Free Jazz Opinion Give us at least 100 words to explain your thoughts and opinions in your own words. In this unit we have heard both Miles Davis and John Coltrane go from a relatively conventional h

It seems that virtually any saxophonist playing after the 1960s will demonstrate obvious influences of Charlie Parker and John Coltrane to varying degrees. A biography will follow but some main points about John Coltrane are in order:  His earliest professional work was with Rhythm and Blues bands  His first “big ” gig was with the first Miles Davis quintet of 195 5-1957  He left Miles for about a year but came back for the “Kind of Blue ” album and recorded his own “Giant Steps ” album and tune in 1959.  He would practice obsessively. He would often practice 14 hours a day.  He was an a bsolute expert at chords, scales and the various substitutions and extensions associated with them.  His work of the mid 1950s through early 1960s demonstrates this expertise and the application of it.  In the 1960s his approach becomes much more avant -garde . Pure expression without the constraints of chords, progressions and form become his goals.  He had a radio “hit” on the tune “My Favorite Things” that bridged both of these worlds. This made him extremely popular and surprisingly rich!  His avant -garde exp lorations inspired a whole generation of sax players to come (whether this is a good or bad thing depends on your perspective.)  As far as his sound goes: o He used very straight tones with very little vibrato. o He is associated with “Sheets of Sound”; a desc ription given to his playing by a jazz critic. It involves his extremely rapid playing of all of the notes in a given chord creating this “sheet” of sound that represents the chord (rather than a melody that plays within it) o His later, avant -garde , work fe atured a lot of “multi -phonics” which is a technique of getting the horn to play two (or sometimes more) notes at once. It gives a “honking” kind of sound that some loved….and many did not.  He died of liver disease in 1967 at 40 years old. Like many jazz musicians who passed early, we can only guess as to what he might have produced had he lived longer.  Many saxophone players and jazz fans consider Coltrane the pinnacle of jazz expression and the embodiment of what jazz should be. Others feel that his explorations turned away many potential fans and f elt a lot of his later work was just “self -indulgent noise ”. What about you?