Museum hopes to purchase Coltrane's piano

From Newsday 4/27/05

HIGH POINT, N.C. (AP) _ The High Point Museum is asking locals to help it purchase a piano owned and played by jazz legend John Coltrane, who spent his youth in High Point.

The museum is looking for 88 contributors to purchase each of the piano's keys for $162.50 in an effort to raise the $14,300 needed to bring the piano home. The piano then would be displayed in the museum alongside other Coltrane memorabilia.

"When someone of that caliber, who should be a household name in jazz, having something like that coming back to the community is very exciting," said Wally West, the musical director of the John Coltrane Jazz Workshop, a weeklong music camp the High Point Area Arts Council created about three years ago. "This will put High Point on the map much more than for just its furniture."

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