Netflix has been showing jazz documentaries. They tend to view these musicians in a bubble, not taking into account the influence other musicians had on them. In Chasing Trane, there is virtually no mention of Eric Dolphy and only a passing reference to Pharoah Sanders. Albert Ayler, the pioneer of Free Jazz, had a profound impact on Coltrane, yet is completely ignored. Sanders is still alive, making it a real mystery why John Scheinfeld didn't ask him to contribute, rather than Bill Clinton who offers the most banal comments. Nevertheless, these documentaries are worth watching as they provide some interesting impressions, such as Coltrane's time in Japan.
One of the Japanese hosts recalls how he found Coltrane sitting in the dining car of a train playing his flute. When asked what he was playing, John said he was trying to imagine the sounds of Nagasaki. This touched his host deeply, as it did that Coltrane first wanted to visit the memorial to the victims of the atomic bomb. He was already very popular in Japan, but after his 17-day tour through the country, he became revered like no other jazz musician. One Japanese man became so obsessed with Coltrane that he devoted his entire house to him, filling it with the jazz legend's albums and memorabilia over the years.
It is pretty hard not to be drawn into his music, as there is such a universal spiritual quality to it, as if he has reduced ecstatic music from around the world down to its essential elements. Probably his greatest album is A Love Supreme, which appears to start with gospel themes he recalled from his youth and soon transcends into Sufi and other deep spiritual forms of music without ever losing sense of the plaintive melodies that underscored the compositions. Released in 1965, the album immediately gained a worldwide audience.
Coltrane packed so much music into such a short span of time that it is hard to believe he died two years later. He left behind a discography that is still being mined today. Just two years ago, this album was found in his archives from 1963, which signaled the direction he was heading with his music. Archivists are still uncovering more works of John Coltrane that had escaped the public eye.
He literally played all the time, to hear his fellow musicians speak of him. He never put down his horn, except to be with his wife and children. After his marriage with Naima broke up, he met Alice in a club, and serenaded her throughout the evening. They were a spiritual fit and together would form a quintet that best captured the cosmic music he was experimenting with. It was too much for Elvin Jones and McCoy Tyner, who went their separate ways. Rashid Ali took over on drums and Alice on piano. Reggie Workman remained on bass, and Pharoah Sanders gave added dimension on tenor saxophone. It was not an easy music to play or listen to. He lost much of his audience over the next two years, but found it again in Japan.
You could already hear some of this soul searching emerging in his work with Eric Dolphy, especially on Africa/Brass, but now it was completely in the realm of free jazz, no longer bound by any recurring melodies, as had been the case with A Love Supreme. Dolphy was spitting time between Coltrane and Mingus. Eric was one of the most sought after multi-instrumentalists before his untimely death in 1964. Sanders helped fill that void for Coltrane, as he had drawn much from his soulmate, as can be heard on Africa.
Coltrane had been pairing up with fellow saxophonists ever since his time with Miles Davis. He and Cannonball Adderley played beautifully together in Miles' band, and found time to record this fun album on the side. John loved the double sound, even if they often found themselves trading licks, so to speak. He was great friends with Sonny Rollins and teamed up with him on Tenor Madness. This style of play, which had been dubbed "sheets of sound," would have a big influence on jam bands like The Allman Brothers and Grateful Dead, which employed two lead guitarists.
Often Coltrane himself could sound like two or even three musicians at once, as he appeared to travel all over the musical spectrum on his improvisational excursions. It appeared to come from some inner source that no one could put a finger on, not even himself, even though he would often score his pieces beforehand to give him a map to follow. He constantly defied expectations. You never really knew what he would do next and this excitement could be felt in all his music.
I suppose this is why he is loved even more today than he was back in the 1960s. He is one of the musical icons of the twentieth century. Not bad for a self-taught saxophonist, who didn't sound promising at all in his early recordings from the time he played with a Navy band in the mid 1940s. But, Diz and Miles and Monk all something in him and nurtured his talents to the point none of them could contain him.
Sadly, his last great outpouring of music was in Japan. Alice kept the band together and produced some beautiful transcendent albums that were very much in the same spirit. Journey to Satchidananda is probably the best of her albums -- a truly wonderful journey that begins with her playing on the golden harp John had given her shortly after they first met. Always brings a tear to my eye.
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