What do Chaka Khan, Ariana Grande, OutKast and Beastie Boys have in common? Jazz legend John Coltrane.
On her 1982 self-titled album, Khan sampled the 1960 Coltrane gem “Giant Steps” for “Be-Bop Medley.” Grande’s 2019 Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 “7 Rings” interpolates the melody of the seminal jazz saxophonist’s 1961 freestyle take on the Sound of Music classic “My Favorite Things.” Hip-hop icons OutKast covered “My Favorite Things” in their own inimitable style on the pair’s Grammy-winning album Speakerboxxx/The Love Below. And Beastie Boys tapped into the Coltrane catalog by sampling “Part 1: Acknowledgement” from the late artist’s 1965 masterpiece, A Love Supreme, for its “Song for Junior” on 1998’s Hello Nasty, which sold more than 3 million copies, according to Luminate.
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These are just some of the artists who have interacted with Coltrane’s work. The late genius inspired everyone from David Bowie to Mac Miller and infiltrated popular culture through prestige film and TV such as Vanilla Sky, The Sopranos and Breaking Bad. Such use of Coltrane’s music speaks volumes of the artist’s legacy and explains why Verve Label Group is supporting a yearlong global celebration of the 100th anniversary of John William Coltrane’s birth on Sept. 23.
Under the direction of Jamie Krents, president/CEO of Verve Label Group (which includes Coltrane’s home base, Impulse! Records) and president/CEO of the global catalog division Universal Music Enterprises (UMe), the centennial celebration kicked off in January with the Impulse! release of the limited edition, two-album vinyl compilation Essential John Coltrane. In April, the New York State Legislature commemorated the centennial with a special resolution to celebrate the “hero to Harlem residents.” State lawmakers were joined by representatives of Verve/Impulse! and the Coltrane estate, who together are organizing the series of events being planned in tribute to the musician, who died in 1967 at the age of 40.
And not just Verve/Impulse! are involved, Krents says. Sister label Blue Note released two special editions of 1958’s Blue Train in June. And in the run-up to the major birthday week celebration in September, salutes are also being put together by Atlantic Records and BMG/Concord’s Craft Records.
“What I love is that you’re seeing his influence resonate across many different parts of the world,” Krents says. “Kendrick Lamar has been incredibly effusive about his love for Coltrane, as have Flea, Bill Clinton and Flying Lotus. You’re getting people from all walks of life shouting him out.
“Coltrane is spiritual music that can absolutely transcend genre,” Krents adds. “It’s meditative, sometimes very intense but always spiritual; a sound for which he is the forefather. He’s just so unassailable. You can put on any Coltrane record and no one’s ever going to say that sounds old-fashioned. The mark of great music is that it’s timeless. And John Coltrane is one of the great archetypes of timeless music.”
Coltrane Dalle/Cache AgencyWhen did you begin planning this centennial?
Jamie Krents: I’ve worked at Impulse! since the late ’90s but during the last 10 years there’s been an incredible amount of unreleased Coltrane music. We released Both Directions at Once: The Lost Album. It was a studio session that had never seen the light of day and was an incredible success for us in 2018. Because of that, there’s been a number of lost Coltrane records that we’ve done, a lot of them live. Then about two years ago, we realized we better get our act together because Coltrane would be 100 years old. We’ve been working closely with the estate — [his heirs] Ravi and Michelle Coltrane in particular, while their lawyer, Michael Frisch, in many ways is the quarterback for a lot of the activity.
How does it feel when you discover a lost album, especially a live recording?
If I ever get used to it, it’ll be time for me to go. You partially feel like Indiana Jones finding some treasure. Whether you like jazz or not, Coltrane’s a master of music like Jimi Hendrix, Miles Davis or Bob Marley. So having anything at this point that hasn’t been released and heard? It’s unbelievable when you’re among the first people to hear this music. Then you’re filled with anxiety and excitement, but you better not mess it up and you better make sure the Coltrane family feels this is music that John would have felt proud to release.
Now you have another lost album on tap, The Tiberi Tapes.
Frank Tiberi — a great saxophonist in his own right and an educator — followed the Coltrane band around for four years [1961-65]. He recorded their club shows up and down the East Coast with a portable tape player, an enormous piece of equipment. Frank would lug this thing around to document the evolution of Coltrane’s classic quartet with Elvin Jones [drums], McCoy Tyner [piano] and Jimmy Garrison [bass].
