John Coltrane : His Life and Music

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Summary: For you Coltrane listeners/fans!
Review: After reading this biography of him, I had so much more knowledge of him that I didn't have before. There is more to his life than what most people think. A must read for jazz/Coltrane fans! A lot of musical analysis, too.

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Summary: This book has EVERYTHING one wants to know about Coltrane.
Review: And the layout is great too. With loads of musical examples, transcribed solos from Giant Steps, So What and more, plus some very fine pictures of Trane. It also has perhaps the most thorough analysis of A Love Supreme I've ever seen. And all material and things written in this book has a documented source, so that you know everyhting that stands there is true. All Coltrane fans shall rejoice over this book. And if you're not a Coltrane fan, you will be after you've read this book. Marvelous!!!!

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Summary: Good-but very heavy on music theory
Review: I am almost finished with this book and it has been a generally positive experience. Porter includes loads of information; stories, interviews, copies of Coltrane's musical scriblings etc. He also disects the music quite intensely-perhaps a bit much for me. I do play a variety of instruments and I read choral music ok, but some of the discussions contained herein are frankly, too difficult for me to understand on paper-I have always learned music by listening to it. So if you are like me, you may want to go to a bookstore and page thru this work before buying it. As I said, it has been a good experience but I probably would have finished it last year if it were a less technical read. Thankfully, Porter does a good job of breaking up the more technical portions of the book with great narrative. I have been able to pick out and understand his larger points without completely grasping all the music theory. My hat is off to those who can read this cover to cover and understand it all! If you are looking for a simpler bio there are plenty out there-some better than others.

Rating:
Summary: Good-but very heavy on music theory
Review: I am almost finished with this book and it has been a generally positive experience. Porter includes loads of information; stories, interviews, copies of Coltrane's musical scriblings etc. He also disects the music quite intensely-perhaps a bit much for me. I do play a variety of instruments and I read choral music ok, but some of the discussions contained herein are frankly, too difficult for me to understand on paper-I have always learned music by listening to it. So if you are like me, you may want to go to a bookstore and page thru this work before buying it. As I said, it has been a good experience but I probably would have finished it last year if it were a less technical read. Thankfully, Porter does a good job of breaking up the more technical portions of the book with great narrative. I have been able to pick out and understand his larger points without completely grasping all the music theory. My hat is off to those who can read this cover to cover and understand it all! If you are looking for a simpler bio there are plenty out there-some better than others.

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Summary: very-well done but marred by avoidable errors
Review: I enjoyed reading Mr. Porter's work which is an outstanding contribution to the ongoing research on this timeless artist. However errors were made in the course of diminishing the previous works on Coltrane. For example Mr. Porter states that Dr. Simpkins (author of Coltrane:A Biography) was in error in stating that liver cancer can cause pain. A physiologist not a doctor was his referrence on this. However, the fact is that liver cancer does cause pain. A check in a text of Surgery or Medicine or going to Yahoo! searching "liver cancer" going into "Living with liver cancer" followed by looking under the heading "Clinical Manifestations and Diagnosis" will verify that abdominal pain is indeed experienced in liver cancer.TRhis fact is important in that it supports the idea that in photos Coltrane was holding his right side because of the pain of liver cancer. The section on cancer metastases is muddled. These and other errors regarding Coltrane's life could have been avoided by conferring with previous authors instead of feeling the need to disparage previous works. Nonetheless Mr. Porter's book has much new and exciting information and must be read by anyone touched by the beauty of John Coltrane.

