John Coltrane would have been 100 in 2026. His influence stretches far beyond jazz — shaping popular music from rock to hip hop. Bono even sang of A Love Supreme in U2’s Angel of Harlem. The iconic Miles Davis collaborations, Coltrane’s story is one of transformation, from his Navy days playing bebop, to Miles Davis’s first great quintet, only to be sacked in 1957 for heroin use.
His comeback with Thelonious Monk produced a new sophistication, before he rejoined Miles to shape the best-selling jazz album of all time, Kind of Blue. Soon after, Coltrane formed his legendary quartet with McCoy Tyner, Jimmy Garrison and Elvin Jones — setting new standards of power and intensity. By the early 1960s he was pushing into the avant garde, the music that was raw, searching, and spiritual. His death at just 40 in 1967 led Miles Davis to say that jazz itself had died.
Dan Forshaw,, one of Britain’s leading Coltrane scholars, leads this celebration — not nostalgia, but living music that still burns.
www.danforshaw.com
Full-price £17
Students £6
Leicester Jazz House supports and promotes the principles of ACE and others regarding the importance of equality, diversity and inclusivity. This includes the acknowledgement that there is much more work to be done to make our society and culture free of prejudice and discrimination in the arts.
Leicester Jazz House CIC is a volunteer-run not-for-profit organisation bringing contemporary jazz of the highest quality to Leicestershire audiences through the programme of events mainly at the Musician Venue, Attenborough Arts Centre and Y Theatre; and also promoting jazz in other ways, including through education.
