John Coltrane’s Genius, Beyond “Giant Steps” and “A Love Supreme”

Tenor saxophone virtuoso John Coltrane was best known for the "sheets of sound" style he exemplified on the 1959 album “Giant Steps,” and for the cerebral but deeply spiritual long-form masterpiece “A Love Supreme.” Though his career was cut short by liver cancer—he died at just 40 in 1967—his two most famous works are only the tip of the iceberg in a body of work that ranges from thoughtful ballads to furied blasts of avant-garde jazz.