Upbringing and early influences Coltrane was born and raised in a Christian home. He was influenced by religion and spirituality beginning in childhood. His maternal grandfather, the Reverend William Blair, was a minister at an African Methodist Episcopal Zion ChurchPorter, pp. 5–6.Lavezzoli, p. 270. in High Point, North Carolina, and his paternal grandfather, the Reverend William H. Coltrane, was an A.M.E. Zion minister in Hamlet, North Carolina. Critic Norman Weinstein observed the parallel between Coltrane's music and his experience in the southern church, which included practicing music there as a youth.
Upbringing and early influences Coltrane was born and raised in a Christian home. He was influenced by religion and spirituality beginning in childhood. His maternal grandfather, the Reverend William Blair, was a minister at an African Methodist Episcopal Zion ChurchPorter, pp. 5–6.Lavezzoli, p. 270. in High Point, North Carolina, and his paternal grandfather, the Reverend William H. Coltrane, was an A.M.E. Zion minister in Hamlet, North Carolina. Critic Norman Weinstein observed the, parallel between Coltrane's music and his experience in the southern church, which included practicing music there as a youth.