Customer Reviews

The John Coltrane Reference

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There are a handful of Coltrane scholars around the planet who are recognized as the authorities on John Coltrane. Lewis Porter (who is one of them), well-known jazz scholar and jazz artist, gathered most of the true heavyweights together for this definitive guide to Coltrane's life and work.

This book encompasses, updates, expands upon and supersedes Fujioka's "John Coltrane: A Discography And Musical Biography".

If you are simply looking for a biography of Coltrane, I would recommend Porter's "John Coltrane: His Life And Music" [U of Michigan Press].

If, on the other hand, you want every bit of information there is about every recording ever made by Coltrane, including concert recordings that circulate among music traders, this is the book of your dreams. Until (and if) this book is ever updated, it is the definitive guide to Coltrane's work. Nothing else, save the Fujioka, even comes close.

This book is for the John Coltrane connoiseurs their Bible. More than 800 pages, more than two and a half kilo weight. All the known recordings are mentioned, plus the service that via internet updates with new infomation will follow. The writers of this Bible are all experts in Jazz and especialy about John Coltrane. Lewis Porter did the editing.
I am glad to have this book in my collection.

This superb book which weighs in at about 4 1/2 pounds is the culmination of tremendous scholarly research by the editor and contributors. Coltrane was born in 1926. This exhaustive reference covers highlights of his life from 1938 thru 1944. Then a timeline which briefly summarizes key events followed by a more detailed chronology of that year. These details are in yearly chapters from 1945-1967 (the year of his death). There are many anecdotes as well as published reviews by critics and columnists. A number of musician former collegues were interviewed to provide further information. Following that is a complete discography (as of the publication date which was 2008). That also follows the yearly format covering the periods from 1946-67. A lot of album covers are reproduced. It is amazing how many different reissues and repackagings have been made from these record dates. Also, many quite obscure releases are covered as well as private practice,radio broadcasts,club dates and concert performances that were recorded. Tremendous effort by the authors. With much original research.

meticulously researched, especially noting any and all known audience or FM recordings of John Coltrane. We can only hope that private collectors will eventually release some of the additional recordings that would nicely supplement all of the official releases. This reference book is invaluable in tracking a travelling artist, playing live shows in-between studio recordings. This book is big enough that it may have been better to split into a volume 1 and 2, as the binding may split in the future if one does not treat this book gingerly. Hats off to mr. porter and his co-authors.