History Music / JohnColtrane

* ThePerfectionist: Had incredibly high standards for his music. He practiced for hours at a time, a habit that bewildered his bandleader Music/MilesDavis, who could be arduously demanding himself. Coltrane would develop his technique in excruciating detail, sometimes searching for weeks just to find a mouthpiece that suited his taste. Some psychologists have hypothesized that this was a symptom of [[SuperOCD obsessive-compulsive disorder]], while devotees have pointed out that such extremes may have been quite reasonable for a musician of Coltrane's caliber.

** ''Ascension'' will inevitably be compared to Ornette Coleman's ''Free Jazz'' in that they are both 40-minute free jazz improvisations. However, while ''Free Jazz'' was a radical departure from anything that came before it, it still actually kept quite a few elements of traditional jazz harmony and structure. ''Ascension'' dispenses with even most of those, and thus it's a lot more chaotic and inaccessible.

* OneWomanSong: "Naima".

* MohsScaleOfRockAndMetalHardness: Generally speaking, he climbed further up this scale as his career progressed. His earlier work, like ''Blue Train'' and his work with the Miles Davis Quintet, is pretty low on the scale, but later in his career he was recording incredibly avant-garde, discordant material like ''Ascension'' or ''Live in Japan'', both of which could qualify as at least an 8, even by today's standards. His final recorded work is a 1967 concert that was released in 2001 as ''The Olatunji Concert: The Last Live Recording''. Despite not containing any guitars, the album could, even by today's standards, qualify as a 10 or even an 11, depending upon one's viewpoint. The lo-fi recording quality certainly contributes further to the intensity of the material. Listening to these works, it's easy to see how heavy AvantGardeMetal bands like Music/DeathspellOmega would find direct influence from Coltrane's music.[[note]]In point of fact, when asked about their musical influences, Coltrane was literally the first artist they mentioned, which seems somehow significant.[[/note]] However, it isn't a hard and fast rule that all of his later work is harder, because ''Music/ALoveSupreme'' came fairly late in his career, and it's nowhere near as discordant as some of his other work around the same time period. It should also be emphasized that many of his songs have wide variations in heaviness over their running time period - for instance, the ''Olatunji Concert'' version of "My Favorite Things" starts off with an upright bass solo that might be as low as 1, but abruptly goes in a ''much'' different direction about seven and a half minutes into the song.

* ScaryMusicianHarmlessMusic: Famously inverted. Coltrane was mild-mannered, soft-spoken and so non-confrontational that he put up with Miles Davis hitting him (admittedly, because Coltrane was a junkie at the time and kept falling asleep on the bandstand.) His music is absolutely volcanic, with torrents of notes blasting out of his sax for minutes on end. Once he got off drugs, he conformed even more to this trope, becoming better-dressed and even more modest and self-effacing, except when he was playing music.

** ''Music/GiantSteps'' can be compared to Music/MilesDavis' ''Music/KindOfBlue'', which Coltrane also played on. The two albums were recorded within a few weeks of each other and have several stylistic elements in common. However, ''Giant Steps'' is much more intense, technical, and quicker.
** ''Ascension'' will inevitably be compared to Ornette Coleman's ''Free Jazz'' in that they are both 40-minute free jazz improvisations. However, while ''Free Jazz'' was a radical departure from anything that came before it, it still actually kept quite a few elements of traditional jazz harmony and structure. ''Ascension'' dispenses with even most of those, and thus it's quite a lot more chaotic and inaccessible.

John William Coltrane (September 23, 1926 – July 17, 1967) was a legendary American saxophonist. His bold, aggressive saxophone style was hugely influential in the avant-garde jazz scene of the early '60s and late in the free jazz scene of the mid-to-late 1960s. Unfortunately, he died at a very young age in 1967, after a series of extremely experimental albums. His legacy includes being worshiped as a saint, and even by some as a deity, but more prosaically, he's still one of the most influential musicians of his generation in that it took at least two generations before sax players didn't automatically try to emulate him. His influence isn't limited to just sax players, either: a large number of rock guitarists such as [[Music/TheAllmanBrothersBand Duane Allman]], Music/FrankZappa, and Music/JimiHendrix have cited his profound influence over their work, and his influence extends even beyond that, to metal bands such as Music/DeathspellOmega, electronic musicians such as Flying Lotus (perhaps not coincidentally, Coltrane's grand-nephew), and hip-hop artists such as Music/KendrickLamar. His widow, pianist and harpist Alice Coltrane (née [=McLeod=], later known as Turiyasangitananda or Turiya Alice Coltrane), later became a respected bandleader in her own right, and many of her albums such as ''Journey in Satchidananda'' and ''World Galaxy'' are regarded as {{Spiritual Successor}}s to her late husband's work.

