Preview

John Coltrane Accomplishments

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
138 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
John Coltrane Accomplishments
“My music is the spiritual expression of what I am — my faith, my knowledge, my being...When you begin to see the possibilities of music, you desire to do something really good for people, to help humanity free itself from its hangups...I want to speak to their souls.” says John Coltrane, and that is exactly what he does. John Coltrane speaks to people’s souls through the new road that he opened up for music. The uniqueness that John Coltrane brings to his music is what caused him to be known as one of the best jazz musicians of all time. There were many ups and downs in Coltrane’s life, but he fought through them with his music. These struggles advanced his music and helped him see the good in every situation. This is where the Trane ride

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    The music he created spread across many genres. From the introspective psychedelic ballad of ‘Visions’ of ‘Innervisions’ to the archetypical pop song ‘Isn’t she Lovely’. He delved into funk with ‘Higher Ground’ being one example. ‘Pastime Paradise’ is an example of one of his songs that crossed many genres, with its orchestral and choral backing and rhythmical percussion elements of an Afro-Cuban nature, combined with his lyrics and melody typical of a slower ballad.…

    • 2927 Words
    • 12 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    As a musician creating music to me personally is a way to escape reality, if only for a few minutes. In that time your free from the worries of the world , all the sadness and tragedy, all the hate, and all the suffering dissipate as none of it has ever existed and in the present moment all that matters is expressing yourself and letting your soul take over. Just as doing a hard drug, music takes you away from reality, but unlike drugs reality doesn’t slap you in the face when you come down from your high. Sonny had a real passion for music, a passion that is common among serious musicians. When music begins to take over your life the passion and the artistry becomes real and a part of your life. “But I thought I’d never hear the end of that piano, everyday Sonny came home from school and went to the piano, after supper back to the piano, he played every day, every chance he got” (Baldwin 34). His brother chose to not make a scene of it or even bring it up to Sonny because he said he sensed that he was playing for his life. The narrator began to see music take over his brother when a letter got to him from the school that Sonny hasn’t been going to his classes. The narrator sees this as not caring about his future and self-destruction, and I disagree. I see it as knowing exactly what you want to do in life and pursuing it. I see Sonny as an artistic genius with a soul tuned to…

    • 1429 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Who said this, “The wise musicians are those who play what they can master.”? It was Duke Ellington. Duke Ellington was the godfather of jazz.…

    • 229 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    After growing up having a privileged life and going on to pursuing his dream, African American singer Cabell “Cab” Calloway devoted his professional life to entertaining his audience to a great extent and putting international spotlight on “The New Negro.” Indeed, Calloway stands as a monument against the popular stereotype of catastrophic black jazz musicians being tormented by racism and drug addiction. Even though Calloway was exposed to these social struggles, he was eventually able to overcome them by focusing on the integrity of his music. As Calloway reported in a 1990 Chicago Tribune interview, “ you tried to concentrate on your performance and tried to forget that there were hardly any blacks in the audience.” It was this kind of determination,…

    • 651 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Ray Charles, was one of the greatest composers. His music was different, but it was a unique kind of different. It made a person want to get up and dance because it had so much life in it. It was the dedication Ray had that he put it all into all his music. He had so much heart and in the music industry that’s all that is needed. How would, Ray Charles, music be describe? It’s said that it was soulful something that will never be forgotten. Ray took pride in making others feel good while listening to his music. A composer, son, friend, father, and a husband is what he was and his music still lives on.…

    • 946 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    “The beginning of purpose is found in creating something that only you understand.” This quote was said by Tyler Joseph, a musician in the Grammy award winning band Twenty One Pilots. Music is a way to express yourself through thought and feeling. Music carries a message that is relative to your current situation. Music can not only just comfort you, but it can also inspire you to create.…

    • 196 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Better Essays

    John Coltrane Research Paper

    • 4906 Words
    • 20 Pages

    The same month saw the birth of "Spiritual," featuring exotic and otherworldly solos by Coltrane on soprano sax and Dolphy on bass clarinet. Recorded at the Village Vanguard, the piece made clear, if any doubts remained, that Coltrane was attempting to raise jazz from the saloons to the heavens. No jazzman had attempted so overtly to offer his work as a form of religious expression. If Ornette Coleman was, as some have argued, the seminal stylistic force in sixties avant-garde jazz, Coltrane's Eastern imports were the main influence on the East- West "fusion" in the jazz and rock of the late sixties and afterward. In his use of jazz as prayer and meditation Coltrane was beyond all doubt the principal spiritual force in music. This is further evident in "Alabama," a riveting elegy for the victims of the infamous Sunday-morning church bombing in Birmingham in 1963. Here, as in the early version of his most famous ballad, "Naima," Coltrane is as spare in phrasing as he is bleak in tone. That tone, criticized by many as hard-edged and emotionally impoverished, is inseparable from Coltrane's achievement, conveying as it does a sense of absolute purity through the abnegation of sentimentality. Sonny Rollins, the contemporary tenor most…

