I am doing some freelance work for public radio and one project I am working on is a documentary that is going to focus on the influence John Coltrane has had on recorded music (with an emphasis on his influence outside of jazz)...

I would like to get anyone's general opinions on Coltrane's influences on rock, world music and/or anything else... I am familiar with many aspects of this subject matter already (I already have 35 pages of notes for my script), but I would like to get free and unrestricted opinion... So, I won't mention any areas that I have already researched (that way anything that is brought to the table here in this forum will be without bias)...

Also, can anyone think of any jazz recordings that mimic Coltrane's sound closely (I realized his influence is wide spread but are there any particualr songs you can think of that are close to exact copies of his style... This is easy to do in rock but I am finding harder to do in jazz)...

I have already discussed this whole matter at some length with Satch and he has provided me with a wealth of material...

I feel this is a very "rich" subject to explore as few realize what a massive impact Coltrane has made on music... So much so that he should be mentioned with other titans of the 20th century (Dylan, Ellington, Armstrong, Beatles) as far as influence... And yet few realize his contributions...

Thanks in advance for any facts and/or opinions...

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Why would you want exact copies? In Jazz that would be something any good musician would want to avoid. No fan would want to hear anything like that, to be honest. Just look up those who have covered his songs.


For example, David Murray who is highly influenced by John Coltrane and Albert Ayler....who was also influenced by Coltrane, but both have their own voice.









On the first, Elvin Jones and McCoy Tyner are involved.



Here is a live recording that gives you an idea of the second, which is a studio recording.


http://www.burningoak.com/2006/04/28...-murray-octet/




Michael Brecker is someone who is seriously influenced by Coltrane, and who has also played on many Rock recordings.

Songdog mentions him in this cool song:

I love my angel's plastic wings

http://www.myspace.com/songdog1

Public Enemy mentions him in Don't Believe The Hype

and Cowboy Junkies on Sun Comes Up It's Tuesday Morning

Branford Marsalis who was influenced by Coltrane, did a lifeless cover of the A Love Supreme suite....so you can compare it to David Murray's recording.


It's on Branford's recording Footsteps of Our Fathers. It also includes a lifeless cover of Sonny Rollins' The Freedom Suite, which if you want covers of that....I would suggest David S. Ware's recording Freedom Suite.



Coltrane also discovered and was influenced by Ravi Shankar. He would incorporate that into his music with songs like India, all before anyone heard of The Beatles.


He even named his oldest son after Ravi.


Coltrane was always searching in his playing. Even when he was dying of liver cancer, which is as painful as hell....he was still practicing several hours a day and performing/recording.


He recorded The Olatunji Concert: The Last Live Recording on April 23rd, 1967 and died July 17th, 1967.

DA MAN was playing his heart out, and you know he had to be in a great deal of pain. There are people in excellent helath that don't anywhere close to that kind of intensity. He only performed a few times after that, but there're no recordings. His last studio recroding was on 5-17-67. It like many other of his recordings, haven't been released....as of yet.











On the live version of James Brown's Super Bad....you can hear Soul Brother #1 tell Robert McCollough to "Blow me some 'Trane, Brother!"

the first time i remember really hearing about and paying attention to the name john coltrane was in an interview with kirk hammett in a guitar world magazine. might have been a lesson instead of an interview, either way KH was going on about ways to get out of ruts and he mentionned playing along to giant steps. he went on to talk about how he'd try to mimic coltrane's sax on his guitar and how it helped him develop as a player rather than simply playing along to other guitarists. the idea of looking towards a different style and instrument seemed to inspire guitar playing seemed like such a fresh idea to me at the time.

as a metal / hard rock kid growing up before the age of the net i found interviews like this to have a far more lasting impact than simply reading about how someone shredded his way through whatever solo. although it was flea talking about eric dolphy that really got me looking to get into jazz.

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No, I don't want covers, I want a song(s) where when you hear a certain part that you can point to the Coltrane influence (as you can in "Eight Miles High" by The Byrds)... But I want that same thing in a jazz song to show as an example... This is not for art appreciation, it is to show an example and is just a small step on the big ladder of the program...

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Excellent... That is great stuff... I will definately use that info once I can confirm it (not that I don't believe you, just that I need to double and triple check all reference sources... That is just how I do stuff in my research)...

THANKS!!!!!!!!!!!

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Carlos Santana has always, and still does genuflect before Coltrane. I guess the 1970s period from Caravanserai through Illuminations showed Santana at his most overtly Coltrane inspired.

There's a quote from Santana that goes something like: "I've known for a long time that John Coltrane and Bob Marley re-arrange your molecular structure. ... I want to unify the molecules with the light".

Santana is one tough cat to quote because it is so hard to understand what the heck he is saying... Have you ever read an interview with Santana? He always goes off on these funky tagents about spirtual love and stuff, (lol)... It is like Hendrix spirit joined with Santana's when he died because they always seem to be like spiritual brothers...

Anywho, while Santana LOVES Coltrane it is hard to pinpoint a usable quote from him (I just read an interview he did last month and the interviwer kept trying to get him to talk about Coltrane but Santana always answers in a whole "love vibe" mode)... I of all people thought I understood hippie lingo, but Carlos is way out there... He is one cool groovy hard to understand cat, lol.


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it's all good. best i can pinpoint it would be a guitar world magazine from somewhere around '95-'96. if i lived closer to my mom's house i could just check them directly but that's not really an option for me at the moment hehe.