John Coltrane Biography

John Coltrane - Saxophone Solos

Sun, 24 Jun 2007 18:09:41 GMT

This collection of 26 tenor sax transcriptions features some of jazz giant John Coltane's most important solos: Blue Train Central Part West Giant Steps Impressions Lazy Bird Moment's Notice My Favorite Things 'Round Midnight and more. Includes a bio, notation guide, alternate fingerings, and discography with historical notes on the recordings.
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Customer Review: Next to Charlie Parker's Omni book, there is no better
I first got the Charlie Parker Omni solo books and this was the second one I got for playing. Each player has a different style and harmonic approach to the sax, so playing in their notes or foot steps, help you learn the horn, jazz and improvisation. This has a great selection of tunes from Trane. A great book to help you enjoy and learn to play jazz saxophone. Highly recommended for any horn player.
Customer Review: Meticulously researched and executed
There are many transcriptions of Coltrane's solos floating around out there. For professional saxophonists, writing down these solos is like taking a graduate course in jazz studies. The work presented here, along with the accompanying special fingerings and notes makes this the absolute best compilation on the market for aspiring and even professional musicians. Although written for (and played on) tenor, these lines can be applied to any instrument. I have played along with the original recordings with these transcriptions, and they are meticulously correct. To get the most out of the experience, I recommend using the book like an answer key and trying to transcribe the solo yourself first. You will be absolutely stunned at what this does for your understanding of jazz, Coltrane, and music in general.

Vol. 13 - John Coltrane: Jazz Play-Along Series (Jazz Play Along Series)

Sun, 24 Jun 2007 18:09:41 GMT

For use with all Bb, Eb, and C instruments, the JAZZ PLAY ALONG SERIES is the ultimate learning tool for all jazz musicians. With musician-friendly lead sheets, melody cues, and other split-track choices on the included CD, this first-of-its-kind package makes learning to play jazz easier than ever before. FOR STUDY, each tune includes a split track with: * Melody cue with proper style and inflection * Professional rhythm tracks * Choruses for soloing * Removable bass part * Removable piano part. FOR PERFORMANCE, each tune also has: * An additional full stereo accompaniment track (no melody) * Additional choruses for soloing. INCLUDES: Blue Train (Blue Trane) * Countdown * Cousin Mary * Equinox * Giant Steps * Impressions * Lazy Bird * Mr. P.C. * Moment's Notice * Naima (Neima).
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Customer Review: Execellent
This is a great gift for someone who is learning to play sax. to play and improvise on some of the works in this book feels wonderful.

Ascension: John Coltrane and His Quest

Sun, 24 Jun 2007 18:09:41 GMT

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John Coltrane: His Life and Music (The Michigan American Music Series)

Sun, 24 Jun 2007 18:09:41 GMT

John Coltrane was a key figure in jazz, a pioneer in world music, and an intensely emotional force whose following continues to grow. This new biography, the first by a professional jazz scholar and performer, presents a huge amount of never-before-published material, including interviews with Coltrane, photos, genealogical documents, and innovative musical analysis that offers a fresh view of Coltrane's genius.

Compiled from scratch with the assistance of dozens of Coltrane's colleagues, friends, and family, John Coltrane: His Life and Music corrects numerous errors from previous biographies. The significant people in Coltrane's life were reinterviewed, yielding new insights; some were interviewed for the first time ever.

The musical analysis, which is accessible to the nonspecialist, makes its own revelations--for example, that some of Coltrane's well-known pieces are based on previously unrecognized sources. The Appendix is the most detailed chronology of Coltrane's performing career ever compiled, listing scores of previously unknown performances from the 1940s and early 1950s.

Coltrane has become a musical inspiration for thousands of fans and musicians and a personal inspiration to as many more. For all of these, Porter's book will become the definitive resource--a reliable guide to the events of Coltrane's life and an insightful look into his musical practices.

