Before the world knew him as “Trane,” before Giant Steps, before A Love Supreme, before he helped shape modern jazz alongside Miles Davis and Thelonious Monk, John William Coltrane was a boy in High Point, North Carolina. He was born in Hamlet in 1926, but High Point is where he grew up. It is where he went to school, where he first heard music in the rooms of his family home, where he learned discipline, loss, faith, and sound. It is where the foundation was laid for one of the most influential musical lives of the 20th century.
For those of us, like myself, who grew up in High Point, we know Washington Street not just as a city street, but as a historic center of Black business, culture, community and excellence. Coltrane’s childhood was marked by both stability and tragedy in High Point. His family lived at 118 Underhill Street just off Washington, in a home built by his maternal grandfather, Reverend William Wilson Blair, a former enslaved man, minister, educator, and community leader. Like many Southern families, music, especially church musica was present in the home. His mother played piano and sang. His father played violin and ukulele.
Then, when Coltrane was still young, devastating loss came quickly. His father, grandfather, and uncle died within a short period of time leaving a loss of male familiar guidance. And that's then the music began. He began in community music, first joining Warren B. Steele’s community band in 1939, where he played alto horn and later clarinet. When William Penn High School formed a band in 1940, Coltrane became one of its founding members under the direction of Grayce W. Yokely.
Historical accounts say Coltrane practiced saxophone with Charlie Haygood, a restaurant owner on Washington Street. Other accounts describe Haygood as a musician who played blues with a small group on weekends and gave the young Coltrane an opportunity to play. In this he emerged from community. From school bands. From church music. From family, teachers, neighbors, and people who made culture even when the world around them was segregated, limiting, and unequal.
After graduating from high school, Coltrane moved to Philadelphia, where his mother had gone for work. There, his world expanded. He studied, practiced relentlessly, served in the Navy, and began performing professionally. He would go on to play and record with Dizzy Gillespie, Johnny Hodges, Miles Davis, Thelonious Monk, and many of the most important musicians in jazz history.
With Miles Davis, Coltrane helped shape one of the most influential eras in modern jazz. With Monk, he absorbed new harmonic language and creative freedom. As a bandleader, he pushed jazz into new spiritual, technical, and emotional territory. His album Giant Steps challenged musicians with its daring harmonic movement. My Favorite Things transformed a familiar melody into something hypnotic and searching. And A Love Supreme became more than an album. It became a declaration of struggle, and transcendence.
This year marks 100 years since John Coltrane’s birth. A century later, his music still feels alive. On September 12th we will honor John Coltrane with two special shows brought to you by Justin Varnes Quartet through the Jazz Legacy Project.
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