A centennial celebration of John Coltrane

September 1, 2026

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5 min read

John Coltrane was born a hundred years ago, and the centennial has prompted a flood of reissues, concerts, and a new photo book edited by his son, saxophonist Ravi Coltrane. On a recent episode of Fresh Air, Terry Gross spoke with Ravi about editing that book, growing up in the shadow of a legend, and what it meant to hear his father’s music for the first time as something more than just sound. The conversation also dipped into the archive for a 1998 interview with Coltrane’s drummer Elvin Jones, who described what it was like to play beside a musician who could turn a three-hour solo into a single piece.

The sound of a ballad and the weight of a name

Ravi Coltrane pointed to the Ballads album as a place where his father’s tone alone does the work. “You won’t hear a saxophone, a tenor saxophone sound quite this beautiful on any recording,” he said. “His tone, it’s always sounds like it’s kind of rising. It carries the listener.” That album, recorded with Elvin Jones on drums, McCoy Tyner on piano, and Jimmy Garrison on bass, shows Coltrane interpreting standards with a kind of lifted, searching quality that Ravi described as both beautiful and transcendent without being explicitly religious.

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What you'll learn

1 (00:28) **Centennial Introduction** - Terry Gross introduces John Coltrane's 100th birthday, the new photo book edited by his son Ravi Coltrane, and Coltrane's vast musical legacy from ballads to free jazz.
2 (02:34) **The Spiritual Power of Coltrane's Tone on *Ballads*** - Ravi explains how his father's album *Ballads* demonstrates the transcendent quality of his tone alone, elevating simple melodies.
3 (05:27) **Seeing Himself in His Father's Photos** - Ravi reflects on looking at photos of his father, outliving him by decades, and the experience of seeing new images in the book.
4 (07:55) **The Radical Shock of *Ascension*** - Terry and Ravi discuss Coltrane's free-jazz landmark *Ascension*, a turning point that Terry first heard as a confusing, chaotic wall of sound.
5 (13:46) **How John and Alice Coltrane Met** - Ravi recounts the romantic story of his parents meeting at Birdland in 1963, where John serenaded Alice with the song "Always."
6 (15:51) **Convincing Alice Coltrane to Record Again** - Ravi describes how he persuaded his mother, who had devoted herself to spiritual practice, to return to the studio for their album *Translinear Light*.
7 (22:11) **The Turning Point of His Brother's Death** - Ravi describes the tragedy of his older brother John Jr.'s death in a car accident, which ended his childhood and reshaped his life.

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Guests on this episode

Terry Gross

Show Notes

Coltrane was one of the most influential musicians in the history of jazz, from his beautiful ballads, to his more spiritual music, and his role in the forefront of free jazz. September 23 marks 100 years since his birth. We speak with his son Ravi Coltrane, who is a highly regarded tenor saxophonist—the same instrument his father played. Growing up, he was just known as Ravi, "But as soon as I picked up the saxophone I was suddenly John Coltrane's son,” he tells Terry Gross. Ravi edited a new book of photographs of his father.

Later we’ll hear drummer Elvin Jones describe performing and recording with John Coltrane, in a 1998 interview from our archive.

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