Fest 411: John Coltrane’s Centennial Celebrated During Annual Hometown Festival

North Carolina is famous for its bluegrass, country and folk traditions but it has also produced jazz legends including Thelonious Monk, Nina Simone and John Coltrane – who is being celebrated in 2026 for his birthday centennial.

The illustrious saxophonist is the inspiration behind the John Coltrane International Jazz & Blues Festival, which draws up to 10,000 music enthusiasts to High Point over Labor Day weekend reinforcing North Carolina’s place in jazz history and Coltrane’s enduring impact on jazz and popular music.

Held at Oak Hollow Festival Park, the two-day event celebrates Coltrane, who grew up and learned to play the saxophone in High Point. Although Coltrane was born in Hamlet, North Carolina, his family moved to the city when he was a toddler. He lived there until graduating from William Penn High School in 1943.

“After Hamlet, you never heard anything else except Philadelphia and New York,” explains festival director Joe Williams of Friends of John Coltrane, the nonprofit that operates the festival. “I’m from Philadelphia and I had no idea that he grew up in High Point. That’s a missing piece. That story has not been told. I’m hoping that we are filling in that blank.”

Few musicians have reshaped the musical landscape as profoundly as Coltrane. His relentless search for new sounds and deeper expression influenced generations of musicians from the Allman Brothers, Prince, Kendrick Lamar, Kamasi Washington to Carlos Santana who once told Guitar World, “We all come from the same place, musically. We all love John Coltrane.”

“Coltrane has touched so many different genres of music,” continues Williams. “For example, you listen to interviews from Common, and he says he listens to Coltrane every morning. Then you listen to interviews with Carlos Santana, and I have not heard an interview that he has not mentioned John Coltrane as being his inspiration. Poncho Sanchez, he just idolizes Coltrane, and the list goes on and on.”

Coltrane’s musical reach is reflected in the breadth of artists performing at the festival, which launched in 2011 and is celebrating its 15th anniversary Sept. 5-6. Performers include Ledisi, Victor Wooten and the Wooten Brothers, Raul Midón, Cyrille Aimée, Adam Hawley and Coltrane’s son Ravi Coltrane, who last performed at the festival in 2018.

Unlike jazz festivals that focus solely on traditional jazz, the festival features a mix of contemporary jazz, blues, fusion, soul and R&B. The event attracts both internationally known performers and emerging artists. Over the years, the lineup has included Herbie Hancock, Branford Marsalis, Pat Metheny, Dianne Reeves, Esperanza Spalding, Robert Glasper, Keb’ Mo’ and Mavis Staples.

“Coltrane was an explorer,” says Williams. “That’s how I see him. He traveled the world listening to new sounds, new music. It wasn’t in a box. He wanted to hear anything, and he applied it to what he did. So, I don’t put Coltrane in a box. …When I program the festival, I focus on the music. Let’s put it this way: the genres are not as important as the music.”

And the legacy continues. Proceeds from the festival support music education throughout the region by providing musical instruments for young musicians and hosting youth jazz workshops.