When “My Favorite Things” was released in 1961, “The Sound of Music” broadway show was still relatively new and not as ubiquitous as it would become in the United States. But the cover track of “My Favorite Things” would launch Coltrane out of the jazz clubs and into the mainstream. The record would earn him the title of jazz man of the year by DownBeat Magazine and be inducted into the Grammy hall of fame. But despite being accessible to the masses, the album maintained musical depth signifying his transition away from bebop styles toward the modal jazz approach he and Miles Davis developed.
The most celebrated jazz saxophonist in the history of the genre, John Coltrane pioneered the genre of modal jazz with the help of Miles Davis and directly developed free jazz. He also worked closely with great jazz pianist Thelonious Monk and trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie. Following his recovery from heroin addiction, Coltrane became a very spiritual man. His newfound faith bled into some of his greatest '60s-era work. He died of liver cancer at 40 but changed the course of jazz and mainstream music as a whole during his short life.
