John Coltrane, Ornette Coleman Win Pulitzer Prizes

  I  

Ornette Coleman and John Coltrane received Pulitzer commendations on
April 16.

Coleman’s Sound Grammar recording was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in music. The honor includes a $10,000 prize.

Coltrane received a “special citation,” for his “masterful improvisation, supreme musicianship and iconic centrality to the history of jazz,” according to the Pulitzer Prize Board.



  • Courtesy_of_the_Ulmer_family.jpg

    To the world, James Blood Ulmer was a legend, a visionary and a musical force whose sound was distinctive and unique. To his family, he was their teacher, their storyteller and a source of strength.

  • Rodney_Holmes_Courtesy_Meinl.jpg

    A drummer’s drummer, Rodney Holmes gigged with everyone from Joe Zawinul and Carlos Santana to Steve Kimock and the Brecker Brothers.

  • DB26_Critics_Poll_Montage.jpg

    Clockwise from top left, Mary Halvorson, Patricia Brennan, Adam O’Farrill, Keith Jarrett’s At the Deer Head Inn: The Complete Recordings, Sheila Jordan and Jaki Byard.

  • Abdhullah_Ibrahim_Detroit_Jazz_Festival_2022_by_Michael_Jackson.jpg

    Ibrahim was an early jazz acolyte, studying the music via 78s he would buy from soldiers stationed in South Africa — who also gave him the nickname “Dollar.”

  • DB26_Joe_Lovano_by_Michael_Jackson.jpg

    Joe Lovano’s Paramount Quartet will record live at New York’s Village Vanguard for ECM records on Aug. 26–27.


On Sale Now
August 2026
74th Annual DownBeat Critics Poll
Look Inside
Subscribe
Print | Digital | iPad