Cassandra Wilson

                       Cassandra Wilson
By Nicole Nelson
Cassandra Wilson is often described as not only an accomplished jazz vocalist and composer but also as a lyricist, producer, musical director, guitarist and  pianist .  Born in Jackson, Mississippi, in 1955, Cassandra Wilson has been singing and performing since she sang at her brother’s kindergarten graduation at the age of five. The youngest of three children, Wilson began playing the piano and guitar at the age of nine. Cassandra attributes her interest in music to her parents. Her mother, who is a retired elementary school teacher, and father, who is a bass guitarist, often sang to her as a small child. Her father introduced her to jazz .  Jazz was not a very popular form of music during the 1960’s, but Cassandra loved it so much that she wanted to share it with others . Wilson took lessons in classical piano for six years, before learning to play acoustic guitar. She enjoyed experimenting with the guitar, and the instrument soon became her favorite. Between the ages of eleven and fifteen, she wrote about twenty original songs

A former classmate, Dr. Phillip Nelson,  recalls a time when she shared her new found love for jazz with the entire student body at a Jackson's Powell Junior High School talent show. “You have to remember that at that time the only thing we listened to was R&B, and she got on stage with a guitar and played a type of music no one had really heard before.  It was much like a ballad, and although she didn’t get a lot of attention (there was a lot of talking going on), she didn’t get booed off stage either.  I was impressed by the courage she demonstrated to sing an alternative selection.  She sang well.  She had great stage presence, and although she didn’t play anything popular, she was good enough to have people stand there and listen to her, and that’s when I realized that  she had broader experiences, at least musically, than most people at that age.  She sang that song because she loved it, and she didn’t care if you liked that song or not, and I respected her for that” (Nelson).

When Cassandra was in the ninth grade, the schools were  desegregated in Mississippi.  Her ninth and tenth grade years  were difficult as Cassandra recalls but were better for the remainder of her high school years. Despite the racial tensions that were present at her new school setting, she eventually adjusted to her environment.  In the eleventh grade she got the leading role as Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz.  “ For all the negative aspects, experiencing things that were different from what I knew was also exciting,” says Cassandra in an interview for The Oxford American  in its 1997 music issue ( Woodworth 31).  Obtaining the star role in the high school musical was not the first time Cassandra stepped over the color lines and made a mark for herself and others. During her last years in high school, Wilson formed a musical group with two young men who were both white. “She had difficulty (with classmates)   because of the relationship she chose to have, but you had to respect the choice she made”(Horhn). Wilson saw her interracial music group as a growing period for her life as well as for others.  “Music was the way we (blacks and whites) came together.  We traded albums at school.  I  remember hearing James Taylor and then really getting into Joni Mitchell.  I turned some of my friends on to jazz they hadn’t heard before” (Woodworth 31).

After obtaining a degree from Jackson State University in mass communication, Wilson moved from Mississippi to New Orleans and worked as an assistant in Public Affairs at a local television station. In 1982, Wilson moved to New York.  She began recording widely in the 1980’s initially with Steve Coleman and Henry Threadgill’s New Air group. She became the main vocalist with their M/Base collection. During her first decade in New York, she released seven records on the JMT/Verve label while she also sang on other innovative projects for other singers (Woodworth 31).  By 1993 she had sung on ten albums produced by  JMT records with a wide variety of New York musicians, including Mulgrew Miller and Greg Osby (Carr 701).

