John Coltrane was born September 23, 1926 in Hamlet, North Carolina. His early instruments were the E-flat horn and clarinet. In high school he switched to the saxophone having been strongly influenced by Lester Young and Johnny Hodges. He moved to Philadelphia in 1943 and continued his musical training at Granoff Studios and the Ornstein School of Music. In 1945 his studies were interrupted. He served during WWII in the U.S. Navy Band stationed in Hawaii.
After the war he switched to the tenor sax. He played with Jimmy Heath, the Big Band of Dizzy Gillespie and later with Miles Davis. It was with Miles in 1958 where Coltrane's own musical evolution occurred. At the end of his tenure Davis began playing the soprano saxophone, an unconventional move at the time. In 1960 Coltrane formed his own group, the John Coltrane Quartet, with pianist McCoy Tyner, drummer Elvin Jones, and bassist Jimmy Garrison. They produced some of the most innovative & expressive music in Jazz history.
Coltrane was a hugely influential jazz musician, bandleader and composer. He has been credited with reshaping modern jazz. Coltrane was a massive influence on jazz, both mainstream and avant-garde, both in his lifetime and after his death. Coltrane recorded at different times with Columbia Records, Blue Note, Atlantic and Impulse! He died on July 17, 1967 at Huntington Hospital in New York of liver cancer. He was posthumously awarded the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1992.
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