Coltrane
There are two musicians in this photo, so please give Elvin Jones a little love, people.
Thelonious Monk and Nellie Monk at their home with John Coltrane in the late 1950s (photo courtesy of T.S. Monk)
Curtis Fuller and John Coltrane during ‘Trane’s Blue Train session, Hackensack NJ, September 15 1957 (photo by Francis Wolff)
Thelonious Monk - Well, You Needn’t (1957)
From Robin Kelley’s Thelonious Monk - The Life and Times of an American Original:
[B]ut the eleven-and-a-half-minute “Well, You Needn’t” stands out for the way each soloist asserts his individual voice. The master take is infamous for another reason: Monk shouts “Coltrane! Coltrane!” just before his sax solo. Ray Copeland convinced himself years later that ‘Trane was nodding off, high on junk, and Monk had to wake him up. The truth is a little more mundane. Monk had not planned out the sequence of soloists, so he was merely letting ‘Trane know that he was next. And the recording is evidence that he was poised to play.
John Coltrane during Paul Chambers’ Whims of Chambers session, Hackensack NJ, September 21 1956 (photo by Francis Wolff)
3 Tenors - Johnny Griffin, John Coltrane and Hank Mobley recording ‘A Blowin’ Session’ in 1957. A superb album.
Photo by Francis Wolff
What a lineup.
U.S. Naval Reserve photo of John Coltrane in 1945 following his voluntary enlistment as an apprentice seaman (He was 18 at the time).
John Coltrane backstage at Stanford University a few months before his death in 1966 (photo by Jim Marshall)
From Jazz Photography - Art Form and Historic Document:
Coltrane was one of photographer Roy DeCarava’s favorite subjects. “I traveled up and down the East Coast to hear him play and to photograph him. I shot photos in the clubs with the lighting that was available. If I thought I was bothering him, then I wouldn’t shoot. I would just listen to the music.” DeCarava’s “Coltrane on Soprano, 1963”, captures the performer in his musical element. He is seen from just below the waist and up and seems to be emerging out of a dark background; his eyes closed tightly. As a result of the longer exposure time needed for the low light setting, DeCarava was able to capture the motion of Coltrane’s fingers as they moved over the instrument.
