John Coltrane free essay sample

This study documents and analyzes cyclic patterns used as melodic vocabulary in John Chlorates improvisations from compositions of 1965 to 1967. The analysis is categorized in two distinct sections. The first section analyzes melodic vocabulary that Is derived from the cycle of descending major thirds progressions found In the compositions of 1 959 to 1960. The second section analyzes melodic vocabulary that is derived from Nicolas Solemnitys Thesaurus of Scales and Melodic Patterns using the theoretical terminology incorporated In the treatise. Musical examples consist of patterns from the Thesaurus and excerpts from selected Improvisations of John Coloration as transcribed by Andrew White. Important scholarly contributions relevant to the subject by Carl Hollowed, Lewis Porter, David Dempsey, and Walt Whiskies are Included. Every effort has been made to cite Interviews with musicians and commentaries by writers contemporary to that period of time with special emphasis on the Important influence of Theologies Monk, Males Davis, and Ornate Coleman. John William Chlorate was born in Hamlet, North Carolina, on September 23, 1926.Two months later, his family moved to High Point, North Carolina, where he lived in a fairly well-to-do part of town. He grew up in a typical southern black family, deeply religious, and steeped in tradition. Both of his parents were musicians, his father played the violin and ukulele, and his mother was a member of the church choir. For several years. Young Chlorate played the clarinet. However with mild Interest. It was only after he heard the great alto saxophonist Johnny Hodges playing with the Duke Longtime band on the radio, that he became passionate about music.He dropped the Loraine and took up the alto saxophone, soon becoming very accomplished. When Chlorate was thirteen, he experienced several tragedies that would leave a lasting Impression on him and would have a great Impact on the music of his later years. Within a year, his father, his uncle, and his minister all died. He lost every important male influence in his life. After graduating from high school in High Point, he moved to Philadelphia in 1943, where he lived in a small one-room apartment and worked as a laborer in a sugar-refinery.For a year, Chlorate attended Orenstein School of Music. Then in 1945, he was drafted into the Navy and sent to Hawaii where he was assigned to play clarinet In a band called the Melody Makers. Upon his return from Hawaii a year later, Chlorate launched his music career. With all those years of constant practice in High Point behind him, possessing a powerful inner strength from being raised in a deeply religious family, and with a foundation in musical theory and an innate curiosity about life, Chlorate was well prepared to seriously enter a battle. In small bars and clubs around Philadelphia. It became a tradition in many of the clubs at this time for musicians to walk the bar (I. . To walk on top of the bar while playing ones instrument). Chlorate was ashamed of having to go through this display every night. To any serious musician, it was an incredibly humiliating experience to someone like Chlorate, who was developing a type of religious fervor for his music, it was devastating. In addition to the negative self-image this experience engendered, critics criticized his music as being too bizarre.Chlorate became very depressed, and searching for a way out, he turned to heroin. Heroin was a very popular drug among black musicians in the forties. It was a uniting force that, initially, brought them together, but in the end caused lives and careers to disintegrate. In 1949, Dizzy Gillespie invited Chlorate to play in his big band. Gillespie had been a very influential and important figure in the bebop movement. Bebop was a style of jazz, popular during the late thirties and forties. It incorporated faster tempos, and more complex phrases than the Jazz of earlier years.For the first time in many years, Chlorate felt some sense of stability in his life. However, after a two-year stint with Gillespie, Chlorate was asked to leave because of his unreliability due to his heroin addiction. Again, Chlorate was reduced to walking the bar, and playing in seedy clubs. Depressed and dejected, his addiction grew. It was during this time that Chlorate became very interested in eastern philosophies. When he was not studying or playing he spent most of his time reading and attempting to satisfy his growing philosophical curiosity about life.It was an inborn curiosity to a certain extent, but one that had also developed from events from his early life such as his religious upbringing, and the early deaths of the most important men in his life. Life was getting back on track for him, as he finally felt the influence f positive forces. At this time, he met Anima, a Moslem woman, and an able musician. More than anyone, she was able to help Chlorate pick up the broken pieces of his life. They were soon married. In the mid-flies, he was invited to play with Miles Davis and his quintet.The collaboration that developed would change his life. Miles Davis had received acclaim at the Newport Jazz Festival in 1955. Davis was dubbed the rising star of the new avian-garden movement, cool Jazz. Cool Jazz was a striking contrast to the more traditional Jazz popular during the forties. It emphasized experimentation with hordes, keys, and modes, improvising on scales rather than on sequences of chords, producing music that at times was very bizarre. This new movement was the beginning of an experimental stage of Jazz that was very popular during the sixties.The partnership between Davis and Chlorate proved to be an incredible learning experience for Chlorate. He began to develop a style distinctly his own. Chlorate poured out streams of notes with velocity and passion, exploring every melodic idea, no matter how exotic. This became known as Chlorates sheets of sound period, in which he would explore the scales of the saxophone at