John Coltrane Influences

Eileen Southern’s The Music of Black Americans: A History she examines the influence that African Americans had in the holiness churches in music and worship. She initially starts with the landing of the first Africans to the colonies and she creates a phenomenal conversation of the musicians in the new world. She details the progression in the gospel, classical, jazz, rap, blues and the contributions they made.

However, it can also be seen as his environment and experiences of why Michael Jackson was so into becoming a music legend. Michael Jackson used his music as a therapeutic way of transcending his personal struggles. He believed that music is a 'mantra to the soul' which shows that he used his music as a way of moving on from any experiences that he had suffered from. His surroundings in the music industry helped him to do this successfully, his determination to move on from his experiences lead him to one of the most successful music careers in the industry. Being nurtured through his experiences helped him become a music legend.

Perhaps one of the strongest demonstrations of the power of music in “Sonny’s Blues” is the street revival. Everyone has seen these types of revivals before. Every song has been heard by the crowd, but when the music starts everyone stops, watches, and listens. “As the singing filled the air the watching, listening faces underwent a change, the eyes focusing on something within; the music seemed to soothe a poison out of them; and time seemed, nearly, to fall away from the sullen, belligerent, battered faces” (57). The music from the street revival helps lifts the hopelessness from the crowd and provides a sense of relief. Music is able to bring people from all walks of life together. It gives them a sense of calm and ease, an assurance that something is there to help. Music listens.

Spirituals were not only “sung to keep spirits up” (Thompson 9), but were used as coded messages to give directions for where to go or how to proceed to freedom in the North. The slave owners believed that the slaves were happy because they sang church songs and they praised God but little did they know, that the slaves were secretly communicating. For instance, during the Underground Railroad, songs like “Follow the Drinkin’ Gourd,’ ‘Wade in the Water,’ and ‘Swing Low, Sweet Chariot,’ all directly refer to secret code about using the Underground Railroad.” As many as 100,000 slaves escaped by means of this method (Thompson 9).

Lateef was a part of the band for only a short time. He sparked Coltrane's interest in philosophy and religion. He also introduced him to authors like Kahlil Gibran and suggested he read the Koran (17).

Throughout African American history, especially during slavery music has been used as a coping mechanism to assist one with enduring hardship and opposition. Music specifically jazz and the blues can have many boundless effects on one’s life. In this case, in Sonny’s life, music was his only source of hope and strength to redemption.

Music has always been regarded as an art of high importance. The word itself originates from the Greek word mousike meaning “of the muses”, the group of nine Greek Goddesses who regulate the arts and sciences. It has often been used as a way to heal mental and emotional pain; “music speaks directly to the body through intuitive channels that are accessed at entirely different levels of consciousness from those associated with cognition” (The Music Effect.24). In Jan Johnson’s Soul Wound, Johnson discusses the historical trauma of Native Americans and the rage that is associated with it. This rage, as she later states, “is generally turned inward and expressed through depression, anxiety, substance abuse, and suicide, and manifested externally within families and communities through domestic and other forms of violence” (Johnson.226-227). In Wabanaki Blues by Melissa Tantaquidgeon Zobel we see this rage internalized and portrayed in the depression of both Mona and her mother and depicted in their family dynamic through the neglect of Mona’s mother towards Mona. Mona, as well as other characters in the book, utilize music as a form of therapy to heal the soul. The characters in Wabanaki Blues utilize music to heal in ways that parallels Bob Marley’s Redemption Song and the Rastafarian religion.

music seemed to be merely an excuse for the life he led. It sounded just that

African American religious music is the foundation of all contemporary forms of so called “black music.” African American religious music has been a fundamental part of the black experience in this country. This common staple of the African American experience can be traced back to the cruel system of slavery. It then evolved into what we refer to today as gospel music. The goal of this paper is to answer three main questions. What are the origins of African American religious music? How did this musical expression develop into a secular form of music? What is the future of African American religious music? These questions will be answered through factual research of African American traditions, artists, and various other sources.

During the early 1970’s legendary singer, songwriter, music producer and minister, Reverend Al Green, dominated music charts with his classic hits of southern soul music. Records including “Let’s Stay Together,” “Tired of Being Alone,” and “Love and Happiness,” has endlessly been passed down through generations of families predominantly in the African American community (Dr. J). Although Green has had an enormously influential impact on the history of R&B music, the eleven-time Grammy award winner decided to step away from soul music at the peak of his career and rededicate his life to Christ. He strolled down many paths of which the religious author, James Martin, refers to as the paths of belief, exploration, and return. To further understand how Al Greens has explored each of these paths, this essay will analyze significant moments in the life of Reverend Al Green.

Our world contains many cultures that perform their religious healing in somewhat similar, but also different ways when pertaining to ritual, beliefs and healing. Towards the end of Sonny’s Blues, Baldwin focuses on the purpose of Sonny’s music and emphasizes Sonny’s musical performance as his religious healing. This paper will emphasize African diaspora and religious expression in Sonny’s Blues. By using analysis from Turner and Janzen, this essay will address the large impact of rites of passage, the significance of communitas, and the correlation with ‘health as adaptation.’

Jazz is a music genre that has complex characteristics and history of development and thus many musicians and scholars face troubles in defining what jazz is. In general, jazz is believed to have born in New Orleans. Jazz developed for the pleasure of the social dancers. According to the “Understanding Jazz: What Is Jazz?” of John F. Kennedy center for the Performing Arts, Jazz was created mainly by Afro-Americans, and had elements of European and Afro-American culture. Also, it emphasizes few elements of Jazz, which are swing-feel, syncopation, and improvisation. These different culture and elements of jazz may be explained by how jazz

His first compassion ever “Soda Fountain Rag” was at the age of 15, he started playing professionally at 17, Duke Ellington 50 years of compositions, and a lot of his great work came from his teenage years and his late 20s. in 1923 duke and some of his friends came to New York they form the group the Washingtonians, they took part in the Harlem Renaissance and started playing in homes for income.

Marvin Gaye grew up surrounded by the art of music. Born in the nations capital on April 2, 1939, Gaye’s ageless sounds and intriguing vocals still influence the world today. Gaye’s father, a minister in the Apostolic Church, played a foremost role in Marvin’s musical education. In fact, most of Marvin’s inspiration for religious topics came from the church music he grew up singing. Through the art of song, musical icon Marvin Gaye uses pathos, symbolism, and imagery with an objective to connect to listeners on tremendously personal levels.

After being fired from Miles Davis's band in 1957 for his chronic use of heroin, John Coltrane was hurt tremendously. He decided it was time he quit using heroin. He took a month off from music while he went "cold turkey." During this month in the early spring of 1957, Coltrane had a momentous religious experience (Nisenson, 40). Coltrane asked God to give him "the means and privilege to make others happy through music" (Coltrane, 1995, 2). As time went on, Coltrane felt that he was leading a life that was "contradictory to the pledge and away from the esteemed path" that he had made to God (Coltrane, 1995, 2). Starting with A Love Supreme (recorded in December, 1964), Coltrane stuck to