John Coltrane

John William Coltrane (September 23, 1926 – July 17, 1967), nicknamed Trane, was an American jazz saxophonist and composer.

Although recordings of his work from as early as 1946 exist, John Coltrane's recording career did not begin in earnest until 1955. From 1957 onward John Coltrane recorded and produced dozens of albums, many of them not released until years after his death.

A hugely influential jazz musician, John Coltrane has been credited with reshaping modern jazz and with being the predominant influence on successive generations of saxophonists. Along with tenor saxophonists Coleman Hawkins, Lester Young, and Sonny Rollins, John Coltrane fundamentally altered expectations for the instrument.

John Coltrane received a posthumous Special Citation from the Pulitzer Prize Board in 2007 for his "masterful improvisation, supreme musicianship and iconic centrality to the history of jazz."

The music of John Coltrane's modal and Village Vanguard period was the admitted principal influence on what was arguably the first jazz-rock fusion recording, the Byrds' "Eight Miles High" (December 1965). Some of John Coltrane's other innovations would be incorporated into the fusion movement, but with diminishing returns of spiritual fervency and earnestness.

The influence John Coltrane has had on music spans many different genres and musicians. For example, Jimi Hendrix, Carlos Santana, Allan Holdsworth, Jerry Garcia, the Stooges, The Doors, Mike Watt, and OutKast cite Coltrane's work as inspiration.