John Coltrane
John Coltrane
John William Coltrane, also known as "Trane", 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 was later at the forefront of free jazz. He led at least fifty recording sessions during his career, and appeared as a sideman on many albums by other musicians, including trumpeter Miles Davis and pianist Thelonious Monk...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionMusician
Date of Birth23 September 1926
CountryUnited States of America
Whatever I'd say would be an understatement. I can only say my life was made much better by knowing him. He was one of the greatest people I've ever known, as a man, a friend, and a musician.
If you're bourgeois, money is it. It's all the questions and all the answers. Ain't no E-flat or color blue, only $12.98 or $1,000. If it isn't money, it isn't nothing.
All of the technique doesn't matter... only if the feeling is right.
I never even thought about whether or not they understand what I'm doing . . . the emotional reaction is all that matters as long as there's some feeling of communication, it isn't necessary that it be understood.
God breathes through us so completely...So gently we hardly feel it...yet it is our everything.
Working with Monk brought me close to a musical architect of the highest order. I felt I learned from him in every way--through the senses, theoretically, technically. I would talk to Monk about musical problems, and he would sit at the piano and show me the answers just by playing them. I could watch him play and find out the things I wanted to know. Also, I could see a lot of things that I didn't know about at all.
Don't ever get so big or important that you can not hear and listen to every other person.
All a musician can do is to get closer to the source.
When you begin to see the possibilities of music, you desire to do something really good for people.
Change is inevitable in music - things change.
I'm into scales right now.
...That is one of the main causes of this arrogance: the idea of power. Then you lose your true power which is to be part of all, and the only way you can be part of all is to understand it. And when you don't understand, you have to go humbly to it. You don't go to school and say, 'I know what you're going to teach me'.
Damn the rules, it's the feeling that counts.
Sometimes I think I was making music through the wrong end of a magnifying glass.