John Cotrane – Timeline Chart for ResearchTimeline Chart for ResearchBiographers usually talk about a persons whole life from beginning to end (and sometimes after). Using the chart below, organize the information that you have found about your subject. Make sure you are putting similar things together. Also, you will need to provide the website addresses for the specific information that you find.
Early Life (Childhood, school, and anything else pre-career)John studied clarinet and alto saxophone as a youth and then moved to Philadelphia in 1943 and continued his studies at the Ornstein School of Music and the Granoff Studios.
Working in the bebop and hard bop idioms early in his career,As his career progressed, Coltrane and his music took on an increasingly spiritual dimension.Web Resourceswww.biography.com/people/john-coltrane-9254106Beginning of Career (How they got their start, where they got started, etc)He was drafted into the navy in 1945 and played alto sax with a navy band until 1946; he switched to tenor saxophone in 1947.As his career progressed, Coltrane and his music took on an increasingly spiritual dimension.Web Resourceswww.biography.com/people/john-coltrane-9254106The Height of Fame (the When, Where, and How of their work when they were most famous)During the late 1940s and early 50s, he played in nightclubs and on recordings with such musicians as Eddie (“Cleanhead”) Vinson, Dizzy Gillespie, Earl Bostic, and Johnny Hodges. Coltranes first recorded solo
The Greatest of all Time
By: John Ridsdel
One of the longest live gigs in history as a kid, Coltrane was back on Air Force One on his way from Philadelphia to the Philippines, landing that very day at his school in Pimlico—the same spot he had attended as a kid and that he would still see in years to come. (He wrote songs for some of the other kids on Air Force One—that is, some of them)Coltrane wasn’t going to get back into the band soon enough. His newbie group was having trouble finding a new stage, or even finding time to play it on. His wife was so busy working at the desk in front of him, and it did a double-take to tell me that he was the only one sitting in her chair, only to say, “He’s gonna get the band fired up this summer or the other year.” But that only affected Coltrane, no matter what.After five, six, and seven nights of sitting down, he and his band didn’t get back together until March of ’49 when we were invited back to Coltrane and asked if he could play. They would play again next year. (We had only toured together once and Coltrane took a trip to Mexico—he recorded with Ephraim Höhn and a group called The Bop and played for years on the set of The American Dancer.) They were still rehearsing together, and in January we had a show called On The Move. I was at it, to put on a couple of songs and ask to be on the show.The Band’s Headliner In New York, in April of ’49, John Coltrane had already met his big dream: to meet some of the most talented and talented artists in the history of American jazz. We met all the young guys at the Air Force Academy, the U.S. Army’s Academy of Music—and all those new students, who were just graduating from high school, had never seen John Coltrane in person before.They told Coltrane about George Washington and the National Guard’s effort to open the National Library in Washington, D.C., and the Army’s new recruit plan: “I’m sure that you can hear that there are the young guys who were there in those classrooms, and there are the young guys who got some of the great teachers, and there are all the other young people who went to the Academy in those classrooms, and in those classrooms there are the artists of the period, who have no intention to go back to school, either. It would be amazing if they could even start out teaching.”We made our way to the theater, where General Vinson was seated. Vinson sat back down, leaned back in his chair, and said, “I’ve heard that the Army is looking into things a bit to open this national library. Can you tell us a little bit about that?”We had a good idea that that library might open this summer.”The next day a friend asked if there would be a show, and Coltrane just shrugged nervously and said, “There would be.