur Harden)
Tanganyika Strut (with Wilbur Harden)
Legrand Jazz (Michel Legrand, leader) (Coltrane on 3 tracks only)
New York (George Russell, leader) (Coltrane on 1 track only)
Kenny Burrell and John Coltrane

1959:
Kind of Blue (Miles Davis, leader)
Bags and Trane [with Milt Jackson]
Giant Steps
Cannonball Adderley Quintet in Chicago [aka Cannonball and Coltrane]
Like Sonny

1960:
Live at Olympia Paris (Miles Davis, leader)
Miles Davis and John Coltrane Live in Stockholm (Miles Davis, leader)
Alternate Takes (released 1975)
The Avant-Garde (with Don Cherry) (released 1966)
The Coltrane Legacy (released 1970)
Coltrane's Sound (released 1964)
Coltrane Jazz
My Favorite Things
Coltrane Plays the Blues

1961:
Someday My Prince Will Come (Miles Davis, leader) (Coltrane on 2 tracks only)
Olé Coltrane
Africa/Brass
Impressions
Live! at the Village Vanguard
Afro-Blue Impressions
The Complete Copenhagen Concert
The Complete Paris Concerts
Live in Stockholm 1961
The Complete 1961 Village Vanguard Recordings (4 discs)
The 1961 Helsinki Concert (1961) [Gambit]

1962:
Ballads
Coltrane
Duke Ellington & John Coltrane
John Coltrane and Johnny Hartman'
European Tours (7CD)
Bye Bye Blackbird
The Complete 1962 Stockholm Concert
The Complete Graz Concert
The European Tour
Live at Birdland 1962

1963:
Live at Birdland
Newport '63
Live in Stockholm 1963
The Paris Concert

1964:
Crescent
A Love Supreme

1965:
Ascension
First Meditations
Gleanings
Infinity
The John Coltrane Quartet Plays
Kulu Sé Mama
Live at the Half Note: One Up, One Down
Live in Seattle
Living Space
The Major Works of John Coltrane
Meditations
Om
To the Beat of a Different Drum
Transition
Selflessness: Featuring My Favorite Things
Sun Ship
Brazilia
Creation
Live in Antibes
Live in Paris
New Thing at Newport (Coltrane on one side, Archie Shepp on the other)

1966:
Cosmic Music
Live in Japan
Live at the Village Vanguard Again!

1967:
Expression
Interstellar Space
The Olatunji Concert: The Last Live Recording
Stellar Regions