Music Player: John Coltrane

According to “Waylon Jennings” published by Biography.com, which states Jennings was born on June, 15th 1937. Waylon Jennings grew up in a small town Texas, where he quickly grew an interest in outlaws, and playing guitar. Jennings started playing guitar at a young age, and by the age of 12 was exploring his interest in music in many different ways, such as starting a new band and becoming a radio disk jockey. Jennings liked music enough to drop out of school to explore the

John Coltrane was born on September 23, 1926, in Hamlet, North Carolina. This particular day had important astrological significance. It was the day of the autumn equinox, one of only two days through the year where night and day are perfectly equal (Fraim 7).

According to biography.com, Louis Armstrong was born on August 4, 1901 in New Orleans, Louisiana. He was born into a poor section of New Orleans, which was nicknamed “The Battlefield.” Louis Armstrong had a tough childhood when he was growing up, his father was a factory worker that had left Louis Armstrong’s family after he was soon to be born. Louis Armstrong’s mom was a prostitute and she often left him at his maternal grandmother’s house. Armstrong had to quit school in the fifth grade because he needed to begin work to support himself. A

He was born on October 30, 1935. He was born in Braintree, that is now Quincy, Massachusetts. At age 16 John had received a scholarship to the school where he got his education called, Harvard University. This is where he received his undergraduate degree and his masters. At age 20, John studied law in the office of John Putnam’s, a prominent lawyer. Despite of his father’s wish for John to enter into the ministry.

John Brown was born on May 9, 1800 in Torrington, Connecticut (McPhail). When Brown turned five years old, his family moved to Ohio. His parents Owen Brown and Ruth

Although the major artists of the Jazz Era would ultimately rise in fame and would bring a new culture to America, they all had different origins and different early careers. Jelly Roll Morton grew up in New Orleans, and learned to play the piano by age 10 with no formal musical training. He would start his career by playing ragtime and other popular dances and songs in the brothels of Storyville. Similarly, Joe King Oliver, Sidney Bichet, and Louis Armstrong all grew up in New Orleans. Joe King Oliver would start his career as a trombone player, and he would play in brass bands, dance bands, and other small bands in bars and clubs in New Orleans. Sidney Bichet grew up in a musical family, where all four of his brothers played instruments. He would study under other classical clarinet players, but he mostly taught himself how to play. Bichet later played in bands around New Orleans, and in 1916 he left the city to play in shows and carnivals throughout the South and Midwest. Louis

He began playing music when he was eight. His career started when he played trumpet, leading a dance band in downtown Chicago when he was barely in his teens. At hull house, he

After finishing High School, he developed a love for music. He wrote and produced all of his own songs performed his music at local talent shows around the Houston area and his music was figured

Within a year, his father, his uncle, and his minister all died. He lost every important male influence in his life. After graduating from high school in High Point, he moved to Philadelphia in 1943, where he lived in a small one-room apartment and worked as a laborer in a sugar-refinery. For a year, Coltrane attended Ornstein School of Music. Then in 1945, he was drafted into the Navy and sent to Hawaii where he was assigned to play clarinet in a band called the Melody Makers. Upon his return from Hawaii a year later, Coltrane launched his music career. "With all those years of constant practice in High Point behind him, possessing a powerful inner strength from being raised in a deeply religious family, and with a foundation in musical theory and an innate curiosity about life, Coltrane was well prepared to seriously enter a battle." In the late nineteen forties, Coltrane began playing with several different R&B groups in small bars and clubs around Philadelphia. It became a tradition in many of the clubs at this time for musicians to "walk the bar" (i.e. to walk on top of the bar while playing one's instrument). Coltrane was ashamed of having to go through this "display" every night. "To any serious musician, it was an incredibly humiliating experience - to someone like Coltrane, who was developing a type of religious fervor for his music, it was

John Jay was born December 12,1745. He spent his childhood near Rye, New York. Later on in his life, Jay became a successful lawyer. Bye the time that rifts with the Great Britain and calls for independence erupted in the colonies. John Jay was a very devoted person and always kept his eye on the prize.

John Jay was born on December 12, 1745 to French Protestant refugees in New York City. Born into a wealthy family, Jay enrolled at King’s College (which would later become Columbia University) and after graduation in 1764 he took a position as a law clerk.

John Duke was one of America’s foremost composers of art song. He was born in Cumberland, Maryland, in the late 1800’s. Due to his musically and literarily inclined parents, Duke had learned to read music from his mother who was a singer. He did great things with music, beginning piano lessons at the age of 11, and entering the Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore, Maryland, at the age of sixteen, where he studied piano with a pupil of some very famous composers.

John Paul Jones was born July 8, 1747, in Scotland, Kirkbean.His mother’s name was Jean McDuff and his father’s name was John Paul, Sr. He was born the 5th child out of 7children. In 1759 at the age 13, he started his career at sea as ship boy. In 1764 he was hired as 3rd mate on king George’s ship. In 1765 his father died.

I was drawn to this song after first hearing it in the 1965 musical film, The Sound of Music. Although it is a unique twist from the original with improvisation, I enjoyed the bouncier and more upbeat tempo in Coltrane’s interpretation of the song. There is an introduction in the song followed by Coltrane’s solo at 0:18-2:01. This solo played in A begins the melody and is supported by the repeated rhythm of the piano which sets up the rest of the piece. He plays A and vamps in major mode during 0:44-1:01, plays B at 1:26, and A at 1:44 while he vamps in minor mode at 2:01. McCoy Tyner’s piano solo, 2:18-6:45, is AABA while he vamps in minor mode at 2:35, major mode at 3:25, and minor mode again at 6:13. Coltrane’s second soprano sax solo, 7:02-12:33, is AABC while he vamps in minor mode at 7:02 and 7:26 and in major mode at 10:00.

Frederic Chopin was born on March 1, 1810 in Zelazowa Wola, Poland. Due to a registered