John Francis Coates Jr. (February 17, 1938 – November 22, 2017) was an American
jazz pianist
Jazz piano is a collective term for the techniques pianists use when playing jazz. The piano has been an integral part of the jazz idiom since its inception, in both solo and ensemble settings. Its role is multifaceted due largely to the instru ...
Pocono Mountains
The Pocono Mountains, commonly referred to as the Poconos , are a geographical, geological, and cultural region in Northeastern Pennsylvania. They overlook the Delaware River and Delaware Water Gap to the east, Lake Wallenpaupack to the north, ...
for over 50 years.
Early life
Coates was born in
Trenton, New Jersey
Trenton is the capital city of the U.S. state of New Jersey and the county seat of Mercer County. It was the capital of the United States from November 1 to December 24, 1784.Ewing High School. His father was a full-time performing musician and a bandleader, and his mother was a dancer and actress. He began his formal study every Thursday traveling from Trenton to New York City at age eight with Urana Clarke at the
Mannes College of Music
Mannes School of Music is a music conservatory in The New School, a private research university in New York City. In the fall of 2015, Mannes moved from its previous location on Manhattan's Upper West Side to join the rest of the New School ca ...
on full scholarship. Early influences were credited to listening to Symphony Sid on his AM radio. On Wednesdays, from age 11 to 14, John would play clarinet with his father at the Trenton
YMCA
YMCA, sometimes regionally called the Y, is a worldwide youth organization based in Geneva, Switzerland, with more than 64 million beneficiaries in 120 countries. It was founded on 6 June 1844 by George Williams (philanthropist), Georg ...
dance hall night, where he learned to
improvise
Improvisation is the activity of making or doing something not planned beforehand, using whatever can be found. Improvisation in the performing arts is a very spontaneous performance without specific or scripted preparation. The skills of impr ...
. His father began teaching him jazz piano around age 12. Another of his father's students, Jack Weigand, influenced Coates and talked him into joining the Trenton musicians union at age 12. By age 14 he was playing gigs two nights a week, as well as weekends. At age 16, Coates was asked to play six nights a week during the summer at the Deer Head Inn, where he lived and ate dinner with the proprietors, Bob and Fey Lehr. It was that summer at the Deer Head where Savoy Records discovered him.
Professional career
He recorded his first LP, ''Portrait'', with bassist Wendell Marshall and drummer
Kenny Clarke
Kenneth Clarke Spearman (January 9, 1914January 26, 1985), nicknamed Klook, was an American jazz drummer and bandleader. A major innovator of the bebop style of drumming, he pioneered the use of the ride cymbal to keep time rather than the hi-ha ...
and produced by
Rudy Van Gelder
Rudolph Van Gelder (November 2, 1924 – August 25, 2016) was an American recording engineer who specialized in jazz. Over more than half a century, he recorded several thousand sessions, with musicians including John Coltrane, Miles Davis, Theloni ...
, for Savoy Records during his senior year of high school. He performed on the
Steve Allen
Stephen Valentine Patrick William Allen (December 26, 1921 – October 30, 2000) was an American television personality, radio personality, musician, composer, actor, comedian, and writer. In 1954, he achieved national fame as the co-cre ...
Merv Griffin
Mervyn Edward Griffin Jr. (July 6, 1925 – August 12, 2007) was an American television show host and media mogul. He began his career as a radio and big band singer, later appearing in film and on Broadway. From 1965 to 1986 he hosted his own t ...
TV shows in support of that album. From 1956 to 1958 he toured with
Charlie Ventura
Charlie Ventura (born Charles Venturo; December 2, 1916 – January 17, 1992) was an American tenor saxophonist and bandleader from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States.
Career
During the 1940s, Ventura played saxophone for the bands o ...
Blue Note
In jazz and blues, a blue note is a note that—for expressive purposes—is sung or played at a slightly different pitch from standard. Typically the alteration is between a quartertone and a semitone, but this varies depending on the musical c ...
, the Brass Rail, and The Flame among others. After Ventura and while in college John played with
Barry Miles
Barry Miles (born 21 February 1943) is an English author known for his participation in and writing on the subjects of the 1960s London underground and counterculture. He is the author of numerous books and his work has also regularly appeare ...
,
Eddie Gomez
Eddie or Eddy may refer to:
Science and technology
*Eddy (fluid dynamics), the swirling of a fluid and the reverse current created when the fluid flows past an obstacle
* Eddie (text editor), a text editor originally for BeOS and now ported to Lin ...
Woody Shaw
Woody Herman Shaw Jr. (December 24, 1944 – May 10, 1989) was an American jazz trumpeter, flugelhornist, cornetist, composer, arranger, band leader, and educator. Shaw is widely known as one of the most important and influential jazz trumpet ...
