John Coltrane (English)

A remarkably detailed and musically literate biography of one of the jazz world's most innovative figures, Lewis Porter's JOHN COLTRANE--HIS LIFE AND MUSIC covers not only the saxophonist's family's ancient roots on the plantations of North Carolina but also the foundations of many of Coltrane's compositions in spirituals and the works of Ravel. Porter's scholarly research documents the artist's 1940s musical apprenticeship with Eddie "Cleanhead" Vinson and Dizzy Gillespie, and his later increasing use of drugs and alcohol in the 1950s. His addictions lead to his dismissal from Miles Davis's band; he's subsequently taken in by Thelonious Monk, after which he kicks the habit and begins a quest for religious knowledge that ends only with his death from liver cancer in 1967. Porter features exhaustive and fascinating descriptions of events like Coltrane's controversial 1960 Paris performance with Miles Davis, the reception to which some critics likened to the riotous premiere of Stravinsky's "Rite of Spring." He also includes musical notations of many of Coltrane's greatest pieces, including "Giant Steps," and "Spiritual." Porter's conclusion that even the most abstract of Coltrane's later work contains unmistakable spiritual impulses will be echoed by the saxophonist's many fans. minimize