"You know, John Coltrane has been sort of a god to me. Seems like, in a way, he didnt get the inspiration out of other musicians. He had it. When you hear a cat do a thing like that, you got to go along with him. I think I heard Coltrane before I really got close to Miles [Davis]. Miles had a tricky way of playing his horn that I didnt understand as much as I did Coltrane. I really didnt understand what Coltrane was doing, but it was so exciting the thing that he was doing..."
John William Coltrane was an American jazz saxophonist, bandleader, and composer. He is among the most influential and acclaimed figures in the history of jazz and 20th-century music.
"John [Coltrane] was like a visitor to this planet. He came in peace and he left in peace; but during his time here, he kept trying to reach new levels of awareness, of peace, of spirituality. Thats why I regard the music he played as spiritual music — Johns way of getting closer and closer to the Creator."
"[T]he main thing a musician would like to do is to give a picture to the listener of the many wonderful things he knows of and senses in the universe. Thats what music is to me—its just another way of saying this is a big, beautiful universe we live in, thats been given to us, and heres an example of just how magnificent and encompassing it is. Thats what I would like to do. I think thats one of the greatest things you can do in life, and we all try to do it in some way. The musicians is through his music."
"Keep a thing happenin all throughout."
"My goal is to live the truly religious life and express it in my music. If you live it, when you play theres no problem because the music is just part of the whole thing. To be a musician is really something. It goes very, very deep. My music is the spiritual expression of what I am—my faith, my knowledge, my being."
"I thought about this question. I answered it as best I could [at the press conference]. I felt I didnt tell [the reporter] what I really wanted to say. He thought I was Christian. And I am by birth; my parents were and my early teachings were Christian. But as I look upon the world, I feel all men know the truth. If a man was a Christian, he could know the truth and he could not. The truth itself does not have any name on it. And each man has to find it for himself, I think."
"I was playing this concert, and when I finished a solo, I backed offstage. There was Coltrane with the lights behind him, beatified. He held out his arms and took me in and I wept like a child. Id been through so much, and held so much in, but I didnt cry until Coltrane told me it was alright."