Cassandra’s music has often been compared to artists like Betty Carter, Nina Simone, and Shirley Horn, whom she also considers to be some of her musical influences. Billy Holiday and Sarah Vaugh also influenced her (Murray C1).  Cassandra has come a long way from her high school music group and late night singing at local clubs.  Cassandra now concentrates more on the pure innovative production of her own music albums. If Cassandra Wilson’s intentions are to open people’s eyes to the broadness of her music through the messages in her songs,  then she is well on her way to achieving her goal. Wilson’s emotional range and tone variations impress many critics, audiences, and fellow musicians. Many critics write that she is one of the most promising musicians on the horizon (Myers E-1). She has  received many awards due to her sensual and soulful voice. In her own hometown of Jackson, Mississippi, she was selected to receive the 1997 Governor’s Award for excellence in the Arts.  Unfortunately, she was unable to accept this award due to her tour with Wynton Marsalis. Her tour,  entitled Blood on the Fields, was Grammy nominated for best vocal performance (Lucas). Wilson won the “best jazz vocalist” Grammy award for her album New Moon Daughter (Clevenger). Her album  New Moon Daughter has been described as one of her best albums, with vocals that carry sultry and  contralto undertones (Murray C1). Cassandra’s  album Blue Light Til’ Dawn  was so well done that it won her the Downbeat’s  “Singer of the Year” title for 1994 and 1995. In 1996, this album also won her the same honor in Down Beat’s Critic poll (Clevenger).She also has appeared on screen in the Arnold Schwarzenegger movie Junio.

Cassandra Wilson is not overly concerned 
with what other people think of her or how she performs.   She was named “most important and daring jazz vocalist” by Time magazine in 1996.  According to one writer for the internet website “Lush Lives,” Cassandra Wilson is one of the top jazz singers of the 1990’s.  The writer continues, "Blessed with a distinctive and flexible voice, she is not afraid to take chances (Yanow). Listeners can only wonder if Cassandra’s unique sense of singing is what attributes to her rising success.  “I’m interested in crossing boundaries,” explains Wilson, “to be able to operate in several worlds at once is the result of being open minded, whether in music or some other part of the experience.  I still believe that things have to fall apart before something new can emerge.  That’s true for everything, including music”(Woodworth 31).

Wilson expresses herself through her music. She has become well loved and admired  because of her ability not only to sell  her music,  but  herself in the process. Senator John Horhn states that the reason Cassandra has become so successful is because she makes the music her own. “That in turn is why people love her so much, because you feel what she is trying to tell you” (Horhn Interview). Wilson sings with the intent of getting a message to her listeners. She sings with her heart and so much of her soul that it seems as though  she is literally singing to you (Nelson interview). “ However much this life consumes me, however unbalanced things get, I always want to remember that when I look into someone else’s eyes I am seeing myself” (Woodworth 34). There is absolutely no doubt to that at the rate Cassandra is going, her contralto, sensual voice and down-to-earth personality will draw a lot of fans for a long time to come.

Since winning the Grammy award for her vocal stylings on New Moon Daughter in 1997,  the call of the Delta has been beckoning her.  She is currently working on a CD with 81-year-old Boogaloo Ames and his partner Eden Brent tentatively to be called Belly of the Sun.  (Note: Belly of the Sun was produced but without Ames or Brent--possibly due to the death of Ames. The CD was also to include Jackson musicians Jesse Robinson on guitar, Nellie McGinnis on bass, and Rhonda Richmond on guitar).

2009 UPDATE: Cassandra Wilson won a Grammy Award for her album Loverly in 2009 as well as the 2009 Mississippi Governor's Award for Artistic Excellence in Music.





Cassandra Wilson - Redemption Song

        
                     Cassandra Wilson - Quiet Nights of Quiet Stars (Corcovado)

Wilson was married to Anthony Wilson from 1981 to 1983. She has a son, Jeris, born in the late 1980s. She and her son lived in Harlem, New York, for awhile. In 2000, Wilson married actor Isaach de Bankolé, who directed her in the concert film Traveling Miles: Cassandra Wilson (2000).

Wilson  has won several awards for her music on her album named New Moon Daughter.  She was named female singer of the year in 1994 and 1995 in (DownBeat Reader’s Poll), and  her album was No.1 for Best Music of 1996 (Time Magazine,1993). Ebony selected her one of America’s fifteen most beautiful black women.  She has been on the cover of Essence  magazine. DownBeat Magazines selected her Female vocalist of the year for 1996. Esquire  named her one of the year's “Women we love” under the headlines “Diva of Desire.”  A New York Times critic has called the album “One of  the best albums of decade.”  Time Magazine says that she is the most accomplished jazz vocalist of her time.  Her album New Moon Daughter  on Blue Note Records is about different kinds of relationships and the cycles they go through. She was the first singer of her generation to win Jazz Vocalist of the year in 1993. The song “Blue Light  til Dawn" examines her roots in jazz music.  Her album New Moon Daughter won a Grammy award in 1997. However,  Wilson's musical interests range from jazz to popular music, rhythm and blues to folk, blues to rock.

