The artists who changed John Coltrane’s entire world: “It hit me right between the eyes”
John Coltrane, the prolific jazz god who inspired an entire movement and generation, hardly needs any introduction. It was almost like the genre itself never existed as we know it before he strolled along.
But the fact of the matter was that Coltrane was simply one in a line of jazz protégés who came to tread the boards in order to get a glimpse of their heroes in action. It just so happened that, in his case, he flew so far as to eventually become a fellow one of them to the legions that followed. He was the kingpin, the envy of all, because no one could even come close to matching him.
That rings truthfully as a singular narrative, because there was no denying the indelible imprint that Coltrane carved on the jazz scene that could never be replicated. But it’s almost just like telling only the second half of the story: it leaves behind the whole beginning, and the story of a young man who rose the ranks of the industry and truly honed his craft to become its emblematic star. The process didn’t happen overnight, but its impact lasted forever.
Coltrane was seemingly everywhere in those early days of his career in the mid-1940s, juggling military service with saxophone lessons and his first rudimentary gigs as part of a trio performing in cocktail bars. But just like his own rise of destiny, his eyes of inspiration were wide open, always on the look out for the person or moment that would forever change his jazz aspirations. That happened from the very second that one little bird flitted on to stage, and stopped the world by making the loudest sound.
“I think I was first awakened to musical exploration by Dizzy Gillespie and Bird,” Coltrane later reflected. “It was through their work that I began to learn about musical structures and the more theoretical aspects of music.”
By Bird, of course, he means the Yardbird, or Charlie Parker, in layman’s terms. But when the legend said in 1960 that “the first time I heard Bird play, it hit me right between the eyes,” he knew that something had shifted, and his life, just by being in the path of Parker’s, was going to be lined with greatness.
In a lot of ways, jazz was always a close-knit circle. In the 1940s, it was a choice of Parker, Gillespie, or Miles Davis for leading the pack. That’s why, when Coltrane followed along relatively shortly afterwards, it was easy for him to rise to prominence, given that the path from turning his heroes into his peers was a relatively straightforward one.
Although very tragically, Coltrane was the protégé but failed to outlive many of his counterparts, his impact was such that it transcended even further than some of their names, and his name went on to be far more immortal than the man himself ever was. That’s obviously the true mark of someone who changed the world, but it would have never happened if it weren’t for the artists who changed his own world first.
