Cousin Mary, ihr hat Coltrane das verspielte Thema gewidmet, das auf dem Atlantic-Album Giant Steps zu hören ist… sie gab Joel Dorn ein Interview, das im Booklet von „John Coltrane – The Heavyweight Champion: The Complete Atlantic Recordings, 1995, S. 30-37, abgedruckt ist – ein paar Auszüge:
JD: Was it a musical household?
MA: Well, John’s mom played the piano, not professionally or anything. And my mother sang. John’s father played instruments, but he did it to entertain himself within his own bedroom. I don’t think Uncle John [Coltranes Vater] brought his violin or his ukulele outside of that bedroom. And we had a big radio in the living room that stayed on all the timee. We listened to everything
[…]
JD: When did he first start playing
MA: When he joined the Boy Scout band in our church. Reverend Steele was the head of it. And John had a music teacher in high school named Mrs. Yokely. But after our fathers passed, things changed. Our mothers had to go to work, and my aunt and my mother worked together at a country club. John used to shine shoes there. Our whole thing changed. No one really knew how we lived, but we had to rent out our bedrooms, and we all slept downstairs. My mother, John, and I all slept in the dining room. John’s mother slept upstairs in the bedroom because she had arthritis and needed special attention.
[…]
JD: Was John involved in music when you got to Philly?
MA: Oh, definitely, yes. He had started to play alto before he had left High Point. Even as a child he would sit at the table and practice all the time. He practiced all the time.
JD: He had discipline that early in the game?
MA: Yes, he would just sit in the dining room and practice.
JD: What kind of music did he like back then?
MA: Oh, he liked the big bands. That’s what he first heard, the big bands. And then after a while you couldn’t tell him that he wasn’t Johnny Hodges.
JD: Was Hodges his first hero?
MA: Yes.
JD: Did John like popular music of the day?
MA: We listened to everything on the radio. We listened to Frank Sinatra, everybody, you name it. He and I would turn the radio uploud so that we could hear it in the kitchen.
JD: When did he first work professionally?
MA: In Philly. He worked with Jimmy Heath. He started working all the clubs on Columbia Avenue. The clubs ran from 9th Street up to 23rd. He played everything – jazz, blues, whatever.
JD: Did he have an jobs other than being a musician?
MA: He didn’t want any other jobs. The only reason he got a job was to stay out of service. And he was interested in clothes at this time. He had real good taste in clothes. Any money he got, he would take and buy clothes.
JD: Who were some of his musical friends in Philly?
MA: Jimmy Heath, Johnny Coles, Cal Massey, Bill Barron, and Bill Carney. All the Philly guys. And Specs Wright.
[…]
JD: Did his personality stay constant through the years?
MA: He was the sweetest guy in the world. And even with all the things that he went through, he was still the sweetest guy in the world. When there were distractions, he still took care of business.
JD: Distractions like what – drums?
MA: Yes, and that’s when I knew he was going into something really big. Most people, when you’re talking about something like drug addiction, would say „Well, this is going to hold him back,“ or „This is going to be no good.“ But I looked at him then and I knew he was going someplace.
[…]
JD: Where you surprised that „the sweetest guy in the world“ got involved with drugs and alcohol?
MA: Not really, it was the environment. All those guys were under a lot of pressure. It was a rough life. But they all had talent – drugs were just part of that scene. I get disgusted with drug addicts now. They don’t have talent, they’re just into drugs.
[…]
JD: Was he interested in anything else besides music?
MA: Yes, eating. He love to eat.
[…]
JD: Was he a cook?
MA: No. He learned to cook things he wanted, like oatmeal. Or he’d make a big thing of hot chocolate. He was real particular about his eggs. He didn’t like any crust on the white part. My mother and aunt would always say, „If that’s the way you want them, then you cook ‚em.“
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"Don't play what the public want. You play what you want and let the public pick up on what you doin' -- even if it take them fifteen, twenty years." (Thelonious Monk) | Meine Sendungen auf Radio StoneFM: gypsy goes jazz, #158 – Piano Jazz 2024 - 19.12.2024 – 20:00 | Slow Drive to South Africa, #8: tba | No Problem Saloon, #30: tba