John Coltrane was born to a family of preachers in 1926, in Hamlet, North Carolina. He discovered the clarinet when he was very young. He became obsessed with it. He would just play all of the time. Then his father and grandfather died within a very short span of each other. To deal with this pain, he poured himself even more into his music. Even as an adult playing live music, Coltrane would take a 15 minute bathroom break and would be playing his instrument on his break! He would fall asleep playing it! When he turned 18 he went into the Navy for a short time and joined a band there.

After the Navy, he switched to the saxophone and he met and married a Muslim woman whose devotion to God was similar to his own. Unlike her though, he got hooked on heroin by spending a lot of time with other musicians and being on the road for long periods of time. He became physically dependent on it. He felt a lot of guilt about this and sometimes he would try to get off of it by switching to alcohol, but he always came back to it. Due to his drug problems, he got fired from several jobs. He almost got fired by Dizzy Gillespie. He got fired by the legendary Miles Davis, 2x. Miles actually recruited him and let him come back because he could hear the brilliance in John Coltrane’s playing. But Miles knew that it was a brilliance that was not coming out due to Coltrane’s drugs and alcohol problems. His wife supported him through these periods and tried to get him off of the drugs, too.

John Coltrane could see what his drug habit was doing to his career and his relationships and asked the Lord for help. 1957 He locked himself into a room in his house in Philadelphia and would not allow himself to come out until he had kicked his drug habit. During that time, he fasted and prayed. And the Lord came to him. He recalls how he asked God for the gift to give people pleasure by playing music. He also acknowledged that God could take his musical instrument away, permanently.

After that experience, much of Coltrane’s work was centered around Godly themes. Though he did do My Favorite Things after that, in 1965 he put out what is considered his masterpiece, A Love Supreme. He dedicated the entire album to God’s glory.

John Coltrane A Love Supreme – YouTube

This is from the liner notes of the album:

God is all.Help us to resolve our fears and weaknesses. In you all things are possible. Thank you God.
We know. God made us so. Keep your eye on God. God is. He always was. He always will be.
No matter what… it is God. He is gracious and merciful. It is most important that I know Thee.
Words, sounds, speech, men, memory, thoughts, fears and emotions–time–all related…all made from one… all made in one.
Blessed be his name. Thought waves–heat waves–all vibrations–all paths lead to God. Thank you God.
His way… it is so lovely… it is gracious. It is merciful–Thank you God. One thought can produce millions of vibrations and they all go back to God… everything does.
Thank you God. Have no fear… believe… Thank you God. The universe has many wonders. God is all.
His way… it is so wonderful. Thoughts–deeds–vibrations, all go back to God and He cleanses all.
He is gracious and merciful… Thank you God. Glory to God… God is so alive. God is. God loves.
May I be acceptable in Thy sight.
We are all one in His grace.The fact that we do exist is acknowledgement of Thee, O Lord. Thank you, God.
God will wash away all our tears…He always has…He always will.
Seek him everyday. In all ways seek God everyday. Let us sing all songs to God. To whom all praise is due… praise God.
No road is an easy one, but they all go back to God.
With all we share God. It is all with God. It is all with Thee.
Obey the Lord. Blessed is He.
We are all from one thing… the will of God…Thank you God.
–I have seen ungodly–none can be greater–none can compare Thank you God.
He will remake… He always has and He always will. It’s true–blessed be His name–Thank you God.
God breathes through us so completely…so gently we hardly feel it… yet, it is our everything.
Thank you God.
ELATION–ELEGANCE–EXALTATION–All from God.
Thank you God. Amen.

Now I am not saying that Mr. Coltrane was a Christian saint (though many do—there is a church in San Francisco which considers him such). His faith is considered by many to be “pantheistic” and it is rumored that he did struggle with drugs even after his cold-turkey experience in 1957. He divorced his first wife because she could not give him children. He had other problems as well.

With the Lord first place in his mind from there, he went on to do other albums called Ascension and Om. While many criticize these albums (particularly Ascension) has being at best, “experimental”, personally, I think Ascension was uplifting (no pun intended). I think maybe it is like a Heavenly language. He died in 1967 of liver cancer at the age of 40. I believe that the Lord took him that young for the same reason that he took people like Keith Green so young, John 12:24 “…“Very truly I tell you, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds.”

Jude 1:21 keep yourselves in God’s love as you wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you to eternal life.

———————————————————————W.