John Coltrane's career only spans 12 year between 1955, the moment he first got noticed as a sideman, and 1967, the year of his death.
Coltrane played in Miles Davis' band from 1955 to 1957. The second half of 1957 he played with Thelonious Monk, before joining Miles Davis'
band again in 1958. This time he stayed till 1960 and played on 2 important Miles Davis albums :
'Milestones' and
'Kind of Blue'.
In that period he also recorded two influential albums of his own :
'Blue Train' and
'Gian Steps'.
After his time with Miles Davis John Coltrane picked up the soprano saxophone and formed a quartet with pianist McCoy Tyner, bassist Jimmy Garrison and drummer Elvin Jones, with whom
he recorded spiritually driven albums like
'A Love Supreme'. In this period he was influenced by the modal music of Miles Davis and the music of
'Ravi Shankar'.
In his last years Coltrane got interested in the free jazz of
'Ornette Coleman'.
