Edited by prominent musician and scholar Leonard Brown

John Coltrane and Black America''s Quest for Freedom: Spirituality and the Music is a timely exploration of Coltrane''s sound and its spiritual qualities that are rooted in Black American music-culture and aspirations for freedom.

A wide-ranging collection of essays and interviews featuring many of the most eminent figures in Black American music and jazz studies and performance -- Tommy Lee Lott, Anthony Brown, Herman Gray, Emmett G. Price III, Tammy Kernodle, Salim Washington, Eric Jackson, TJ Anderson, Yusef Lateef, Billy Taylor, Olly Wilson, George Russell, and a never before published interview with Elvin Jones -- the book examines the full spectrum of Coltrane''s legacy.

Each work approaches this theme from a different angle, in both historical and contemporary contexts, focusing on how Coltrane became a quintessential example of the universal and enduring qualities of Black American culture.