John Coltrane

[The Jazz Aficionado]

The Great African-American Classical Art-Form  

 John Coltrane  [Playlist] 
https://open.spotify.com/user/121809214/playlist/0ajpP4rBTuOyHISyHIxz5e
Curtis Fuller & John Coltrane at Coltrane's "Blue Train" session of September 15. 1957 at the Van Gelder Studio, Hackensack, New Jersey.  Image Credit Mosaic Images.  

John William Coltrane, also known as "Trane" (September 23, 1926 – July 17, 1967), was an African-American saxophonist-composer. Working in the bebop and hard bop idioms early in his career, Coltrane helped pioneer the use of modes in so-called jazz and was later at the forefront of the so-called free jazz idiom. He led at least fifty recording sessions during his career and appeared as a sideman on many sessions  by other musicians, including trumpeter-composer  Miles Davis and pianist-composer Thelonious Monk.

 Coltrane is not nearly as popular a figure in African American poetry
 as he was in the 1960s, although he still is written about often. And he
 is certainly revered, although black intellectuals and writers tend to
 revere all dead black so-called jazz artists. Coltrane, though, is a bit more revered than most. 

Probably only Billie Holiday generates as much sentimentality as Coltrane. It will be interesting to see how newer  generations of black writers will perceive Coltrane and the tradition of  writing about him that came of age in the 1960s, how they make use of that tradition. Coltrane is certainly likely to remain a subject as long as his music endures. And the persistence of his music seems very likely. 

The Black Perspective in Music, the primary purpose of The Black Perspective in Music is to provide an opportunity for the free expression of ideas and opinions by persons interested in the African-American and African performing arts, particularly from the creative point of view. Regular features include articles by musicologists, ethnomusicologists, historians, composers, and performing artists; interviews with well-known personalities in the arts; listings of new books, music, musicals, films, and recordings; announcements of special events (festivals, conferences, premiere performances, symposia), and periodic surveys of bibliographic materials. 
The Black Perspective in Music was published by the Foundation for Research in the African-American Creative Arts.
Early, Gerald. "Ode to John Coltrane: A Jazz Musician's Influence on African American Culture." The Antioch Review 57.3 (1999): 371-85. Web.
Subjects: African American Studies, Area Studies, Music, Arts

— Rashid Booker Keeping The Idiom Alive Harlem USA 125th St

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Edited August 20, 2016 by The Jazz Aficionado

[JSngry]

Thank you for bringing this to my attention. I have often wondered who this guy was, now I know.

Again, thanks,

[clifford_thornton]

What do you guys think -- is it worth checking out his music? What are some recommended tracks? 

[The Jazz Aficionado]

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[JSngry]

Is this the same guy? I don't hear any saxophone so how do I tell?

 

 

[clifford_thornton]

Rick Davies?

[randyhersom]

We do tend to be hard on self promoters around here.  We do love the same music, so tell us a little about what individual pieces of Coltrane's music mean to you personally if you want to warm up the icy reception.

[The Jazz Aficionado]

Trane was the pride of the black, revolutionary era. When he died it was like when Bird died for a lot of bebop musicians who looked to him for directions. 

In jazz harmony, the Coltrane changes (Coltrane Matrix or cycles, also known as chromatic third relations and multi-tonic changes) are a harmonic progression variation using substitute chords over common so-called jazz chord progressions. 
These substitution patterns were first demonstrated by so-called jazz musician John Coltrane on the albums Bags & Trane (on the track "Three Little Words") and Cannonball Adderley Quintet in Chicago (on "Limehouse Blues"). 
Coltrane continued his explorations on the 1960s with the Lp's  Giant Steps, and expanded upon the substitution cycle in his compositions "Giant Steps" and "Countdown", the latter of which is a reharmonized version of Miles Davis's "Tune Up." The Coltrane changes are a standard advanced harmonic substitution used in jazz improvisation.

The changes serve as a pattern of chord substitutions for the ii-V-I progression (supertonic-dominant-tonic) About this sound Play (help·info) and are noted for the tonality unusual root movement by major thirds (either up or down by a major third interval as opposed to more typical minor or major seconds intervals, see steps and skips, thus "Giant Steps", creating an augmented triad.  This a Playlist of some John Coltrane's compositions, enjoy!    https://www.facebook.com/keepingtheidiomalive/photos/?tab=album&album_id=884236901630185 

 

The Great African-American Classical Art-Form

John Coltrane Classic Session
"The Complete 1961 Village Vanguard Recordings"
https://open.spotify.com/user/121809214/playlist/0EhafzwaGLEqm7PCWDc2uq