The voice is more visual than audible; shaded, iridescent, tangible, substantial. It seems to flow effortlessly. Read any of the dozen or so biographies on Cassandra Wilson and you’ll discover some basics: born and reared in Jackson, Mississippi in the 1960s and 70s by musician and educator parents.

Classically trained on piano from age 6 until the age of 13, she also received further musical instruction as a clarinetist for the concert and marching bands of secondary school. During the 70s, she could be found performing Joni Mitchell songs behind an acoustic guitar, or singing with a blues band in Little Rock, Arkansas, in front of a large funk band in Jackson, or in the company of long-time friends in an all-girls ensemble. In the eighties, Cassandra moved to New Orleans where she performed with local luminaries Earl Turbinton and Ellis Marsalis. After a year, she relocated to East Orange, New Jersey where she made a decision to take her chances on the New York jazz scene. After a stint as the main vocalist with Steve Coleman’s M-Base Collective, Cassandra began recording on her own.

                    Cassandra Wilson You Don't Know What Love Is

Although her recording career has been somewhat erratic, Cassandra Wilson became one of the top jazz singers of the '90s, a vocalist blessed with a distinctive and flexible voice who is not afraid to take chances. She began playing piano and guitar when she was nine and was working as a vocalist by the mid-'70s, singing a wide variety of material. Following a year in New Orleans, Wilson moved to New York in 1982 and began working with Dave Holland and Abbey Lincoln. After meeting Steve Coleman, she became the main vocalist with the M-Base Collective. Although there was really no room for a singer in the overcrowded free funk ensembles, Wilson did as good a job of fitting in as was possible. She worked with New Air and recorded her first album as a leader in 1985. By her third record, a standards date, she was sounding quite a bit like Betty Carter. 

After a few more albums in which she mostly performed original and rather inferior material, Cassandra Wilson changed directions and performed an acoustic blues-oriented program for Blue Note called Blue Light 'Til Dawn. By going back in time, she had found herself, and Wilson has continued interpreting in fresh and creative ways vintage country blues and folk music up until the present day. During 1997 she toured as part of Wynton Marsalis' Blood on the Fields production. Traveling Miles, her tribute to Miles Davis, followed two years later. For 2002's Belly of the Sun, she drew on an array of roots musics -- blues, country, soul, rock -- to fashion a record that furthered her artistic career while still aligning well with trends in popular music. Glamoured, released in 2003, posed a different kind of challenge; half the material was composed by Wilson herself. Unwilling to stand still, Wilson gently explored sampling and other hip-hop techniques for 2006's Thunderbird. Wilson followed Loverly, another album of standards in 2008, and Silver Pony in 2010.  

                     Cassandra Wilson - Round Midnight - HQ

                     Cassandra Wilson - Subatomic Blues

                     Cassandra Wilson - Resurrection Blues (Tutu)

                     Cassandra Wilson at Chicago Jazz Festival 2011

Esperanza Spalding Best New Artist Grammy in 2011

                         Esperanza Spalding
                   Best New Artist Grammy in 2011

     Esperanza Spalding (born October 18, 1984) is an American multi-instrumentalist best known as a jazz bassist and singer, who draws upon many genres in her own compositions. Spalding grew up in the King neighborhood of Portland, Oregon,  a neighborhood she describes as "ghetto" and "pretty scary". Her mother raised her and her brother as a single parent.  Spalding has a diverse ethnic background. She notes, "My mom is Welsh, Hispanic, and Native American, and my father is black." She also has an interest in the music of other cultures, including that of Brazil,  commenting, "With Portuguese songs the phrasing of the melody is intrinsically linked with the language, and it’s beautiful". Her mother shares Spalding's interest in music, having nearly become a touring singer herself.  But while Spalding cites her mother as a powerful influence who encouraged her musical expansion, she attributes her inspiration for pursuing a life in music to watching classical cellist Yo-Yo Ma perform on an episode of Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood when she was four.

