TRANE: beyond the blues The Life and Legacy of John W. Coltrane

Full-length dramatic play script. In this definitively American legend, told “in real and imagined moments”, a boy who liked to read and listen to the radio mourns the loss of his beloved father. When the time comes for him to leave home, he carries with him a treasured gift: his very own saxophone. Trane is the story of the searing conflict between creativity and commercialism; between idealism and settling-for; between emotional closeness and death. It is a tale of the intricate simplicity of a man who speaks to the human spirit, through his music. It is the story of John W. Coltrane. Trane takes the audience on an unforgettable journey from his early childhood home on “the only paved road in the Neighborhood” of High Point, North Carolina— to the height of his musical career as “the High Priest of the Avant Garde Jazz Movement”, esteemed throughout the world. The story explores the sources of his extraordinary insights and inspirations; his heartbreaking disillusionments; desperate struggles with alcohol and drugs; and breathtaking development in his art, and in his life. The four women who helped to shape his life also shape this story of his life: His schoolteacher mother; his childhood playmate and cousin, Mary; his first wife, Juanita; and his second wife, Alice. Many of his other influences were other musicians who worked with him, including Thelonious Monk, Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, Jimmy Heath, Reggie Workman, Rashied Ali, and Yusef Lateef. Throughout the play, three major characters are spotlighted for their tremendous influence on Coltrane’s life: His grandfather Blair, a minister and former legislator; Professor Venture, a character in a storybook; and Mellow Q. Wisdom, the personification of the philosophies that Coltrane studied later in his life.