Tenor saxophonist John Coltrane had the distinction of becoming enormously popular and influential while at the same time producing an uncompromising and even recondite body of work. Always demanding of himself and his listeners, Trane's playing evolved through several styles and always remained exhaustively probing and sometimes just exhausting. But there was an essential humanity in his work and once listeners connected with it, they were willing to follow him anywhere.

John Coltrane was born in Hamlet, North Carolina in 1926. His early career was unremarkable. After military service he played with blues singer Eddie "Cleanhead" Vinson ('47-'48), then joined trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie's big band ('48-'49) and sextet ('50-'51). Trane's early playing was very much in the big-toned hard bop style of Dexter Gordon. His post-Diz gigs included a stint with Ellington's alto saxist Johnny Hodges ('53-'54). By 1955 he had developed a more personal style--a tart and at times plaintive tone combined with loquacious phrasing. This was the year he first joined Miles Davis, who was developing an opposite style, terse and stoic with a patina of repressed pain. It was a great combination and their recordings are still classics. At this time Coltrane also became associated with Prestige records, as sideman and leader, and one can hear him growing more confident with his singular take on the hard bop thing.