     By the time Spalding was five, she had taught herself to play the violin and was playing with the Chamber Music Society of Oregon.  Spalding stayed with the Chamber Music Society of Oregon until she was fifteen and left as concertmaster.  Due to a lengthy illness when she was a child, Spalding spent much of her elementary school years being homeschooled, but also attended King Elementary School in Northeast Portland. During this time she also found the opportunity to pick up instruction in music by listening to her mother's college teacher instruct her mother in guitar.  According to Spalding, when she was about 8 her mother briefly studied jazz guitar in college; Spalding says, "Going with her to her class, I would sit under the piano. Then I would come home and I would be playing her stuff that her teacher had been playing."

      Spalding also played oboe and clarinet before discovering the bass in high school.  She is able to sing in English, Spanish and Portuguese.  Spalding had begun performing live in clubs in Portland, Oregon as a teenager,  securing her first gig at 15 in a blues club when she could only play one line on bass.  One of the seasoned musicians with which she played that first night invited her to join the band's rehearsals "so she could actually learn something", and her rehearsals soon grew into regular performances spanning almost a year.  According to Spalding, it was a chance for her to stretch as a musician, reaching and growing beyond her experience.  Her early contact with these "phenomenal resources", as she calls the musicians who played with her,  fostered her sense of rhythm and helped nurture her interest in her instrument.  She does not consider herself a musical prodigy. "I am surrounded by prodigies everywhere I go, but because they are a little older than me, or not a female, or not on a major label, they are not acknowledged as such," says Spalding.

     Gary Burton, Executive Vice President at Berklee, said in 2004 that Spalding had "a great time feel, she can confidently read the most complicated compositions, and she communicates her upbeat personality in everything she plays."  Ben Ratliff wrote in The New York Times on July 9, 2006 that Spaldings voice is "light and high, up in Blossom Dearie's pitch range, and she can sing quietly, almost in a daydream" and that Spalding "invents her own feminine space, a different sound from top to bottom." Spalding was the 2005 recipient of the Boston Jazz Society scholarship for outstanding musicianship.  Almost immediately after graduation from college later the same year, Spalding was hired by Berklee College of Music, becoming one of the youngest professors in the institution's history,  at age 20.  As a teacher, Spalding tries to help her students focus their practice through a practice journal which can help them recognize their strengths and what they need to pursue.

       Esperanza Spalding blends jazz, R&B, Brazilian vocalese and classical music. Her works have proved to have broad appeal at a moment when many in the music industry were fretting that young people were turning away from jazz en masse. She's managed that rare feat: earning raves from the most discriminating jazz aficionados while also attracting a loyal fan base all over the globe. It also helps that Spalding has friends in high places. President Obama invited her to perform at the White House twice, as well as at his 2009 Nobel Peace Prize ceremony. Her new album, Chamber Music Society, harkens back to her classical music training. For Spalding, classical music is "music among friends."

      A broad contingent of Spalding's fans, especially within but certainly not limited to the jazz community, knew she has winning musicianship. But few believed she had even a puncher's chance at the actual award. Especially for its highest-profile categories, the Grammys tend to reward top-selling acts signed to major record labels, regardless of musical merit. And with teenage heartthrob Justin Bieber in the running — not to mention Drake, Florence and the Machine and Mumford and Sons — her missing-out seemed a foregone conclusion. The Recording Academy had never given this honor to a jazz artist before ' Best New Artist Grammy in 2011'.

 Jun 17, 2011
Society HAE got a chance to sit down for an intimate conversation with Esperanza Spalding at The Roots Picnic in Philadelphia. We chat about her music, her creative process, the importance of studying your craft, and how jazz and live instrumentation are being revitalized.

Samba Em Preludio by Esperanza Spalding

Esperanza Spalding - Morning

Esperanza - Body & Soul

Grover Washington Jr.

