Music & Memories of John Coltrane A Book Review by Steve O’Keefe @steveokeefe

John Coltrane Written by Bill Cole Published in 1976 by Schirmer/Macmillan, Published in 1993 by DaCapo Press, ISBN 0–306–80530–8, paperback, 272 pages, $13.95. Detailed discography and bibliography. Index of music, index of names & subjects.

Bill Cole, the author of the book John Coltrane, was 18 years old when he first saw the saxophonist perform in Pittsburgh in 1955 as part of the Miles Davis Quintet.

Cole went on to write his master’s thesis at Amherst about the music of Miles Davis, and that became the book *Miles Davis: A Musical Biography* published in 1974. His doctoral thesis was on the music of John Coltrane, and that became this book, which could also be called a musical biography.

A major distinguishing factor of this book is that the author knows written music, knows world music, and performs music regularly. He uses musical notation throughout the book to explain Coltrane’s formulas. His understanding of writing and performing music will be appreciated by readers who also play music.

Even though it moves in chronological order, the book is poorly organized. The chapters are numbered without titles, reflecting an inability to force the content into the form. For example, there are four chapters about 1957 and none about 1962. Cole does not even mention Kind of Blue, yet analyzes every song on Giant Steps. Each chapter begins with an epigraph by Nigerian ethnomusicologist Fela Sowande, a teacher of Cole’s who passed away in 1987. On the surface, these statements say nothing about Coltrane.

The 20-page introduction explains the author’s effort to pair Coltrane’s music with African music. In the book he pushes this connection far more than Coltrane ever pushed it himself. In fact, throughout the famous Frank Kofsky interview conducted in 1967, months before John Coltrane’s death at the age of 40, Coltrane pushed back on the concept that his music was motivated by race or politics.

This book and several others about John Coltrane (see my other reviews in this series) make it clear that one of his most important musical influences was Ravi Shankar. Coltrane considered classical music to be the folk music of Europe, and the folk music of Africa and Asia to be classical music. He was driven by sound, as Cecil Taylor makes clear in the 19th and last chapter of Cole’s book:

His tone is beautiful because it is functional. In other words, it is always involved in saying something. You can’t separate the means that a man uses to say something from what he ultimately says. Technique is not separated from its content in a great artist.

This book contains the memories of a fan who spoke with Coltrane, watched him perform from 1955 through 1966, and uses appropriately worshipful language to explain Coltrane’s achievements. It has the benefit of being written by someone who understands composition and public performance. Bill Cole reaches for something he never quite gets to in this book, and that is very much in the spirit of John Coltrane.

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Steve O’Keefe is a freelance writer and the author of *Set the Page On Fire: Secrets of Successful Writers,* New World Library, 2019. This is #6 in a series of John Coltrane book reviews in celebration of the centennial of his birth: September 23, 2026.