A Guide to John Coltrane

John Coltrane’s brief 40 years on Earth were marked by innovation—a constant search for what was possible musically and spiritually. In honor of what would have been the jazz titan’s 100th birthday, experience what he found and shared with the universe.

Born in 1926, John Coltrane spent his childhood in North Carolina and did a stint in the Navy before devoting himself to jazz. He practiced his alto saxophone constantly, then gave equal focus to the tenor sax. In post-World War II America, the feverish, dance floor-oriented sounds of big band music had lost favor to the cooler, modernist approach of bebop, which was a better fit for Coltrane’s exploratory mindset. He played with technical virtuosos including Dizzy Gillespie and Earl Bostic, but the most consequential moment came in 1955, when Miles Davis invited Coltrane to join his quintet just as Davis was poised to become jazz’s biggest star. Coltrane accompanied Davis on his final four albums for the Prestige label (he even got a shout-out on the traditionalist “Trane’s Blues”) and his Columbia Records debut, only to be fired for excessive drug use and drinking.

After locking himself in a room of his mother’s Philadelphia home and going cold turkey to get clean, Coltrane experienced a spiritual awakening. What followed was an explosive bout of creativity and artistic growth in which he established his own powerful and distinct musical voice. He could now stand alongside towering figures like the pianist Thelonious Monk, and when he rejoined Miles Davis’ ensemble, his note-heavy and expansive technique provided a contrast to Davis’ sparser, evocative approach.

The breadth of Coltrane’s abilities was reflected in the outpouring of his own music. The mesmerizing complexity of “Giant Steps,” the tender beauty of “Naima” (named after his first wife), the pop music revelation “My Favorite Things,” and the grieving “Alabama”—this diverse range of recordings helped make him a hero in the jazz world, and they continue to be some of his most celebrated and popular songs. But Coltrane wasn’t checking boxes; he was on a path of discovery. “I’m still primarily looking into certain sounds, certain scales,” he told the writer Nat Hentoff during this era. “Not that I’m sure of what I’m looking for, except that it’ll be something that hasn’t been played before. I don’t know what it is. I know I’ll have that feeling when I get it.”

In many ways, Coltrane’s album A Love Supreme was the culmination of his historic rise—a moving testament to his devotion to God—but it was also the beginning of more transitions. Expanding the usual jazz touchstones, he incorporated global influences from Indian and African music. Though he was the grandson of two A.M.E. ministers, he opened himself up to Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam, and mystic traditions. His second wife, Alice, began playing piano in his band as they welcomed in spiritual jazz, and he communed with figures like Pharoah Sanders, Rashied Ali, and Archie Shepp to explore free jazz. The results could be challenging, and he shed some fans who weren’t up for these journeys, but sometimes that’s the price of liberation.

John Coltrane died on July 17, 1967, from liver cancer. Beyond the jazz community, his influence has reverberated through disparate realms, including heady 1970s rock, the literary Black Arts Movement, and the films of Spike Lee. In the ensuing 60 years, the musicians who have truly brought his perspective into the 21st century are the ones who recognize the magical nature of his work and remain open to the possibilities it presents. In a 1962 interview with DownBeat magazine, Coltrane said, “That’s what music is to me—it’s just another way of saying this is a big, beautiful universe we live in, that’s been given to us, and here’s an example of just how magnificent and encompassing it is.”