". . . well researched, musically knowledgeable, and enormously interesting to read. Porter is a jazz scholar with deep knowledge of the tradition he is studying, both conceptually and technically." --Richard Crawford, University of Michigan

"Lewis Porter is a meticulous person with love and respect for Afro-American classical music. I applaud this definitive study of my friend John Coltrane's life adn achievements." --Jimmy Heath, jazz saxophonist, composer, educator

Lewis Porter is Associate Professor of Music, Rutgers University in Newark. A leading jazz scholar, he is the author of Jazz Readings from a Century of Change and coauthor of Jazz: From Its Origins to the Present. He was a project consultant on The Complete Atlantic Recordings of John Coltrane, which was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Historical Reissue, and an editor and assisting author of the definitive Coltrane discography by Y. Fujioka.

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A Love Supreme: The Story of John Coltrane's Signature Album

Sun, 24 Jun 2007 18:09:41 GMT

Few albums in the canon of popular music have had the influence, resonance, and endurance of John Coltrane's 1965 classic A Love Supreme-a record that proved jazz was a fitting medium for spiritual exploration and for the expression of the sublime. Bringing the same fresh and engaging approach that characterized his critically acclaimed Kind of Blue: The Making of the Miles Davis Masterpiece, Ashley Kahn tells the story of the genesis, creation, and aftermath of this classic recording. Featuring interviews with more than one hundred musicians, producers, friends, and family members; unpublished interviews with Coltrane and bassist Jimmy Garrison; and scores of never-before-seen photographs, A Love Supreme balances biography, cultural context, and musical analysis in a passionate and revealing portrait.
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John Coltrane: Improvised Saxophone Solos

Sun, 24 Jun 2007 18:09:41 GMT

Interesting facets of Coltrane's playing are presented along with eight transcriptions of his solos as recorded on the Blue Note albums WHIMS OF CHAMBERS and BLUE TRAIN. Titles are: Blue Train Nita Just for the Love We Six Omicron Moment's Notice Locomotion Lazy Bird.
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Chasin' the Trane: The Music and Mystique of John Coltrane (Da Capo Paperback)

Sun, 24 Jun 2007 18:09:41 GMT

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Customer Review: good taste of Trane...
a very good intro to John Coltrane and his life. Short on details and extensive background but good quotes from peers and studio musicians he played with. His uncanny drive to practice and to play his sax the way he wanted to play it is captured here. All in all a very good book but there seems to be alot missing here.
Customer Review: Not Bad, Kind of Cheesy in Places
JC Thomas mixes facts with imaginative accounts of Coltrane's life, for example, he writes about a practice session or two as if he is sitting and watching. It's really a tad corny, but you do get a lot of facts. Not enough attention to the Miles Davis Quintet years. I think you can do better. There was a time when this was the only biography available and we had to settle for this.

John Coltrane's Giant Steps (Richard Jackson Books (Atheneum Hardcover))

Sun, 24 Jun 2007 18:09:41 GMT

You may be surprised

at the tricky music

a box,

a snowflake,

some raindrops,

and a kitten

can make.

Right before your eyes.

And on the pages

of this book.

There is someone

backstage

watching, encouraging

our performers

but keeping them

under control.

Why not

listen along?

