John Coltrane Quartet

Born on September 23, 1926, and passing away July 17, 1967, John Coltrane reached a decisive crossroads in 1960. That year the saxophonist, renowned for his robust tone, permanently left Miles Davis, committed himself primarily to modal jazz instead of hard bop, and launched his own trailblazing ensemble. The New York-based John Coltrane Quartet originally consisted of Coltrane on tenor and soprano sax, McCoy Tyner on piano, Elvin Jones on drums, and Steve Davis on bass. Davis departed after a short tenure; Coltrane auditioned Art Davis and Reggie Workman before engaging Jimmy Garrison on bass in 1961. Much like his one-time employer Miles Davis, the saxophonist remained an ever-evolving artist intent on forward movement, and the 1960–1965 quartet fulfilled that drive. Throughout the 1950s Coltrane had concentrated on hard bop, with “Giant Steps,” cut in 1959, widely regarded as the pinnacle of the style’s improvisational vehicles. Yet 1959 also placed him at the center of Davis’s landmark modal album Kind of Blue, prompting the saxophonist to embrace modality wholeheartedly once he began leading a permanent group in 1960. That same year the quartet issued My Favorite Things on Atlantic, a recording that advanced modal approaches to the same degree as Kind of Blue. The album’s title track, along with “Impressions,” “Equinox,” “Miles’ Mode,” and other early-sixties pieces introduced by the ensemble, stand as enduring models of modal post-bop. After switching from Atlantic to Impulse! in 1961, Coltrane occasionally expanded the unit; reedman Eric Dolphy joined briefly that year. Even so, the quartet format dominated from 1960 through 1964 and exerted remarkable influence. During the early and mid-1960s, the group’s modal explorations shaped saxophonists Wayne Shorter, Joe Henderson, and Jackie McLean, as well as trumpeter Freddie Hubbard and organist Larry Young. In 1965, the same year the quartet recorded the spiritually themed A Love Supreme for Impulse!, Coltrane pursued atonal free jazz, thereby concluding both his modal phase and the celebrated lineup of Coltrane, Tyner, Garrison, and Jones. The quartet’s impact nevertheless endured; every subsequent practitioner of modal jazz remains indebted to the John Coltrane Quartet.