**This John Coltrane stamp is a part of the jazz music set from the Legends of American Music series. Make sure to check out my hub page about this long-running and important project of the United States Postal Service.
In 1995, jazz composer and saxophones John Coltrane appeared on a U.S. postage stamp. This stamp was a part of the Legends series that began in 1993. Specifically, Coltrane was one of the ten musicians in a set honoring jazz greats. Those who have read my other posts will know that I have a mix of feelings about the Legends series. However, I have few qualms with the jazz set. Among the ten musicians are Louis Armstrong, Jelly Roll Morton, Charlie Parker, Thelonius Monk, and other A list jazz musicians. I cannot quibble with this list. Even aesthetically, while I do not particularly like the overall aesthetics of the Legends series, the jazz stamps are a cut above. The portraits are not cartoony, but instead attractive representations of real people.
John Coltrane
John Coltrane was born in Hamlet, North Carolina, in 1926. In 1938, tragedy struck his family, with his father, aunt, and grandparents all dying within a few months of each other. He and his mother later moved to Philadelphia, and in 1943, his mother bought him an alto saxophone. Coltrane already knew how to play the clarinet, so it was easy for him to transfer to the clarinet. By 1945, he was playing professionally in a trio along with a guitarist and pianist.
Coltrane served a short stint in the navy, enlisting in August of 1945. He was stationed at a navy base in Hawaii, where he began playing in a swing band known as The Melody Masters. However, with World War II ending, he was home by August of 1946.
In the years after World War II, jazz was entering a new phase. The large big bands of the 1940s were falling from favor and smaller ensembles were now popular. One of the new genres of jazz that was developing was the up tempo bebop music. Coltrane devoted all of his efforts to mastering the new style, studying jazz theory, and practicing many hours each day.
Musical Career
Cancelled in Monterrey, California on September 16, 1995
Coltrane built a reputation as one of the finest bebop saxophonists on the East Coast. In 1955, the already well-established Miles Davis invited Coltrane to join a quintet he was forming. Coltrane played with Davis off and on until 1960. He also joined the pianist Thelonious Monk for several important performances in New York during the late 1950s, including a concert at Carnegie Hall.
In 1960, Coltrane formed his own ensemble. His arrangement of My Favorite Things from 1961 with this group brought him commercial success. As a band leader, Coltrane greatly experimented with his music. He became known for his experimental forms of jazz incorporating Indian ragas, modal scales, and free jazz. Coltrane’s group had a widely celebrated and extended residency at the Village Vanguard in New York where he worked out many of these ideas, recording many performances that are now widely admired. However, the music was often confusing and confounding to audiences and critics.
This criticism led him to take a more conservative approach in his recordings (while continue to push the edge in live sessions) for several years. He formed a quartet that became known as his “classic quartet” and focused his efforts on more traditional arrangements and on some of his better known hit songs. At the end of this period, he wrote and recorded his revered, long-form jazz work A Love Supreme.
Later Life
Beginning in 1965, following the recording of A Love Supreme, Coltrane once again began experimenting with edgier music. The final few years of his life was devoted to greater experimentation with free form jazz. He frequently added experimental musicians to his quartet, which eventually led to the break up of his group. Coltrane formed a new quintet, featuring Pharoah Sanders on tenor saxophone, and his second wife Alice Coltrane on the piano. The group was known for extended performances with songs that could stretch more than a half hour, and individual solos of more than fifteen minutes.
Coltrane died of liver cancer in 1967 at the age of 40. His fame has grown since his death and his experimental music has inspired generations of musicians that followed. Coltrane was truly a Legend of American Music.
The John Coltrane Stamp
Scott Number 2991
The specific stamp features Coltrane with the mouthpiece of his saxophone held close nearby as an ode to his main instrument. Coltrane is not playing, or even preparing to play, but instead intently focused straight ahead. Behind and above Coltrane is a piano keyboard, a decorative element on all of the jazz set stamps. Like the other stamps in the Legends series it is a lithograph print or an original acryllic painting. The stamp was the design of Dean Mitchell of Overland Park, Kansas. The stamp is also a feature on the National Postal Museum website.
The Coltrane stamp, along with eight others, made its first appearance on September 16, 1995 at the Monterrey Jazz Festival in California. However, the tenth stamp in the set, the Louis Armstrong stamp was issued two weeks earlier on September 1st in New Orleans, Armstrong’s hometown. Learn more about jazz stamps on this page.
Check out a bit of Coltrane playing below.