Al Cohn
Al Cohn (November 24, 1925 – February 15, 1988) was an American jazz saxophonist, arranger and composer. He came to prominence in the band of clarinetist Woody Herman and was known for his longtime musical partnership with fellow saxophonist ...
,
Zoot Sims
John Haley "Zoot" Sims (October 29, 1925 – March 23, 1985) was an American jazz saxophonist, playing mainly tenor but also alto (and, later, soprano) saxophone. He first gained attention in the "Four Brothers" sax section of Woody Herman's big ...
Pepper Adams
Park Frederick "Pepper" Adams III (October 8, 1930 – September 10, 1986) was an American jazz baritone saxophonist and composer. He composed 42 pieces, was the leader on eighteen albums spanning 28 years, and participated in 600 sessions as a s ...
.
He attended
Rutgers University
Rutgers University (; RU), officially Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is a public land-grant research university consisting of four campuses in New Jersey. Chartered in 1766, Rutgers was originally called Queen's College, and was ...
and graduated with a degree in romance languages in 1962. After graduating from Rutgers in 1962, John returned to the Deer Head where he played 6 nights a week, four alone and two as bandleader. Around this time that he took a position with Shawnee Press as an arranger and editor. He began to rotate summers at the Deer Head and winters at Henderson's Club 50, where he also had a 6 night per week gig. At Henderson's he played with
Coleman Hawkins
Coleman Randolph Hawkins (November 21, 1904 – May 19, 1969), nicknamed "Hawk" and sometimes "Bean", was an American jazz tenor saxophonist.Yanow, Scot"Coleman Hawkins: Artist Biography" AllMusic. Retrieved December 27, 2013. One of the first p ...
Phil Woods
Philip Wells Woods (November 2, 1931 – September 29, 2015) was an American jazz alto saxophonist, clarinetist, bandleader, and composer.
Biography
Woods was born in Springfield, Massachusetts. After inheriting a saxophone at age 12, he began ...
,
Marvin Stamm
Marvin Louis Stamm (born May 23, 1939) is an American jazz trumpeter.
Career
Stamm was born in Memphis, Tennessee, United States. Stamm began on trumpet at age twelve. He attended North Texas State University, where he was a member of the One ...
and Bill Watrous among others. In 1966 John moved to Mountain Lake, New Jersey and began a full time 9 to 5 job with Shawnee Press editing during the day, arranging on his own time on a royalty basis, while also playing at the Deer Head year round where he became an early inspiration for Keith Jarrett, who would listen and sit in occasionally. He ceased working full-time with Shawnee in 1977, but continued doing occasional arrangement and composition work (including choral works) for the press. His arrangement for "
Amazing Grace
"Amazing Grace" is a Christian hymn published in 1779 with words written in 1772 by English Anglican clergyman and poet John Newton (1725–1807). It is an immensely popular hymn, particularly in the United States, where it is used for both ...
The Morning Call
''The Morning Call'' is a daily newspaper in Allentown, Pennsylvania. Founded in 1883, it is the second longest continuously published newspaper in the Lehigh Valley, after '' The Express-Times''. In 2020, the newspaper permanently closed its ...
'', May 26, 2000. He recorded multiple live albums for them at
Northampton Community College
Northampton Community College is a public community college in Pennsylvania with campuses in Bethlehem in Northampton County and Tannersville in Monroe County. The college, founded in 1967, also has satellite locations in the south side of Be ...
, the Deer Head, and even Japan. Following those records he toured briefly with bassist Paul Langosch. Starting in 1993 John began recording for Pacific St Records, including two album with Phil Woods. John promoted these albums at several venues including
Blues Alley
Blues Alley, founded in 1965, is a jazz nightclub in the Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C.
Musicians who have performed at Blues Alley include John Abercrombie, Monty Alexander, Mose Allison, Tony Bennett, Rory Block, Ruby Braff, G ...
in Washington DC. Later in the 1990s, Coates became homeless and attempted suicide, then moved to Coney Island and began playing again around the year 2000. He married Lisa Haines in 1961; the couple divorced in 1963, but remarried in 2012. Coates's second marriage to Haines was his fourth overall.Romance gets a second act: Divorced at 24, back together at 73 '' Orange County Register'', February 16, 2012.
Coates performed primarily as a pianist, but also occasionally played
vibraphone
The vibraphone is a percussion instrument in the metallophone family. It consists of tuned metal bars and is typically played by using mallets to strike the bars. A person who plays the vibraphone is called a ''vibraphonist,'' ''vibraharpist ...