              Grover Washington Jr. - Winelight


              Grover Washington Jr. - Mister Magic


Grover Washington, Jr.'s love of music began as a child, Grover was born in Buffalo, New York on December 12, 1943. His mother was a church chorister, and his father was a collector of old Jazz gramophone records and a saxophonist as well, so music was everywhere in the home. He grew up with the great jazzmen and big band leaders like Benny Goodman, Fletcher Henderson, and others like them. At the age of 8, Grover Sr. gave Jr. a saxophone. After I started playing," Grover says, "I'd sneak into clubs to watch guys like Jack McDuff, Harold Vick and Charles Lloyd. My professional life began at age twelve. I played a lot of R&B, blues, and what we used to call 'gut-bucket'."

Washington left Buffalo and played with a Midwest group called the Four Clefs and then the Mark III Trio from Mansfield, Ohio. He was drafted into the U.S. Army shortly thereafter, which was  to his advantage, as he met drummer Billy Cobham. A music mainstay in New York City, Cobham introduced Washington to many New York musicians. After leaving the Army, Washington freelanced his talents around New York City, eventually landing in Philadelphia in 1967. Grover also met his wife Christine (who acted as his business partner as well) in Philadelphia around that time; they married shortly after his discharge in 1967. The two were happily married till death; their son, Grover III (who co-produced a Grammy-nominated song on Grover's last album) now lives in Los Angeles and their daughter, Shana attended Temple University. In 1970 and 1971, he appeared on Leon Spencer's first two albums on Prestige Records, together with Idris Muhammad and Melvin Sparks.

Washington's big break came at the expense of another artist. Alto sax man Hank Crawford was unable to make a recording date with Creed Taylor's Kudu Records, and Washington took his place, even though he was a backup. This led to his first solo album, Inner City Blues. He was talented and displayed heart and soul with soprano, alto, tenor, and baritone saxophones. Refreshing for his time, he made headway into the jazz mainstream.

Whilst his first three albums established him as a force in jazz and soul music, it was his fourth album in 1974, Mister Magic, that proved a major commercial success. The album climbed to number 10 in Billboard's Top 40 album chart and the title track reached #16 on the R&B singles chart (#54, pop). All these albums included guitarist Eric Gale as a near-permanent member in Washington's arsenal.  His follow-up on Kudu in 1975, Feels So Good also made #10 on the album chart.
A string of acclaimed records brought Washington through the 1970s, culminating in the signature piece for everything he would do from then on. Winelight (1980) was the album that defined everything Washington was then about, having signed for Elektra Records, part of the major Warner Music group. The album was smooth, fused with R&B and easy listening feel. Washington's love of basketball, especially the Philadelphia 76ers, led him to dedicate the second track, "Let It Flow", to Julius Erving (Dr. J). The highlight of the album was his collaboration with soul artist Bill Withers, "Just the Two of Us," a huge hit on radio during the spring and summer of 1981, peaking at #2 on the Hot 100. The album went platinum in 1981, and also won Grammy Awards in 1982 for Best R&B Song ("Just The Two of Us"), and Best Jazz Fusion Performance ("Winelight"). "Winelight" was also nominated for Record of the Year and Song of the Year.

In the post-Winelight era, Washington is credited for giving rise to a new batch of talent that would make its mark in the late 1980s and early 1990s. He is known for bringing Kenny G to the forefront as well as such smooth jazz artists as Walter Beasley, Steve Cole, Pamela Williams, Najee, and George Howard. His song Mr. Magic is noted as being influential on Go-go music starting in the mid-1970s.

Reflecting on his life, Grover says, "I'm thankful for the people who inspired me over the years: Dexter Gordon, Rahsaan Roland Kirk, Stanley Turrentine, Cannonball Adderley, Sonny Rollins, Oliver Nelson. I would like to believe that some of the reason I've been around so long is that I don't do the same thing over and over--I like to grow, to keep adding another thread to my musical tapestry," he adds. "I'm just staying true to the things that got me to play in the first place."

