Always elusive, constantly moving, incessantly
changing, John Coltrane stood astride the jazz world of
the late 50s and 60s. He was a giant of the saxophone
and a major composer. His music influenced both rock
stars and classical musicians. There was a mystical
quality, a profound melancholy emanating from this
quiet, self-contained man that moved listenerssome of
whom knew little about music but heard something beyond
musics boundaries in the sounds his saxophone created.
J. C. Thomas traces John Coltranes life and career from
his North Carolina childhood through his apprenticeship
with Dizzy Gillespie, Thelonious Monk, and Miles Davis,
to its culmination in the saxophonists classic quartet
that played to steadily increasing audiences throughout
America, Europe, and Japan. The author has drawn on the
recollections of the people who knew Coltrane
bestboyhood friends, band members like Elvin Jones,
spiritual mentors like Ravi Shankar, and the women who
loved him.Chasin the Trane is the story of a man who
struggled against drug addiction, studied African and
Eastern music and philosophy, admired both Einsteins
expanding universe and the shimmering sounds a harp
makes, and left behind the enduring legacy of a master
musician who was also a beautiful man. |
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