[[caption-width-right:350: The Trane, himself]]

[[quoteright:286:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/7df8b826765f92b27d67676b67cb821f.jpg]]

* InscrutableOriental: Coltrane's music became more spiritual and inspired by Asian traditional music from the Middle East and India during TheSixties.

* MohsScaleOfRockAndMetalHardness: Generally speaking, he climbed further up this scale as his career progressed. His earlier work is pretty low on the scale, but later in his career he was recording incredibly avant-garde, discordant material like ''Ascension'' that could qualify as at least an 8, even by today's standards. His final recorded work is a 1967 concert that was released in 2001 as ''The Olatunji Concert: The Last Live Recording''. Despite not containing any guitars, the album could, even by today's standards, qualify as a 10 or even an 11, depending upon one's viewpoint. The lo-fi recording quality certainly contributes further to the intensity of the material. Listening to these works, it's easy to see how heavy AvantGardeMetal bands like Music/DeathspellOmega would find direct influence from Coltrane's music.[[note]]In point of fact, when asked about their musical influences, Coltrane was literally the first artist they mentioned, which seems somehow significant.[[/note]] However, it isn't a hard and fast rule that all of his later work is harder, because ''Music/ALoveSupreme'' came fairly late in his career, and it's nowhere near as discordant as some of his other work around the same time period. It should also be emphasized that many of his songs have wide variations in heaviness over their running time period - for instance, the ''Olatunji Concert'' version of "My Favorite Things" starts off with an upright bass solo that might be as low as 1, but abruptly goes in a ''much'' different direction about seven and a half minutes into the song.

* AllHailTheGreatGodMickey: Venerated as a saint by the St. John William Church, founded in 1971. Since 1982 they are actually part of the African Orthodox Church.

** ''Giant Steps'' can be compared to Music/MilesDavis' ''Music/KindOfBlue'', which Coltrane also played on. The two albums were recorded within a few weeks of each other and have several stylistic elements in common. However, ''Giant Steps'' is faster, more intense, and more technical.

* EpicRocking: While he always had tendencies of this, it ''really'' became his specialty towards the end of his life. This really took off in earnest with ''Ascension,'' which (in most of its LP releases, anyway) consisted of a single track approaching forty-one minutes in length, and didn't look back. (CD re-releases have added a second version, which lasts for some thirty-eight and a half minutes, making the album last for more than seventy-nine minutes with only two songs. This version was used on the earliest pressings of the LP, but was replaced a few months after the original release with the longer version, which Coltrane seems to have regarded as the definitive performance.) The peak of his use of this trope is probably with the album ''Live in Japan'', where the ''shortest'' song is twenty-five minutes long and three of them are ''longer'' than ''Ascension'', with two of them nearing an hour. The album is on four discs despite containing only six tracks.

* OneWomanSong: "Naima."

* ThePerfectionist: Had incredibly high standards for his music. He practiced for hours at a time, a habit that bewildered his bandleader Music/MilesDavis, who could be arduously demanding himself. Coltrane would develop his technique in excruciating detail, sometimes searching for weeks just to find a mouthpiece that suited his taste. Some psychologists have hypothesized that this was a symptom of [[SuperOCD obsessive compulsive disorder]], while devotees have pointed out that such extremes may have been quite reasonable for a musician of Coltrane's caliber.

* RearrangeTheSong: Because he was a jazz musician, his songs could vary significantly each time he performed them live, but even by jazz standards, he took this quite far.

* TrainSong: "Blue Train."
* WorldMusic: Later in his career Coltrane's work became more inspired by Arabian and Indian music. He even named his son Ravi after Music/RaviShankar.