On December 17, 1999, while waiting in the green room after taping four songs for The Saturday Early Show, at CBS Studios in New York City, Washington collapsed. He was taken to St. Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at about 7:30 p.m. He was 56 years old. His doctors determined that he had suffered a massive heart attack.

              Grover Washington Jr. - Just the two of us (1981) HD and HQ


              Grover Washington Jr. - Let It Flow (for ''Dr. J.'')


              Grover Washington Jr. - Make Me A Memory (Sad Samba)


              Grover Washington Jr  -  Sausalito


 

               Grover Washington Jr with Kenny Burrell -  Summertime


               Grover Washington Jr  -  Can You Stop The Rain


               Grover Washington Jr. -  "Ain't No Sunshine"


       

Jazz For Christmas

        Ramsey Lewis Trio - Merry Christmas Baby (1961)


         John Coltrane - What Child Is This? (Greensleeves) Live @ Village Vanguard (1961)


         Oscar Peterson plays Jingle Bells


          Bill Evans / Santa Claus Is Coming To Town


          Charlie Parker-White Christmas


          Louis Armstrong / Christmas in New Orleans & Billie Holiday / I've Got My Love To Keep Me Warm


Miles Davis - blue xmas


Wynton Christmas


Silent Night - Kathleen Battle, Wynton Marsalis


The Christmas Song - Dexter Gordon Quartet


Kenny Burrell - Have Yourself A Merry Christmas.WMV


Jimmy Smith God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen


          Dave Koz & Friends - Smooth Jazz Christmas Overture


          Ramsey Lewis Trio - God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen (1961)


          Oscar Peterson plays O Christmas Tree

Kenny G - Xmas Jazz (White Crhistmas)

wynton marsalis - have yourself a merry little christmas

John Coltrane Tribute to the greatest Tenor saxophonist of all time, John William Coltrane (Trane)

Merely mention the name John Coltrane and you’re likely to evoke a deeply emotional, often spiritual response from even the most casual jazz fan. John Coltrane was the most revolutionary and widely imitated saxophonist in jazz. 

Born September 23, 1926 in Hamlet, North Carolina, John Coltrane was always surrounded by music.Coltrane grew up in High Point, North Carolina, his father played several instruments sparking Coltrane’s study of E-flat horn and clarinet. While in high school, (at about the age of 15) Coltrane’s musical influences shifted to the likes of Lester Young and Johnny Hodges prompting him to switch to alto saxophone. After moving to Philadelphia, he continued his musical training  at Granoff Studios and the Ornstein School of Music. He was called to military service during WWII, where he performed in the U.S. Navy Band  (1945-46) .

After the war,he played alto saxophone in the bands led by Joe Webb and King Kolax, then changed to the tenor to work with Eddie "Cleanhead" Vinson (1947-48). He performed on either instrument as circumstances demanded while in groups led by Jimmy Heath, Howard McGhee, Dizzy Gillespie (with whom he made his first recording in 1949), Earl Bostic, and lesser-known rhythm-and-blues musicians, but by the time of his membership in Johnny Hodges's septet (1953-54) he was firmly committed to the tenor instrument. Coltrane began playing tenor saxophone with the Eddie "CleanHead" Vinson Band, and was later quoted as saying, "A wider area of listening opened up for me. There were many things that people like Hawk, and Ben and Tab Smith were doing in the ‘40’s that I didn’t understand, but that I felt emotionally." Prior to joining the Dizzy Gillespie band, Coltrane performed with Jimmy Heath where his passion for experimentation began to take shape. However, it was his work with the Miles Davis Quintet  with Red Garland, Paul Chambers, and Philly Joe Jones (1955-57)  that would lead to his own musical evolution. " Miles music gave me plenty of freedom," he once said. During that period, he became known for using the three-on-one chord approach, and what has been called the ‘sheets of sound,’ a method of playing multiple notes at one time.

Coltrane next played in Thelonious Monk's quartet (July-December 1957), but owing to contractual conflicts took part in only one early recording session of this legendary group. He rejoined Davis and worked in various quintets and sextets with Cannonball Adderley, Bill Evans, Chambers, Jones, and others (1958-60). While with Davis he discovered the soprano saxophone, purchasing his own instrument in February 1960. 