    • 4906 Words
    • 20 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    At this event, I saw how people including students, parents, faculty, and friends came together from a tired day to listen to smooth classical music. Music has such a mighty effect on people because it is a universal language. People all over the world listen to music, from pop to folk, and enjoy it. Classical music has a way of permeating the heart and relaxing a stressed mind. For example, at the event, one of the pieces the band performed was Autumn Leaves by Joseph Kosma. Their performance of this piece demonstrated the culture and lifestyle of French music during the 1900s. As the wind ensemble played this piece, the atmosphere in the room shifted because of the lively tone the piece had. People began clapping and moving along to the tempo of the song and joy entered the entire lobby. Music not only relaxes a person, but it alters their mood as well. I was so stunned to see how one piece of jazz music could create a change in so many people in an…

    • 658 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    October 9, 1940, a man was born in Britain that would one day take over the world. He was not a great ruler or dictator, nor was an activist or religious leader. He was a normal boy who grew to be one of the best singer song writers of our time. This is about the troubled personal life of one of America’s most beloved musicians, John Lennon.…

    • 822 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Since then, I became an avid follower of his work and have to say it’s inevitably rewarding and challenging to listen to such a relentless explorer with a limitless vision. Thus, it’s no surprise that he keeps creating compulsively as one of the most resplendent voices of the modern free jazz panorama.…

    • 444 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    the true meaning of Jazz and to try to place myself in the shoes of all of the…

    • 1162 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Explication

    • 737 Words
    • 3 Pages

    his own thoughts on social issues; each lyric written served it’s own purpose. Through this,…

    • 737 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Music throughout history has inspired and influenced culture significantly. It defines who we are, for it is the ultimate form of expression. Over the course of time, music has developed and changed as new artists innovate and provide a new light into their scope of the art, as they inspire the further development of music. Music is the ultimate instrument of togetherness, for it has no color, it has no prejudice, and it carries no bias. Music is notorious for bringing people together in times of cultural foils and tensions. In the early 1900’s to the mid 1900’s, America struggled through a phase of protection of civil rights, and the segregating nature of the white community and the black community. America needed an entity so powerful that it could bond these two poles and bring solace to the tension between the two conflicted cultures. America needed an artist like James Brown to emerge and help the African-American community prevail and unite the two communities. James Brown inspired the further advance of African-American assimilation into American culture through his innovative methods of writing and performing music.…

    • 676 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Piano Man

    • 1384 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Music has been a part of human culture for many years. It is embedded deep in our roots, from Native Americans chanting around a fire, to slaves harmonizing while laboring in the fields, to Beatle-mania, to the Backstreet Boys welcoming the new millennium. The great artists of this industry will forever be remembered for their ability to combine moving, soulful lyrics with enchanting melodies, all while reaching millions of individuals in a unique way. Billy Joel’s “Piano Man” is a perfect example of this melodic combination. Joel’s inspiration for this song came directly from his own experiences. Early in his career, he played a stint as a piano man for a local bar in Los Angeles, California during the early seventies. This piece was created as a “thank you” message to all of the lost people that inspired Joel to get back into the world and to dream big again after his first single failed miserably. His harmony depicts a typical bar scene, packed with down and out drunks and tired, bedraggled businessmen, all trying to find an escape from their stressful, everyday lives. Billy Joel tries to convey the message that everyone is always searching for something more in life, but no matter how much success they have, they will still be filled with loneliness and desire for something else. In “Piano Man,” Billy Joel uses a simple, straightforward syntax, an indirect characterization, and an informal, bittersweet tone to enforce his theme of disappointment and un-fulfillment.…

    • 1384 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    James Brown is one of the most influential musical pioneers in the 20th century. The God Father of Soul, the inventor of funk, the grandfather of hip-hop. He influenced many modern artists such as Michael Jackson and Jay-Z. Brown had written in his memoir that he turned racial minstrelsy into black soul and by doing so, became a cultural force. James Brown always maintained that there was only one way to truly understand him; if you want to know more about who James Brown is, all you have to do is listen to his…

    • 1170 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays