his saxophone down during the day , continuing to work silently on his fingerings at night ... “ I think he slept with his horn ,” said another student of Mike Guerra . He practiced with Benny Golson , with the two taking turns to accompany one another on piano . With Jimmy Heath , he visited the Philadelphia library to listen to records by Stravinsky , Shostakovich , and their contemporaries . Together they explored the high register of the saxophone using Ted Nash ’ s Studies in High Harmonics and Sigurd Rascher ’ s Top Tones for the Saxophone . They would dissect the solos of the boppers and their use of upper chord structures , learning to play them in all keys . Saxophonist Nick Nicholas remembered practicing with Trane by playing along with or improvising over a recording of Béla Bartók ’ s Concerto for Orchestra .
The wilderness years . Trane chased after playing gigs and jam sessions , and he played in the big band led by Jimmy Heath from 1946 to 1949 , modelled on Dizzy Gillespie ’ s band , performing with him at the Apollo Theater in Harlem in September 1948 . Two months later , he was hired by Eddie “ Cleanhead ” Vinson . A rising star in the nascent rhythm and blues scene that was still known as “ jump blues ”, this singer and alto saxophonist was also interested in bop , incorporating certain pieces from the repertoire as instrumentals . Trane was called upon to play tenor , which gave him the opportunity to distinguish himself from Charlie Parker by moving closer to the musical world of Lester Young , who had a more linear , fluid approach , and a far more relaxed style with a “ natural ” modern harmonic vocabulary drawn from the modal ambiguities of the blues . Parker was in fact the direct heir of Young , though he combined this heritage with its opposite , that of tenor Coleman Hawkins , the “ father of jazz saxophone ”. From “ Hawk ”, Trane adopted an eagerness to break down the harmony of tunes and arpeggiate them from all possible
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