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Summary: Execellent Bio. and I recommend it wholeheartly.
Review: I just completed review and reading of Porter's Bio. on Coltrane and I must agree with most of the positive comments on this book. I also found the comments regarding Dr. Simkins book to be a little unforunate, because I spent a lot time verifying much of Simkins work. However, I believe this to be the best book on Coltrane I've read. It compares with Bill Coles book which I also think is particularily good with respect to the musical analysis. As a musician, I was fascinated by the explanations on Coltranes' musical formulas and use of wonderful motifs. I have numerous transcriptions from Andrew White, but without the discussion of some of the mechanics it was difficult to understand how to apply the works. I wish Mr. Lewis would have included additional photos. I believe there is a wonderful opportunity for someone to issue a photo Bio. on coltrane which would be well received. I consider myself a Coltrane expert and own almost all legally published materials (some bootlegs too)on "Trane", but I actually learned some new "stuff". I recommend Lewis' book wholeheartly. This book will give you a real opportunity to appreciate Coltrane and understand how "bad" this "cat" really was.

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Summary: A Real Historian
Review: I was in Lewis Porter's Jazz History Masters program at Rutgers University, so you might say I'm a little biased...But no matter. Lewis is on a mission of sorts to bring jazz history up to par with other historical fields, and rightly so, since most jazz "histories" are in reality just glorified fan letters, written by people who have little or no real musical knowledge at all. Not only is Lewis a first-rate pianist and musical theorist, but he is also the most dedicated musical historian I have ever come across regardless of musical genre, and this is the degree of scholarship he brings to this book. I should warn you - it's a little bit of a dry read, which he freely admits, but I can't justly fault him for that, since his intention here is not to be "writerly". There are many tidbits of information here that are not found in any other Coltrane bio, my personal favorite being the discovery of an illegitimate child not many people knew about. But in addition to the tremendous biographical scholarship in this book, Lewis is also well-equipped to give the great theoretical and structural breakdowns of Coltrane's playing contained here as well. A side note I feel is relevent - as part of his course, Lewis makes all of his students acquaint themselves with various historical and geneological sites around New York, such as the archive of birth and immigration records, from which fascinating, albeit wonkish information can always be drawn about the subjects we were studying. I found Lenny Tristano's entire geneological history, as well as his parent's immigration records there (for example). Lewis also teaches real interview techniques in his class (using recordings of his own goof-ups as examples!), because he recognizes that going to the source, in addition to the academic stuff, is the best way to glean genuine scholarly information. So I guess, there is only one way to sum up: in the first week of his class, he dares his students to find any innacuracies, missing information, or inconsistancies in this book. To my knowledge, no one ever has. If you're interested in learning about Coltrane, this is the place.

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Summary: A New High in Jazz Scholarship
Review: John Coltrane - His Life and Music

I have probably read nearly every biography on John Coltrane that is available in the hope of finding writing that is worthy of the scope of this jazz master's genius. Most of the reading I've done has been fairly disappointing...more like glorified fanzine articles rather than serious discussions of the man and his music. Eberhard Jost in his book Free Jazz does do some pretty in-depth analysis of the music of Coltrane, but almost all other books focus more on gossip and life details and leave the musical analysis to vague lofty sounding phrases that have very little meaning on a real level.

So Lewis Porter's book is a breath of fresh air, not just in writing about Coltrane, but also in jazz scholarship in general. Porter's is the first jazz biography I've read that is a really musicological biography and worthy to stand up to the biographies written about classical music figures. Rather than create a portrait with personal meditations, as J.C. Thomas did in Chasin' the Trane, or beating a predetermined ideological drum, as Frank Kofsky did in John Coltrane and the Jazz Revolution of the '60s, or create a fanzine kind of portrait, as Bill Cole did (by far the best of the pre-Porter bios, but still lightweight musically) or create a sort of modern day hagiography, as Eric Nisenson did in Ascension, John Coltrane's Quest, Porter gives us a straight biography, with little personal interjection, and a lot of penetrating insights based on the actual music Coltrane produced.

