The John Coltrane Reference by Chris DeVito, et al. (review)

Abstract

The John Coltrane Reference. By Chris DeVito, Yasuhiro Fujioka, Wolf Schmaler, and David Wild. Edited by Lewis Porter. New York: Routledge, 2013. [xxii, 821 p. ISBN 9780415634632. $64.95.] Photographs, chronology, appendices, bibliography, discography, indexes.This is the first paperback edition of an indispensable, almost day-by-day ac- count of the professional life of the great saxophonist-composer-bandleader John Coltrane (originally published in hardcover in 2008). It describes almost every perfor- mance known to its compilers in which the saxophonist was bandleader or sideman. The book's compilers have made valiant at- tempts to clear up misunderstandings and confusion regarding dates, venues, and per- sonnel for Coltrane performances that had been reported elsewhere. The authors present much evidence from investigations they conducted to track down and verify little-known gigs and recordings that were rumored to exist. Gigs that were reported in newspapers and magazines, and some that were reported by fellow musicians or recalled by jazz fans (who were inter- viewed), are also included, as are gigs that were publicized but cancelled.The John Coltrane Reference supplants other Coltrane discographies and the Coltrane sections of general jazz discographies, as well as those found in biographies of Coltrane. The book provides detailed infor- mation on every one of Coltrane's record- ing sessions, from 1946 to 1967, and it lists the various formats on which each record- ing was issued. It even includes the results of sessions that were never released, such as radio broadcasts that were recorded by pro- fessionals and amateurs and issued as bootlegs, as well as recordings made for commercial firms but not released. The prodigious research represented here on more than thirty years' worth of gigs and obscure recordings constitutes a huge achievement for which the authors are to be commended.The compilers reproduce newspaper and magazine accounts that sample journalistic response to the music and include the at- tendant publicity for Coltrane's gigs. They also convey the attitudes of jazz fans and musicians by including the texts of inter- views and correspondence about the gigs they attended. Numerous playbills, posters, contracts, and album covers are repro- duced, as well as forty-two glossy black-and- white photos that will delight jazz buffs. Three of them captured Coltrane smiling, which was extremely rare.Previously-published interviews with Coltrane's fellow Philadelphian, Benny Golson, telling readers about Coltrane's early playing in that city, are also included. One heart-wrenching story recounts an in- cident from 1944 in which young saxo- phonists Golson and Coltrane were cheated by a leader who replaced them without telling them. …