It was a folk tale that these tapes existed, as they’d never seen the light of day. We were finally able to make an arrangement with Frank, who is still alive, to release the very best of those hundreds of hours of recordings. We’ve curated it down to a four-LP, two-CD set. That’s the hero project for us this year. It’s not just a bootleg of a live show, it truly captures one of the most iconic bands of all time. People are going to lose their minds.
The Tiberi Tapes album will arrive in September.What other strategies is Verve implementing on behalf of the centennial?
In addition to very beautiful-sounding releases, we’re making sure everything’s available to stream. One of our real goals this year isn’t just to preach to the choir. There are so many people out there who may know the name John Coltrane or maybe they’ve heard a little of his music. But given their algorithms, they’re maybe not getting served with this music when they log in to their [digital service provider] of choice. So we’re working to make sure younger people and longtime fans know that there’s something for everybody. We’re releasing Africa/Brass, a more orchestrated record that John did [as his Impulse! debut]. We’re releasing Meditations, which also has that quality to it. Then there’s Live at Birdland coming in October. We’re trying to cover all the Coltrane chapters because he made so many different kinds of records. A Love Supreme is probably his most iconic recording. However, it isn’t the whole story. It would be like just playing Abbey Road for somebody and not playing what The Beatles sounded like in Germany in 1965. It’s important to show people the whole spectrum.
How else is this younger generation of music fans being courted?
Through a combination of playlisting plus helping people find Coltrane through curated collections and other content as we work with the estate. For example, we’re creating new visuals because so much of the way that young people discover music now isn’t just through listening but seeing things on TikTok, YouTube or Instagram. There are a couple of animated clips and other visual materials that fans will be seeing over the course of the year as we approach the release of The Tiberi Tapes and Coltrane’s birthday week.
Speaking of the birthday week, Los Angeles’ Hollywood Bowl will premiere “Coltrane 100: Legacy,” a symphonic reimagination of his popular works.
That’s something the estate put together with saxophonist Lakecia Benjamin headlining. There are a lot of tributes happening this year. The band Butcher Brown and trumpeter Nicholas Payton paid tribute to Coltrane at the recent Jazz Fest in New Orleans. There are so many people who love John Coltrane and are taking it on themselves to celebrate. But the Hollywood Bowl event is probably the biggest thing the estate is involved in, and that’s happening on Sept. 23 [Coltrane’s birthday]. We’re also going to do a listening event at the Van Gelder Studio [in New York] on the 23rd. It’s where sound engineer Rudy Van Gelder recorded Coltrane’s most iconic records.
I can’t go into total details now, but we’re working on a mini-documentary with several important people from a variety of disciplines — be it skateboarders, rock stars or actors — talking about what Coltrane’s music means to them. [Verve’s] Oliver Schrage, who’s leading marketing on the project, is currently working on that with talented director Atiba Jefferson. That will come out in the fall as well.
What’s your take on the current state of jazz?
This is the best ecosystem I’ve seen for jazz, particularly the last five or six years. There’s singer Samara Joy winning the Grammy for best new artist [in 2023]; Jon Batiste with his background as a jazz musician [winning multiple] Grammys in 2022. Then all the way to people like Kamasi Washington. And it’s not just in the U.S. You have English group Ezra Collective, the first jazz act to win the Mercury Prize in 2023. Jazz is more vibrant than ever. Some of this is a function of younger people not being so hung up on genres and also just discovering music from different eras. We’re seeing music from 20 years ago or older become hits again. They’re not worried about what genre they’re listening to, they just like good music.
And I don’t see any signs of it slowing down. Laufey is also having an incredible career. She’s a good example of showing that traditional jazz and music influenced by jazz can find a larger audience. She’s also a Coltrane fan, while Billie Eilish is a big fan of Peggy Lee and Ella Fitzgerald. [And] the Newport Jazz Festival sells out every year now.
What is the most important outcome that Verve is hoping for when this centennial year closes?
There’s a book about Impulse! by Ashley Kahn called The House That Trane Built, so it would be a dereliction of duty to not do everything we can to ensure that exponentially more people become Coltrane fans. Every time I listen to Coltrane, I hear something new. Like every time you watch a great movie, you see something new. Tribute concerts, reissues, new music releases … those are our mechanisms, the gateways for people to go back into the catalog. We’re living in an age of short attention spans and algorithms; swiping and skipping. That doesn’t necessarily favor deep spiritual music all the time. But in this case, I don’t think you can deny John Coltrane. Our team — some of whom are in their 20s and 30s — is completely focused on making sure that he has a much bigger audience by the end of this year than he did when we started.
This story appears in the July 18, 2026, issue of Billboard.
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