and black church music – was in a way the result of bop straying too far from these very roots as a result of technical and harmonic acrobatics that did not always go down too well among the followers of Parker and Gillespie . Before his death in 1950 , trumpeter Fats Navarro , a precursor of hard bop , predicted : “ When they master harmonic progressions , then maybe we ’ ll have truly modern jazz .” In April 1954 , journalist Nat Hentoff reported on the emergence of this movement in an article in Down Beat praising the seriousness of the rising generation and their level of thinking about the future of jazz , and in which he singled out Quincy Jones , Clifford Brown , Art Farmer , Gigi Gryce , Lou Donaldson , Horace Silver and Percy Heath . In 1953 , the first four of these musicians , together with Benny Golson and Philly Joe Jones most notably , joined the big band of Tadd Dameron , a key contributor in 1946 to the bop repertoire in general , and to Dizzy Gillespie ’ s big band in particular . These newcomers were distinguished by their high level of musical training ; some had benefited during the war from the opening to African-Americans of musical training centers for military bands , while others received a G . I . Bill allowance for veterans that enabled them to resume their studies , as levels of musical education in black-only schools continued to rise .
John Coltrane himself took advantage of the G . I . Bill to enroll at the Granoff School of Music . Isidore Granoff was a Russian violinist who had opened his school in 1920 and turned it into a renowned establishment in which our saxophonist found a true master in Dennis Sandole , a guitarist who had recently taken up teaching . Taking two lessons a week , Trane made great strides in the field of harmony , studying modes and chromaticism , and submitting his first compositions to his teacher , whom he would visit long after his studies were finished . He was an insatiable student who barely put
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