Throughout the 1950s addiction to drugs and then alcoholism disrupted his career. Shortly after leaving Davis, however, he overcame these problems.

Having led numerous studio sessions, established a reputation as a composer, and emerged as the leading tenor saxophonist in jazz, Coltrane was now prepared to form his own group; it made its debut at New York's Jazz Gallery in early May 1960. After briefly trying Steve Kuhn, Pete La Roca, and Billy Higgins, Coltrane hired two musicians who became longstanding members of his quartet, McCoy Tyner (1960-65) and Elvin Jones (1960-66); the third, Jimmy Garrison, joined in 1961. With these sidemen the quartet soon acquired an international following. At times Art Davis added a second double bass to the group; Eric Dolphy also served as an intermittent fifth member on bass clarinet, alto saxophone, and flute from 1961 to 1963,eventually adding players like Pharoah Sanders. The John Coltrane Quartet created some of the most innovative and expressive music in Jazz history including the hit albums: "My Favorite Things," "Africa Brass," " Impressions," " Giant Steps," and his monumental work "A Love Supreme" which attests to the power, glory, love, and greatness of God. Coltrane felt we must all make a conscious effort to effect positive change in the world, and that his music was an instrument to create positive thought patterns in the minds of people.

Coltrane turned to increasingly radical musical styles in the mid-1960s. These controversial experiments attracted large audiences, and by 1965 he was surprisingly affluent. From autumn 1965 his search for new sounds resulted in frequent changes of personnel in his group. New members included Pharoah Sanders, Alice Coltrane (his wife), Rashied Ali (a second drummer until Jones' departure), several drummers as seconds to Ali, and a number of African-influenced percussionists. In his final years and after his death, Coltrane acquired an almost saintly reputation among listeners and fellow musicians for his energetic and selfless support of young avant-garde performers, his passionate religious convictions, his peaceful demeanor, and his obsessive striving for a musical ideal.

In 1967, liver disease took Coltrane’s life leaving many to wonder what might have been. Yet decades after his departure his music can be heard in motion pictures, on television and radio. Recent film projects that have made references to Coltrane’s artistry in dialogue or musical compositions include, "Mr. Holland’s Opus", "The General’s Daughter", "Malcolm X", "Mo Better Blues", "Jerry McGuire", "White Night", "The Last Graduation", "Come Unto Thee", "Eyes On The Prize II" and "Four Little Girls". Also, popular television series such as "NYPD Blue", "The Cosby Show", "Day’s Of Our Lives", "Crime Stories" and "ER", have also relied on the beautiful melodies of this distinguished saxophonist.

In 1972, "A Love Supreme" was certified gold by the RIAA for exceeding 500,000 units in Japan. This jazz classic and the classic album "My Favorite Things" were certified gold in the United States in 2001.In 1982, the RIAA posthumously awarded John Coltrane a Grammy Award of " Best Jazz Solo Performance" for the work on his album, "Bye Bye Blackbird". In 1997 he received the organizations highest honor, the Lifetime Achievement Award.

On June 18, 1993 Mrs. Alice Coltrane received an invitation to The White House from former President and Mrs. Clinton, in appreciation of John Coltrane’s historical appearance at the Newport Jazz Festival.

In 1995, John Coltrane was honored by the United States Postal Service with a commemorative postage stamp. Issued as part of the musicians and composers series, this collectors item remains in circulation.


  John Coltrane & Miles Davis - Bye Bye Blackbird


    My Favorite Things - John Coltrane


    John Coltrane live, 1965, playing "Naima".


    John Coltrane - Dear Lord


    John Coltrane -  Spiritual


    John Coltrane - Afro Blue


    After the rain - John Coltrane


    John Coltrane "Stardust" (1958)


   John Coltrane - Lover, Come Back to Me


   JOHN COLTRANE: A Love Supreme I - II - III - IV (33:04 full version) - HQ Audio