John William Coltrane (Hamlet, North Carolina, September 23, 1926 – Huntington, New York, July 17, 1967) was an American jazz saxophonist and composer. American jazz great John Coltrane emerged in the 1950s, playing tenor and soprano sax with Dizzy Gillespie, Miles Davis and Thelonious Monk. A leader of "hard bop", in the 1960s he led his own groups and changed the face of jazz with experimentation and improvisation, his later recordings reflecting his belief that music was a form of spiritual expression.