John Coltrane Live in Seattle

There are moments when the world seems to turn in a new direction, and that was the case in 1965 when jazz music appeared headed in an all new direction. John Coltrane wasn't the first musican to explore free jazz (Ornette Coleman had already made it into an art form), but his bold steps in this direction that year turned the jazz world on its ear.

I suppose that was because listeners had become comfortable with his lush ballads like those on My Favorite Things. However, A Love Supreme, recorded in late 1964, signaled he was ready to move on. Widely regarded as his best album, it evoked a deeper, more meditative chord than any of his previous works, opening the door to a greater range of sounds and expressions as if he had unlocked some hidden gate with the chant that appears throughout the four parts of this singular work.

But, critics were taken aback when he went completely atonal in 1965. It was under such a cloud of controversy that Coltrane came to Seattle in October of that year for a concert at a small club in Pioneer Square. In addition to his well-known rhythm section, Pharoah Sanders joined him on tenor sax and Donald Garrett added an additional double bass.

Jan Kurtis didn't know what to expect so he brought everything he had in the way of recording equipment to the show that night. The result is a live recording that stands out as one of Coltrane's best -- Live in Seattle. There's some unwanted background noise in parts, but that is hard to avoid. Coltrane was apparently so impressed with what he heard the next day that he asked Kurtis to record an album in his Camelot Studio -- Om. The MP3 recordings don't do the music justice, but at least they give you a feel.

It is easy to split Trane at this stage of his career. There were those who preferred to hold onto the old melodic Coltrane, and there were those who chose to embrace the brash new Coltrane. But, it wasn't like it was a great leap. The process had evolved from the late 50s with his first exploration into Hindu and Muslim music on Giant Steps. It was one of the reasons he left Miles Davis. You can still sense the Blues rhythms in his later works, but they have been bent and reshaped by his greater awareness of music as a whole.

Hard to think of this music as history, especially as it sounds much more contemporary than much of what we hear today, but this was nearly 50 years ago.

O Pioneers!

It is hard not to think of Nebraska without thinking of its greatest writer. Here is a marvelous piece by Capote, Remembering Willa Cather . I remember seeing a stage production of O Pioneers! and being deeply moved by its raw emotions. I had read My Antonia before, and soon found myself hooked, like Capote was by the simple elegance of her prose and the way she was able to evoke so many feelings through her characters. Much of it came from the fact that she had lived those experiences herself. Her father dragged the family from Virginia to Nebraska in 1883, when it was still a young state, settling in the town of Red Cloud. named after one of the great Oglala chiefs. Red Cloud was still alive at the time, living on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota, in the aftermath of the "Great Sioux Wars" of 1876-77. I don't know whether Cather took any interest in the famous chief, although it is hard to imagine not. Upon his death in 1909, he was eulogi

The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire

Welcome to this month's reading group selection. David Von Drehle mentions The Melting Pot , a play by Israel Zangwill, that premiered on Broadway in 1908. At that time theater was accessible to a broad section of the public, not the exclusive domain it has become over the decades. Zangwill carried a hopeful message that America was a place where old hatreds and prejudices were pointless, and that in this new country immigrants would find a more open society. I suppose the reference was more an ironic one for Von Drehle, as he notes the racial and ethnic hatreds were on display everywhere, and at best Zangwill's play helped persons forget for a moment how deep these divides ran. Nevertheless, "the melting pot" made its way into the American lexicon, even if New York could best be describing as a boiling cauldron in the early twentieth century. Triangle: The Fire That Changed America takes a broad view of events that led up the notorious fire, noting the gro

Colonel

Now with Colonel Roosevelt , the magnum opus is complete. And it deserves to stand as the definitive study of its restless, mutable, ever-boyish, erudite and tirelessly energetic subject. Mr. Morris has addressed the toughest and most frustrating part of Roosevelt’s life with the same care and precision that he brought to the two earlier installments. And if this story of a lifetime is his own life’s work, he has reason to be immensely proud. -- Janet Maslin -- NY Times . Let the discussion begin!

joebeenthereOctober 15, 2014 at 3:03 AM
I was there. I remember the ambience, the equipment, the musicians. I nursed a bourbon and tried to make sense if what was passing into my brain. Two basses, Pharaoh screeching and roaring. A wall of unintelligible sound and force. I left puzzled and strangely upset. I am still mystified after49 years.
James FergusonOctober 16, 2014 at 4:20 PM
I certainly wish I had been there, but I would have been in my diapers ; )

Dispatches from Vilnius

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