Charlie Parker and John Coltrane: in pictures

Tommy Potter, Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, and John Coltrane

Birdland, NY, 1951 geardiary.com

It is not usual to see both Charlie Parker and John Coltrane in the same frame; the two most groundbreaking musicians in the history of jazz belonged to different generations. And yet John Coltrane’s musical origins lay in the context of bebop and hard bop, revolutionary genres brought about by Charlie Parker’s innovations. The bebop legend passed away in 1955, before the emergence of the free jazz movement, of which John Coltrane was a central figure. 

There is, however, a key link between them in the form of another amazing musician. Miles Davis was a member of the Charlie Parker Quintet from 1945 to 1948, having replaced Dizzy Gillespie; and John Coltrane was part of the Miles Davis Quintet between 1955 and 1957, as well as between 1958 and 1960. During the latter period the group was a sextet, and it recorded Kind of Blue, one of the best jazz albums of all time. And it was in the context of his collaboration with Miles Davis, as well as through his work with Thelonious Monk in 1957, that John Coltrane developed his trademark dense improvisational technique, which is often addressed as sheets of sound.

Tommy Potter, Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, and Duke Jordan 
Photograph: William Gottlieb, Three Deuces, NY, 1947  Wikipedia

 John Coltrane and Miles Davis   Photographs: Don Hunstein
Columbia Recording Studios, NY, 1958  johncoltrane.com