John William Coltrane (September 23, 1926 – July 17, 1967) was a legendary American saxophonist. His bold, aggressive saxophone style was hugely influential in the avant-garde jazz scene of the early '60s and late in the free jazz scene of the mid to late 1960s. Unfortunately, he died at a very young age in 1967, after a series of extremely experimental albums. His legacy includes being worshiped as a saint, and even by some as a deity, but more prosaically, he's still one of the most influential musicians of his generation in that it took at least two generations before sax players didn't automatically try to emulate him. His influence isn't limited to just sax players, either: a large number of rock guitarists such as [[Music/TheAllmanBrothersBand Duane Allman]], Music/FrankZappa, and Music/JimiHendrix have cited his profound influence over their work, and his influence extends even beyond that, to metal bands such as Music/DeathspellOmega, electronic musicians such as Flying Lotus (perhaps not coincidentally, Coltrane's grand-nephew), and hip-hop artists such as Music/KendrickLamar. His widow, pianist and harpist Alice Coltrane (née [=McLeod=], later known as Turiyasangitananda or Turiya Alice Coltrane), later became a respected bandleader in her own right, and many of her albums such as ''Journey in Satchidananda'' and ''World Galaxy'' are regarded as {{Spiritual Successor}}s to her late husband's work.

* EpicRocking: While he'd always had tendencies of this, it ''really'' became his specialty towards the end of his life. This really took off in earnest with ''Ascension,'' which (in most of its LP releases, anyway) consisted of a single track approaching forty-one minutes in length, and didn't look back. (CD re-releases have added a second version, which lasts for some thirty-eight and a half minutes, making the album last for more than seventy-nine minutes with only two songs. This version was used on the earliest pressings of the LP, but was replaced a few months after the original release with the longer version, which Coltrane seems to have regarded as the definitive performance.) The peak of his use of this trope is probably with the album ''Live in Japan'', where the ''shortest'' song is twenty-five minutes long and three of them are ''longer'' than ''Ascension'', with two of them nearing an hour. The album is on four discs despite containing only six tracks.

John William Coltrane (September 23, 1926 – July 17, 1967) was a legendary American saxophonist. His bold, aggressive saxophone style was hugely influential in the avant-garde jazz scene of the early '60s and late in the free jazz scene of the mid to late '60s. Unfortunately, he died at a very young age in 1967, after a series of extremely experimental albums. His legacy includes being worshipped as a saint, and even by some as a deity, but more prosaically, he's still one of the most influential musicians of his generation in that it took at least two generations before sax players didn't automatically try to emulate him. His influence isn't limited to just sax players, either: a large number of rock guitarists such as [[Music/TheAllmanBrothersBand Duane Allman]], Music/FrankZappa, and Music/JimiHendrix have cited his profound influence over their work, and his influence extends even beyond that, to metal bands such as Music/DeathspellOmega, electronic musicians such as Flying Lotus (perhaps not coincidentally, Coltrane's grand-nephew), and hip-hop artists such as Music/KendrickLamar. His widow, pianist and harpist Alice Coltrane (née [=McLeod=], later known as Turiyasangitananda or Turiya Alice Coltrane), later became a respected bandleader in her own right, and many of her albums such as ''Journey in Satchidananda'' and ''World Galaxy'' are regarded as {{Spiritual Successor}}s to her late husband's work.

* ImpracticalMusicalInstrumentSkills: Towards the end of his career, Coltrane began to exhibit a vocal version, pounding his chest to effect his voice during his occasional vocal spot.

* MohsScaleOfRockAndMetalHardness: Generally speaking, he climbed further up this scale as his career progressed. His earlier work is pretty low on the scale, but later in his career he was recording incredibly avant-garde, discordant material like ''Ascension'' that could qualify as at least an 8, even by today's standards. His final recorded work is a 1967 concert that was released in 2001 as ''The Olatunji Concert: The Last Live Recording''. Despite not containing any guitars, the album could, even by today's standards, qualify as a 10 or even an 11, depending upon one's viewpoint. The lo-fi recording quality certainly contributes further to the intensity of the material. Listening to these works, it's easy to see how heavy AvantGardeMetal bands like Music/DeathspellOmega would find direct influence from Coltrane's music. However, it isn't a hard and fast rule that all of his later work is harder, because ''Music/ALoveSupreme'' came fairly late in his career, and it's nowhere near as discordant as some of his other work around the same time period. It should also be emphasized that many of his songs have wide variations in heaviness over their running time period - for instance, the ''Olatunji Concert'' version of "My Favorite Things" starts off with an upright bass solo that might be as low as 1, but abruptly goes in a ''much'' different direction about seven and a half minutes into the song.

