John Coltrane, (born Sept. 23, 1926, Hamlet, N.C., U.S.—died July 17, 1967, Huntington, N.Y.), U.S. saxophonist and composer. After growing up in Philadelphia, he gained early experience in the bands of Dizzy Gillespie and Johnny Hodges. Associations with Miles Davis and Thelonious Monk in the 1950s established Coltrane’s place in the vanguard of modern jazz, and his quartet of the early 1960s is one of the outstanding groups in jazz history. His style encompassed the modal jazz first explored with Davis, the complex chord structures of his own compositions, and ultimately the extremes of timbre, dynamics, and register associated with free jazz. Coltrane’s total mastery of the tenor and soprano saxophones, the rich harmonic density of his compositions, and his clear projection of emotion enabled him to reconcile technical virtuosity with an often spiritual profundity.
