How To Buy John Coltrane
Which of his albums does everyone need to hear, and why?
THE NEXT MOJO HOW TO BUY pages will address the prodigious output of visionary jazz saxophonist John Coltrane, a man whose posthumous Pulitzer Prize in 2007 declared had an “indelible impact on music in America and across the world,” and whose admirers included Carlos Santana, The Stooges and Primal Scream. Starting his career in the bebop age, the young Coltrane had his mind opened by Charlie Parker: he’d go on to play alongside Miles Davis on some of jazz’s most enduring albums, including the immortal Kind Of Blue in 1959. In 1960 he would embark on an extraordinary series of solo LPs that would ultimately combine full-tilt physicality and blazing spiritual revelation, before his tragically early death, aged just 40, in 1967.
But what’s the best way to get tuned into this musical giant’s works? Blue Trane from ‘57? 1960’s Giant Steps? A Love Supreme from 1965? How about the live-in-'66 Offering: Live At Temple University, released in August on Resonance?
Please tell us your choices and, most importantly, reasoning, on MOJO’s Facebook page, Twitter feed or even, in our inbox and the best suggestions will appear in the next issue of MOJO magazine.
And just to get the inspiration flowing, here's some colour footage (!) of Trane and Quintet live at Newport in '66...