a speed that no one had ever The Davis band did very well for a time, and made several recordings; however, in late 1956, Chlorate was fired from the band because of his debilitating heroin addiction. At this point, Chlorate almost gave up music. He actually went to the New York Post Office, and filled out an application to be a postman. He and Anima moved from New York to Philadelphia in November of that year and lived in his mothers house there. Again, his life reached a low. Drugs and alcohol controlled him. Chlorate legalized at this point that he needed to choose between drugs or music. He chose music. For two-weeks, he locked himself in his room and went through a very painful withdrawal. When he left that room, he was a cured man, and never touched heroin or alcohol again.During those two weeks, Chlorate had undergone a spiritual rebirth that would send him on his quest to find the mysterious sound . This transformation was documented on his album A Love Supreme (1964), considered by many to be the best recording of his solo career. On the album cover, Chlorate wrote- During the year 1957, I experienced, by the grace of God, a spiritual awakening which has guided me to a richer, fuller, more productive life. At that time, in gratitude, I humbly asked to be given the means and privilege to make others happy through music. I feel this has been granted through His grace. ALL PRAISE TO GOD. The album is divided into four parts: Acknowledgment, Resolution, Pursuance, and Psalm. Each part details a different element of his spiritual Journey. Chlorates God was not Christian, Muslim, or Jewish; his God was simply a force that provided unity and harmony. He believed that his humanity, his music, the material world, and God were all one, and that feeling of unity governed his life. In 1957, Chlorate embarked on the most important learning experience of his life an apprenticeship with the High Priest of Bebop, Telethons Monk.Chlorates style had been developed with Miles Davis, but it was still somewhat reserved. With Monk, he was transformed into a legend. Monk would provide Chlorate with the key to unlock all sorts of musical doors and free the dark and the beautiful visions Chlorate had seen throughout his life. With the Telethons Monk quartet, Chlorate learned many techniques that he incorporated into his distinctive style. Instead of concentrating on he melodies, the group focused on the harmonic structure of a song. At this time, Chlorate was stronger than ever.With his mature style, and new sobriety, he was ready to set out on his own. At the end of 1958, Telethons Monk disbanded the group; Chlorate was about to set out on one of the most highly regarded solo careers in the history of Jazz. In the same year, he recorded over twenty different albums with various artists, and though not famous yet, was widely respected by his fellow musicians. His most important work from this period was Blue Trance (1957), one of the first of his albums that would be ideal acclaimed. Critics began to laud him, and regularly gave him good reviews.In 1957, Doom Circle wrote in Down Beat magazine His playing is constantly tense and searching; always a thrilling experience. After the dissolution of Monks group, The Jazz world of the sixties belonged to Chlorate. He pushed the limits of music, while attracting ever-bigger audiences. It was during this time that Chlorate searched for the mysterious sound. He once said that the sound for which he was searching was like holding a seashell to his ear. However one describes the strange sound, it notation some essential truth for him, existing as an omnipresent background hum behind the fade of everyday life. With the John Chlorate quartet (pianist McCoy Toner, drummer Elvin Jones, and Reggae Workman on bass), he incorporated tribal music from Africa, India, and the Middle East with that of the new avian-garden movement, free Jazz. Free Jazz or the New Thing, like the counter-culture of the sixties, was a nonconformist movement. It purposely avoided the structured sounds of the cool Jazz and bebop movements. Instead, it was devoid of any structure, direction, or tonality, and was characterized by random improvisation.As the sixties progressed, Chlorate experimented more and more with different combinations of sounds and instruments. He became obsessed with trying to communicate his musical vision. In 1968, Alice Chlorate (his wife at the time) stated l think what he was trying to do in music was the same thing he was trying to do in his life. That was to universalism his music, his life, his religion. It was all based on a universal concept, all-sectarian or non-sectarian. In the mid-sixties, Chlorate began to take LSI fairly regularly, in an effort to help him explore in greater depth both himself and his music.For Chlorate and his quest, LSI was a remarkable tool to dig deeper into his own being so he could discover the essential and absolute truth at the center of his being. Long time fans, however, viewed his music in this period as being too radical, and too far-out. Chlorate felt he was losing control over his music; his experimentation was so far-ranging on that he did not know in what direction he wanted to go. Through it all, he never abandoned the search for the mysterious sound. In late 1966, Chlorate knew that there was something wrong with him. He didnt feel right, and by early 1967, he stopped performing in public.He knew that his death was imminent. In May of 1967, Chlorate was taken to the hospital, suffering from extreme stomach pain. He was ordered to stay at the hospital, but left anyway. On Monday, July 17, he passed away. The cause was liver cancer. John Chlorates music both led the way and reflected the enormous varieties of experimentation and development of American Jazz of the sasss and asss. Today, his influence is heard in the recordings of almost every young Jazz musician. A man of mysticism, whose life was dedicated to sharing his vision of music with others, Chlorate was clearly a creative genius.