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My music is the spiritual expression of what I am — my faith, my knowledge, my being...When you begin to see the possibilities of music, you desire to do something really good for people, to help humanity free itself from its hangups...I want to speak to their souls.

John Coltrane

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John Coltrane
Age: 40 †
Born: 1926
Born: September 23
Died: 1967
Died: July 17
Bandleader
Composer
Conductor
Jazz Musician
Musician
Saxophonist
Hamlet
North Carolina
Trane
John William Coltrane
St. John Will-I-Am Coltrane
Good
Spiritual
Begin
People
Desire
Possibility
Speak
Expression
Helping
Humanity
Soul
Knowledge
Music
Help
Possibilities
Something
Free
Souls
Really
Faith
Jazz

More quotes by John Coltrane

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The reason I play so many sounds, maybe it sounds angry, is because I'm trying so many things at one time, you see? I haven't sorted them out. I have a whole bag of things that I'm trying to work through and get the one essential.
John Coltrane
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Sometimes I wish I could walk up to my music for the first time, as if I had never heard it before.
John Coltrane
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All a musician can do is to get closer to the sources of nature, and so feel that he is in communion with the natural laws.
John Coltrane
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I think I was first awakened to musical exploration by Dizzy Gillespie and Bird. It was through their work that I began to learn about musical structures and the more theoretical aspects of music.
John Coltrane
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I've always felt that even though a man was not a Christian, he still has to know the truth some way or another. Or if he was a Christian, he could know the truth. The truth itself doesn't have any name on it to me. And each man has to find this for himself, I think.
John Coltrane
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Whatever I'd say would be an understatement. I can only say my life was made much better by knowing him. He was one of the greatest people I've ever known, as a man, a friend, and a musician.
John Coltrane
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My goal is to live the truly religious life, and express it in my music. If you live it, when you play there's no problem because the music is part of the whole thing. To be a musician is really something. It goes very, very deep. My music is the spiritual expression of what I am - my faith, my knowledge, my being.
John Coltrane
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Don't ever get so big or important that you can not hear and listen to every other person.
John Coltrane
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There is never any end... There are always new sounds to imagine new feelings to get at. And always, there is the need to keep purifying these feelings and sounds so that we can really see what we've discovered in its pure state.
John Coltrane
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Working with Monk is like falling down a dark elevator shaft.
John Coltrane
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The first time I heard Bird play, it hit me right between the eyes.
John Coltrane
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I think the majority of musicians are interested in truth.
John Coltrane
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All of the technique doesn't matter... only if the feeling is right.
John Coltrane
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I never even thought about whether or not they understand what I'm doing . . . the emotional reaction is all that matters as long as there's some feeling of communication, it isn't necessary that it be understood.
John Coltrane
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I'm into scales right now.
John Coltrane
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God breathes through us so completely...So gently we hardly feel it...yet it is our everything.
John Coltrane
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Jazz is a word they use to sell our music, but to me that word does not exist.
John Coltrane
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Starting in the middle of a musical sentence and moving in both directions at once.
John Coltrane
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All a musician can do is to get closer to the source.
John Coltrane
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Sometimes I think I was making music through the wrong end of a magnifying glass.
John Coltrane