John Coltrane’s Pursuit of Elegance

This essay presents John Coltrane as a key transitional figure in the history of African American art’s relationship with the cultural mainstream, bridging the institutionalized cultural movements of the earlier part of the century, such as the Harlem Renaissance, and the more politically and formally radical ones—such as the Black Arts Movement—that succeeded them in the 1960s. The larger cultural transition that Coltrane both responded to and participated in can be traced through the seemingly contradictory ideas about the value of conventional aesthetic form expressed in his published writings—which include poetry, autobiography, statements of artistic purpose, and private correspondence—as well as in his interviews and major musical undertakings, such as his popular album A Love Supreme. Reading these documents in light of the cultural environment in which Coltrane received his early education can help uncover aspects of the role he played in mediating the institutionalized and mainstream-oriented aesthetic values in which he was raised for the artists and authors on whom he had such a singular influence in the 1960s.