Library Mixtape & Philadelphia Jazz Legacy Project present: John Coltrane at 100
Library Mixtape is a club for folks to listen to and discuss vinyl records! Whether you are just starting to get into records or you’re an avid crate digger, we welcome listeners of all b
ackgrounds. Library Mixtape meets last Wednesdays of the month from 5:30-7:30PM, and there’s a different monthly theme.
Our format is flexible: we have BYO vinyl, guest co-host DJs, librarian-led journeys through the library record collections, and more! You are responsible for your own vinyl. Please sign up for our club email list to get meeting reminders, information about music themes, to sign up to bring an album using our sign up sheet, or rescheduling/cancelation notices!
Listeners of all ages are invited to this session of club. A heads up that Coltrane struggled with substance dependencies, and it may come up in conversation. Feel free to step out at any time if you need to!
Our theme this month is John Coltrane at 100. John Coltrane would have turned 100 on September 23, 2026. He passed away from liver cancer at only 41 years old on July 17, 1967. In his too-short time earthside he was a pioneer in the free jazz movement, and brought his deep spirituality to his later discography.
John Coltrane used to visit Parkway Central Library and the Music Department in the late 1940s to early 1950s- he’d listen to Bartok and Stravinsky records at our listening stations. We recommend stopping by our Social Science and History Department before stopping by club- you can see a Stravinsky record we still have from that time period, as well as other Coltrane materials on display!
We have a guest co-host this month: Suzanne Cloud (she/her) writer, historian, and jazz musician received her doctorate from the University of Pennsylvania in American Studies in 2004. Cloud has published six YA history books, contributed to the African American National Biography Project at Harvard, co-authored with Diane Turner the book Images of America: Philadelphia Jazz, edited The Real Philadelphia Book, and was the founding director of Jazz Bridge, a nonprofit aiding musicians in crisis. Currently, Cloud is director of the Philadelphia Jazz Legacy
Project, an organization dedicated to building a Philadelphia area archive of jazz. Her play Last Call at the Downbeat was part of the 2013 Philadelphia International Festival of the Arts. Cloud is a past Commonwealth Speaker for the Pennsylvania Humanities Council, a recipient of the Rutgers University Chancellor’s Award for Civic Engagement in 2015 and was named a Jazz Hero by the Jazz Journalists Association in 2019.
We’re so excited to spin vinyl with you!
Questions? You can contact the Music Department by email at erefmus@freelibrary.org or by phone at 215-686-5316.