Composer of the Week: John and Alice Coltrane

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Composer of the Week

Music: Classical

An informative guide to composers' lives and their music.

An informative and accessible guide to composers' lives and their music.

Composer of the Week: John and Alice Coltrane: Stepping Up

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Stepping Up

John and Alice Coltrane

BBC Radio 3 - Composer of the Week, John and Alice Coltrane, Stepping Up

Kate Molleson and Kevin Le Gendre discuss the turning points in John’s early career.

Kate Molleson is joined by Kevin Le Gendre to explore the lives and music of revolutionary jazz power couple John and Alice Coltrane. Today - John’s big break is in jeopardy.

Kate Molleson and Kevin Le Gendre discuss the turning points in John Coltrane’s early career.

Coltrane is a name you’re likely to have heard, even if you know little to nothing about jazz. More than half a century after his death, saxophonist and composer John Coltrane is hailed as a giant of American cultural history, and one of 20th-century music’s greatest visionaries. But he’s not the only Coltrane. His wife, Alice, was an accomplished keyboardist and harpist who made revolutionary music in her own right, and whose contribution to John’s late output has not always been fully recognised. As soulmates and fellow seekers in sound, John and Alice both transcended cultural and genre boundaries, helping to pioneer avant-garde and spiritual jazz. But following John’s premature death in 1967, Alice began her solo career and would take forward their journey of creative and religious expansion. All this week, Kate Molleson is joined by journalist and broadcaster Kevin Le Gendre to dive into the lives and music of these monumental figures, and explore their contributions to the jazz world and beyond.

Today, Kate and Kevin explore the first stages in John’s career - and the little steps that lead him towards his early triumph, Giant Steps. Along the way, he’s offered a golden opportunity, to play with Miles Davis. But will he make the most of it?

Music featured:
Straight Street (from Coltrane)
Blue Train (from Blue Train)
Miles Davis/John Coltrane: So What (from Kind of Blue)
Giant Steps (from Giant Steps)
Syeeda’s Song Flute (from Giant Steps)
Naima (from Giant Steps)

Produced by Amelia Parker for BBC Audio Wales

Live music and the arts: broadcasts more live music than any other radio network. Classical music is its core. Genres include world and new music, jazz, speech and drama.

Kate Molleson and Kevin Le Gendre assess the lives and music of John and Alice Coltrane.

Kate Molleson and Kevin Le Gendre explore the lives and music of  jazz power couple John and Alice Coltrane and explore their contributions to the jazz world and beyond.

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John and Alice Coltrane

Stepping Up

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