Porter's book has the benefit of more years of research into Coltrane's life and legacy. Increasingly, as the years since the 60s have worn on, it has become clear that the influence of Coltrane is perhaps the biggest single influence on all facets of jazz, arguably equaling or maybe even exceeding the influence of Charlie Parker. His is certainly the most all-pervading voice since Bird and the influence doesn't seem to be waning as the millennium turns. Porter's book relies on the best of the earlier biographies. He quotes Thomas and Cole with some frequency. But he also relies on a welter of recorded interviews with Trane, interviews with those who knew Trane, and with surviving family members, including much precious information about Trane's early years from his cousin Mary and from many of his childhood and Philly friends. The picture that emerges is not radically different than the picture we get from earlier biographies. All of the elements of the Coltrane mystique are there; the obsessive practicing, the drive to succeed, the drug addicted years, the dramatic kicking of the habit, the later search for musical and spiritual Truth, and the sudden and tragic death. But devoid of interpretation, these facts loose some of the legend surrounding them. To me, this can only be a good thing. Coltrane would not have wanted the worship that has developed around him. The details of Trane's life as outlined by Porter show a man who was deeply gifted, haunted by childhood loss, driven to perfect his art, and yet also daunted by lingering addictions and the physical havoc that he had played on his body early in his life. This Trane is no less worthy of honor than the legendary Trane, and a bit more loveable and human.

Where the Porter biography has it over all others is in the copious musical examples. Porter analyzes many recorded solos in detail, including Giant Steps, My Favorite Things, a Love Supreme, and perhaps most impressively Venus, from Coltrane's last recorded album. Porter's skill as a musicologist is quite impressive and a gift that is rarely given to jazz literature. He analyzes Trane's changing improvisational technique, from the early "sheets of sound" period, where pattern after pattern of complex, harmonically based scales are piled over chords, to the more melodically based modal material, based on the manipulation of short melodic cells. Porter gives us a glimpse into the mind of a genius here, showing the amazing logical processes behind Coltrane's font of inspiration. Also, for those who don't want this type of musical analysis, the chapters are located at dramatic breaks in the biography, and are easily skipped without loss of any significant information. This makes the book still accessible for the non-musician.

This is not a perfect book. Porter does occasionally make himself known as an author, something which is not usual in scholarly biographies. This usually happens when he interjects the phrase, in my opinion. It's not a real fault, but in a book of such scholarly aspirations, these comments probably should have been edited out or reworded so that they didn't jar quite as much. More serious is the chapter that discusses the medical issues with Trane's death. Much nonsense has circulated about Trane's death, which Porter attempts to correct. Unfortunately, he does so with poorly drawn medical arguments. For instance, cirrhosis of the liver has very little if anything to do with liver cancer, and while he is correct that for cirrhosis to occur the patient has to be an active alcoholic or drug abuser, some studies indicate liver cancer can be affected by abuser, even years after the patient stops using. The causes of Trane's death are probably complex and may never be fully explained, but Porter should have checked his medical sources a bit more carefully or steered clear of this potential minefield.

But despite those fairly small points, this is a major step forward in Coltrane scholarship and in the whole field of Jazz Studies. Porter has set a new high for jazz writing; one that I hope will be met by a new crop of scholars. If any American art form deserves this kind of scrutiny, jazz is it.

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Summary: Outstanding Biography!
Review: Lewis Porter deserves praise for his outstanding work on John Coltrane. Once I started reading it, I couldn't put it down! I was interested to learn about his family background and musical influences that developed into his unique signature style. I enjoyed the Chapters devoted to "Giant Steps" and "A Love Supreme."
I agree with one reviewer's comment that the musical theory was difficult to absorb. This book is well referenced with footnotes for further readings and study.
After reading this book, I have a better understanding of what Coltrane was trying to achieve an artist and ambassador for humanity. Mr. Porter, thank you for taking me on this journey!

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Summary: The best Coltrane bio so far
Review: Lewis Porter's bio of Coltrane is, so far, the best. After reading 4 bios of Coltrane, each new one more disappointing that the last, I've finally found a reliable source of facts. Mr Porter has done his homework: the chronology, at the end of the book, is worth the purchase alone. He does not get into interpretations, preferring to stick to the facts. He has also avoided the tendency to make Coltrane look like a saint, a tendency so common in other books about Trane. The musical analysis can be hard to follow if you're not familiar with musical theory, even though it looks as Porter has tried to make it as easy to understand as possible. This is the only biography of Coltrane worth reading.