John Coltrane Quartet

1960 marked a decisive shift for John Coltrane, born September 23, 1926, and deceased July 17, 1967. That year the powerful-toned saxophonist permanently parted from Miles Davis, shifted his primary emphasis from hard bop to modal jazz, and assembled the John Coltrane Quartet in New York. The ensemble’s initial members were Coltrane on tenor and soprano saxophone, McCoy Tyner on piano, Elvin Jones on drums, and Steve Davis on bass. Davis departed soon afterward, prompting brief tenures by Art Davis and Reggie Workman until Jimmy Garrison joined in 1961. Much like his one-time employer Miles Davis, Coltrane remained driven to advance stylistically, a drive the quartet fully embodied between 1960 and 1965.

Throughout the 1950s Coltrane had concentrated on hard bop, a period capped by the 1959 recording “Giant Steps,” widely regarded as the definitive showcase for that idiom’s improvisational demands. Also in 1959 he appeared prominently on Davis’ landmark modal album Kind of Blue. Once Coltrane became a full-time bandleader in 1960 he embraced modal approaches outright, releasing the Atlantic album My Favorite Things, a recording that rivaled Kind of Blue in spreading modal techniques. The title track, along with “Impressions,” “Equinox,” and “Miles’ Mode,” quickly became recognized touchstones of modal post-bop. After switching from Atlantic to Impulse! in 1961, Coltrane occasionally expanded the group, enlisting reedman Eric Dolphy for a short stretch that same year, yet the core quartet format remained his preference through 1964 and proved extraordinarily influential.

During the first half of the 1960s the quartet’s modal explorations shaped the work of saxophonists Wayne Shorter, Joe Henderson, and Jackie McLean, as well as trumpeter Freddie Hubbard and organist Larry Young. In 1965, the year after the quartet recorded the spiritually themed A Love Supreme for Impulse!, Coltrane turned toward atonal free jazz, bringing both his modal phase and the celebrated Coltrane/Tyner/Garrison/Jones configuration to a close. Nevertheless the quartet’s impact endured; every subsequent musician who has engaged with modal jazz continues to draw on the precedent set by John Coltrane Quartet.