Simpkins, Cuthbert Ormond; Coltrane, John; Glover, Albert

Coltrane: A Biography

ISBN: 9780933121201
Baltimore, MD: Black Classic Press, 1989. First Softcover Edition, First Printing. Softcover. John Coltrane (1926-1967) spent his final decade engaged in an increasingly restless musical & spiritual search, pushing jazz toward radical new freedoms. Cuthbert Ormond Simpkins (b. 1947) began researching Coltrane while attending Amherst College, interviewing his first wife, Juanita “Naima” Grubbs (1926-1996) and collaborators including Pharoah Sanders (1940-2022), Yusuf Lateef (1920-2013), Elvin Jones (1927-2004), & Thelonious Monk (1917-1982). Originally published in 1975, Simpkins situates Coltrane’s evolution within the expanding Black political & spiritual consciousness of the 1950s and ‘60s. His prose abandons conventional biography, dissolving into colors, sensations & rhythms to meet Coltrane on his own terrain. Christianity, Islam, Black Liberation & African identity become inseparable from the music. Simpkins seeks not merely what Coltrane played, but what he believed music might do—awaken, liberate, & transcend. From the collection of Albert Glover (1942-2026), the esteemed American poet, editor, bibliographer, publisher & academician who was the foremost remaining authority on Charles Olson (1910-1970). Glover was a student of & anointed by the Maximus Master himself at SUNY Buffalo during the 1960s, & had ever since served outstandingly to bear the Olsonian Torch. We are deeply saddened by the recent passing of our friend & mentor. Trade-format softcover: First Edition Thus, as indicated on copyright page; First Printing, with no reference to other printings, thereon. In strong Fine condition with only minute-to-moderate shelf-wear & some light bumping to fine-edges & corners of front, back covers & spine-edge at select locales; some spotting, scuffing & potential dust or glue residue to text block near bottommost fine-edge of front cover; & Glover’s pasted-down ex-libris placard present at center-middle of same at interior; otherwise, generally clean with interior unmarked. Fine. [Item #9468]

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