Jazz is one of the only original musical art forms. It is defined as originating around the start of the 20th century in New Orleans, rooted in African American musical styles blended with Western music technique and theory. One of the most famous jazz musicians was John Coltrane. In his study of Coltranes newest posthumous release entitled John Coltrane: Fearless Leader, Norman Weinstein analyses on of jazzs greatest stars and the CD that summarizes his sessions from 1957 to 1958.
Coltrane did not start his first jazz group until 1960,( a quartet including Steve Kuhn, Pete LaRoca and Billy Higgins), so the period of time described in this CD is prior to any real self controlled, organized play on his part. First Weinstein discusses the difference between Coltranes pre-Atlantic, pre-Impulse recordings versus the later sound. Coltrane has recordings that go all the way back to 1946 but he did not start recording professionally and with a means to preserve and distribute until 1955. After this point however, he created and produced an impressive number of albums. Since his death, some of these have been released. Still others have been releases solely on the merit of his...