Why Is John Oakrane An Influential Bandleader

John Coltrane (1926-1967) was an influential saxophonist, composer, and bandleader. John Coltrane was gaining popularity in the mid-1950s when he developed his own unique style. His original style was influenced by Lester Young, Dexter Gordon, and Sonny Stitt. He played with a dark and rough tone and his sound was full in all registers from low to high. Because he had great command over his instrument, he played with speed and control. Coltrane had an obsession with chord changes and his pre-1960s style displayed that. Coltrane was also great at playing slow tempo songs and adding deep and full-bodied tones. He popularized pedal point which is when a single note is played continuously underneath a melody to achieve a drone-like effect. As

His talent, technique, and artistry as a bassist are what made him among the best in the world. However, his talents as a bandleader and composer are what made him one of the most influential of his time, just behind Duke Ellington. Mingus was one of the first notable bass soloists to show up on the jazz scene after Jimmy Blanton. As a bandleader, he employed only the best personnel and he used various unconventional techniques. As an innovative and ingenious composer-arranger, he created unique mixtures of premodern and modern jazz traditions. He wrote unique melodies and took his ideas from various sources such as Negro gospel music, Mexican folk music, and twentieth-century European concert music. The Mingus style was always considered avant-garde, but his structured music did not always match the characteristics of free jazz. Mingus wrote over 150 influential pieces of music for various purposes that fit into different categories such as program music, third stream music, bop, almost free jazz, music for film, and funky, bluesy, and gospel-oriented music. Mingus also used various types of instrumentation is his bands such as his own solo piano, a pianoless quartet, and a jazz quintet with trumpet, tenor sax, piano, bass, and drums. Some of the unpopular instruments that he used were tuba, cello, oboe, flute, French horn, bassoon, harp, and vibraphone. He also experimented with trumpet, trombone, and saxophone lines as well as having three drummers. Mingus was greatly influenced by Duke Ellington and because of Mingus’s talent and ingenuity as a bandleader and composer he became almost as influential as Duke Ellington himself. The unconventional and original Mingus style of combo performance forced other composers to adjust their structure away from the continuous solos in the middle of a performance. His unorthodox approach forced improvisers to move away from the