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Customer Review: Ambitious, Interesting, and Imaginative, but Perhaps Best for Adults or Kids Guided by Them
Chris Raschka is one of our most ambitious children's book illustrators. When he's good, he's great, and he wins the Caldecott Award for best children's illustration. When he tries too hard, he's sly but opaque, clever but obscure. "Waffle," for example, plays with concept at the expense of clarity, and the result is a disappointing mish-mosh. This book is on the heady side, but musically-inclined youngsters guided by a talented teacher, parent, or other adult will enjoy's Raschka's imaginative deconstruction/reconstruction of Coltrane's magnificent jazz piece. Raschka almost nails it with this visual and verbal description of saxophonist John Coltrane's incredible "Giant Steps," a landmark number of dizzying complexity, speed, and joy that most energetic younsters would like on its own. However, much of the appeal lies in a very intellectual exercise requiring levels of abstract thinking and reading ability beyond most of the young audience who will be attracted to the picture book format. However, teenagers, pre-adolescents with a musical bent, and adults will appreciate Raschka sensitive evaluation of Coltrane's talent. Younger kids might like the colorful (although not vividly colorful) pictures, and the pictures of the raindrops, snowflake, and cat. However, these by themselves are not that appealing, and the song's "narration" is clever but not a very interesting story. That is why the book doesn't quite work for early elementary school-age kids reading it on their own. The most fascinating aspect of Raschka's "Giant Steps" is that he purposely draws the song all wrong! The book disappoints, and then tricks us, because Raschka knows exactly what he was doing. The cat narrator leads the shapes and colors in a visual performance of Coltrane's number, but the impression is, well, unimpressive. Even for a metaphor of Coltrane's music, the colors look blurry and the composition are unfocused. However, at a break in the performance (on pages 24 and 25), Raschka gently tells us that the preceeding images (by Raschka) were not quite right, were not Coltrane. The "performers" (and the reader) must understand that Coltrane was strong, yes, but "strong yet light." The colors should be rich, not "muddy," because "Coltrane's music is dense but transparent." And while Coltrane did blow "a fountain of notes, a shower of notes...those notes made lines that were dynamic and strong and vivid." In a remarkable performace of his own,. Raschka redraws the musical sequence to reflect these attributes, and this time he captures the rhythms, sounds, and energetic clarity of Coltrane. It's a masterful achievement, but I don't know how many kids will appreciate it. A dazzling, albeit puzzling, work that stands, as Ellington once said, "beyond category."
Customer Review: John Coltrane's Giant Steps is a Good Book!
We really liked reading John Coltrane's Giant Steps. We want to read it again and again. The pictures look very cool. We like the way that the illustrator created all the shapes like the box, the snowflake, and the raindrops. We also like the words that the author uses to describe the music. Our favorite part was when the director tells the shapes and the kitten what they did wrong. Listening to the music really helped us understand the book. Some of us wish that the author had given us the cd with the book. Others of us think it was great the way it was! Chris Raschka writes good books!

John Coltrane Plays Giant Steps

Sun, 24 Jun 2007 18:09:41 GMT

Complete transcriptions of every recorded solo (nine takes) by jazz master John Coltrane on his legendary composition "Giant Steps" - 96 choruses in all! Includes analysis of the tune and solos, historical background, and previously unpublished photos from the period. This book is an invaluable collector's item, as well as an important practice and learning tool.
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Customer Review: Giant Steps galore
Basically, this book contains transcriptions of every chorus for the tune "Giant Steps" that Coltrane recorded at the March 26 and May 5, 1959 recording sessions. All in all, 9 different takes including the original master. The transcriptions are presented in a very readable way: 4 measures to each line throughout, plus some other notation devices. I can't really comment much on the accuracy as I haven't played through any of the transcriptions yet, but on first glance they seem very meticuously done. Be aware that all music is notated for Bb tenor saxophone, which means that many players of other instruments will have to transpose the music. The introduction to the book contain historical notes on Coltrane and Giant Steps, plus an analysis of the tune in terms of harmony, form and pitch selection.

The Music of John Coltrane (Jazz Giants)

Sun, 24 Jun 2007 18:09:41 GMT

This comprehensive collection includes more than 100 of this jazz master's best work and includes a biography and discogrophy making this a perfect souvenir folio. 26-2 4 Am (Part V O Suite) Acknowledgement (Part I) Affirmation (Part IV of Prayer and Meditation Suite) Africa After The Crescent After The Rain Alabama Amen Ascension (Coltrane) Ascent Attaining Bessie's Blues Big Nick Black Pearls Blue Train (Blue Trane) Blues Minor Blues To Bechet Blues To Elvin Blues To You Brazilia (Coltrane J) Central Park West Chasin' The Trane Compassion Consequences Cosmos Countdown Cousin Mary Crescent Dahomey Dance Day (Part 1 Of Suite) Dear Lord Dearly Beloved Drum Thing, The Dusk-Dawn Equinox Evening (Part Iii Of Suite) Evolution Exotica Expression Father & Son & Holy Ghost Fifth House Giant Steps Grand Central Greensleeves Harmonique Impressions India Jupiter (The Planets) Holst G Just For The Love Lazy Bird Leo Liberia Like Sonny (Simple Like) Living Space Locomotion Lonnie's Lament Love (Coltrane J) Manifestation Mars Miles' Mode ( The Red Planet) Moment's Notice Mr. Day (One And Four) Mr. Knight Mr. P.C. Mr. Syms Naima (Niema) Nita Offering (Coltrane J) Ogunde Ole Peace & After (Part Ii Of Suite) Peace On Earth Pristine Promise Psalm (Part...
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