* StartMyOwn: After his death, in particular, a number of his former band members went onto notable careers as bandleaders in their own rights. Some examples include Pharoah Sanders[[note]]yes, he spells his name Pharoah, not Pharaoh[[/note]], Archie Shepp, and Coltrane's widow Alice, as mentioned above. Even during Coltrane's life, his erstwhile flautist Eric Dolphy was well on his way to establishing a notable solo career before he died suddenly, tragically, and senselessly from insulin shock.

** ''Giant Steps'' can be compared to Music/MilesDavis' ''Music/KindOfBlue'', which Coltrane also played on. However, ''Giant Steps'' is faster, more intense, and more technical.

* EpicRocking: While he'd always had tendencies of this, it ''really'' became his specialty towards the end of his life. He started with ''Ascension,'' which consisted of a single forty-minute track, and didn't look back. (CD re-releases have added a second version, which lasts for some thirty-eight minutes, making the album last for around seventy-eight minutes with only two songs.) The peak of his use of this trope is probably with the album ''Live in Japan'', where the ''shortest'' song is twenty-five minutes long and three of them are ''longer'' than ''Ascension'', with two of them nearing an hour. The album is on four discs despite containing only six tracks.

* MohsScaleOfRockAndMetalHardness: Generally speaking, he climbed further up this scale as his career progressed. His earlier work is pretty low on the scale, but later in his career he was recording incredibly avant-garde, discordant material like ''Ascension'' that could qualify as at least an 8, even by today's standards. His final recorded work is a 1967 concert that was released in 2001 as ''The Olatunji Concert: The Last Live Recording''. Despite not containing any guitars, the album could, even by today's standards, qualify as a 10 or even an 11, depending upon one's viewpoint. The lo-fi recording quality certainly contributes further to the intensity of the material. Listening to these works, it's easy to see how heavy AvantGardeMetal bands like Music/DeathspellOmega would find direct influence from Coltrane's music. However, it isn't a hard and fast rule that all of his later work is harder, because ''Music/ALoveSupreme'' came fairly late in his career, and it's nowhere near as discordant as some of his other work around the same time period.

John William Coltrane (September 23, 1926 – July 17, 1967) was a legendary American saxophonist. His bold, aggressive saxophone style was hugely influential in the avant-garde jazz scene of the early '60s and late in the free jazz scene of the mid to late '60s. Unfortunately, he died at a very young age in 1967, after a series of extremely experimental albums. His legacy includes being worshipped as a saint, and even by some as a deity, but more prosaically, he's still one of the most influential musicians of his generation in that it took at least two generations before sax players didn't automatically try to emulate him. His influence isn't limited to just sax players, either: a large number of rock guitarists such as [[Music/TheAllmanBrothersBand Duane Allman]], Music/FrankZappa, and Music/JimiHendrix have cited his profound influence over their work, and his influence extends even beyond that, to metal bands such as Music/DeathspellOmega, electronic musicians such as Flying Lotus, and hip-hop artists such as Music/KendrickLamar. His widow, pianist and harpist Alice Coltrane (née [=McLeod=], later known as Turiyasangitananda or Turiya Alice Coltrane), later became a respected bandleader in her own right, and many of her albums such as ''Journey in Satchidananda'' and ''World Galaxy'' are regarded as {{Spiritual Successor}}s to her late husband's work.

John William Coltrane (September 23, 1926 – July 17, 1967) was a legendary American saxophonist. His bold, aggressive saxophone style was hugely influential in the avant-garde jazz scene of the early '60s and late in the free jazz scene of the mid to late '60s. Unfortunately, he died at a very young age in 1967, after a series of extremely experimental albums. His legacy includes being worshipped as a saint, and even by some as a deity, but more prosaically, he's still one of the most influential musicians of his generation in that it took at least two generations before sax players didn't automatically try to emulate him. His influence isn't limited to just sax players, either: a large number of rock guitarists such as [[Music/TheAllmanBrothersBand Duane Allman]], Music/FrankZappa, and Music/JimiHendrix have cited his profound influence over their work, and his influence extends even beyond that, to metal bands such as Music/DeathspellOmega, electronic musicians such as Flying Lotus, and hip-hop artists such as Music/KendrickLamar. His widow, pianist and harpist Alice Coltrane (née McLeod, later known as Turiyasangitananda or Turiya Alice Coltrane), later became a respected bandleader in her own right, and many of her albums such as ''Journey in Satchidananda'' and ''World Galaxy'' are regarded as {{Spiritual Successor}}s to her late husband's work.