Solitude.

In 1964, John Coltrane moved from Queens, N.Y., to a brick ranch house on a 31/2 acre wooded lot in the quiet suburb of Dix Hills. This bucolic setting — 40 miles east of the city — is perhaps the last place you'd expect to find a musician creating the virtuosic jazz that Coltrane is famous for.

But Ravi Coltrane, the son of John and Alice Coltrane, who was herself a noted jazz pianist and harpist, says the woods were part of his father's creative process.

"I believe the solitude and the beauty of Long Island gave him something he had not had or experienced before," he says. "Clearly it affected the way he conceived."

NPR has a story about the efforts to preserve John Coltrane's home.

"Acknowledgement," from A Love Supreme



More at PreservationNation.