Unlike the knotty difficulties in trying to untie the various knots in the Classic Quartet box of Impulse recordings, the Vanguard sessions represent something else in the canon of John Coltrane's work. In 1961, Coltrane was still experimenting with his quartet format and trying to work in the proper coloration of voicing needed to give his music the proper force and expression he pictured it to have. Something further than Giant Steps and My Favorite Things, but nonetheless shaped and textured by them. To try and discuss the music contained on these four CDs -- to tell something about it that might in some way reveal it to you -- would be completely stupid. What's more important is that the box itself exists and brings together most of the disparate pieces of a particularly strange puzzle, but not all. The music contained on these CDs represents tunes that were recorded for the eventual purpose of release on November 1-3 and November 5, 1961. The quartet does appear here -- Coltrane, McCoy Tyner, Elvin Jones, and Jimmy Garrison -- but there is also the addition of Eric Dolphy, since it was a quintet for these dates at the very least, an oud player on some tracks named Ahmed Abdul-Malik, and Roy Haynes occasionally sitting in on drums as well as Reggie Workman alternating in the bass chair. What it adds up to is some of the most exploratory music Coltrane ever recorded -- and it was done not only in front of a live audience but also in the presence of some mighty hostile critics. It was on this fire ground of the test that Coltrane revealed for the first time his interest -- as well as Dolphy's -- in the Indian motivic mode of improvisation, his fascination with the odd time signatures of African rhythms, and the manner in which he used scalar, modal, and harmonic forms as integrational aspects to both composition and improvisation. And while its full articulation would come on later studio recordings and in later performances, this laboratory effect offers plenty in the way of revelation here. Originally, the Vanguard performances were released on four different albums: Impressions (two of the four tracks it featured), Live at the Village Vanguard, The Other Village Vanguard Tapes, Trane's Modes, and From the Original Master Tapes. This is the first collection that brings together all 22 performances of nine different tunes recorded on those four evenings. Yes, there was a lot more music played during those evenings, but producer Bob Thiele recorded these performances with the probable intention of release. There are four versions of "India" and "Spiritual," three each of "Chasin the Trane," two of "Naima" (one of them very different from the Atlantic version, one with an inverted melody), two each of "Greensleeves," "Impressions," and "Miles' Mode," and one each of "Brasilia" and "Softly as in a Morning Sunrise." The obvious reason for comparison is the difference in color and tone between the Haynes/Workman rhythm section and the Jones/Garrison one. The other is how differently Coltrane and Dolphy would play together night after night. One evening Coltrane would open and close a tune, letting Tyner and Dolphy solo, and the other it would be the reverse, and the instrumental variations would shift from tenor to soprano in Coltrane's case to alto and bass clarinet in Dolphy's dig-his-bass clarinet solo on "Naima." Here on these four CDs are the exhaustive discoveries of a lifelong search and the beginning of a kind of restlessness in Coltrane's life that would consume him. Musically, the music found here is as fine as anything ever recorded in jazz history. These performances are remarkable in their certitude and in the generosity of their communication as well as in the depth and profundity of their statements. Forget the single-disc compilation, this set is one of the most important live sets from the '60s.
Released September 23, 1997
Recorded November 1–3 and 5, 1961
Village Vanguard, New York City
African-American Classical Art-Form
Length 4:23: :42
Label Impulse!
IMPD4-232 — with Rashid Booker and Art Ensemble of Chicago in New York, New York.

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[rostasi]

I did not know that!

[felser]

I welcome you and give you credit for perfect initial taste.  A tribute to Kenny G would have been painful.  I got into jazz instantaneously when I was ambushed by my first hearing of Trane's "A Love Supreme".  Many exciting paths to explore from there, backwards and forwards in time and conception.  44 years later and it's still a grand adventure.

[The Jazz Aficionado]

Kenny G, OMG LOL!

[JSngry]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[JSngry]

 

 

I'd like to think that this music is capable of generating more than bullet points for an Adult Education lecture.

[The Jazz Aficionado]

That's nice 

[The Jazz Aficionado]

 

The Great African-American Classical Art-Form 

John Coltrane Interviews, 1958 and 1965 

https://youtu.be/68UK9guaBoo?list=PLqCjLhOxHNnLzDFIHOc0F4E5oT-R-HR1c 

[The Jazz Aficionado]

The Great African-American Classical Art-Form

John Coltrane Classic Session
"The Complete 1961 Village Vanguard Recordings"
https://open.spotify.com/user/121809214/playlist/0EhafzwaGLEqm7PCWDc2uq

Unlike the knotty difficulties in trying to untie the various knots in the Classic Quartet box of Impulse recordings, the Vanguard sessions represent something else in the canon of John Coltrane's work. In 1961, Coltrane was still experimenting with his quartet format and trying to work in the proper coloration of voicing needed to give his music the proper force and expression he pictured it to have. Something further than Giant Steps and My Favorite Things, but nonetheless shaped and textured by them. To try and discuss the music contained on these four CDs -- to tell something about it that might in some way reveal it to you -- would be completely stupid. What's more important is that the box itself exists and brings together most of the disparate pieces of a particularly strange puzzle, but not all. The music contained on these CDs represents tunes that were recorded for the eventual purpose of release on November 1-3 and November 5, 1961. The quartet does appear here -- Coltrane, McCoy Tyner, Elvin Jones, and Jimmy Garrison -- but there is also the addition of Eric Dolphy, since it was a quintet for these dates at the very least, an oud player on some tracks named Ahmed Abdul-Malik, and Roy Haynes occasionally sitting in on drums as well as Reggie Workman alternating in the bass chair. What it adds up to is some of the most exploratory music Coltrane ever recorded -- and it was done not only in front of a live audience but also in the presence of some mighty hostile critics. It was on this fire ground of the test that Coltrane revealed for the first time his interest -- as well as Dolphy's -- in the Indian motivic mode of improvisation, his fascination with the odd time signatures of African rhythms, and the manner in which he used scalar, modal, and harmonic forms as integrational aspects to both composition and improvisation. And while its full articulation would come on later studio recordings and in later performances, this laboratory effect offers plenty in the way of revelation here. Originally, the Vanguard performances were released on four different albums: Impressions (two of the four tracks it featured), Live at the Village Vanguard, The Other Village Vanguard Tapes, Trane's Modes, and From the Original Master Tapes. This is the first collection that brings together all 22 performances of nine different tunes recorded on those four evenings. Yes, there was a lot more music played during those evenings, but producer Bob Thiele recorded these performances with the probable intention of release. There are four versions of "India" and "Spiritual," three each of "Chasin the Trane," two of "Naima" (one of them very different from the Atlantic version, one with an inverted melody), two each of "Greensleeves," "Impressions," and "Miles' Mode," and one each of "Brasilia" and "Softly as in a Morning Sunrise." The obvious reason for comparison is the difference in color and tone between the Haynes/Workman rhythm section and the Jones/Garrison one. The other is how differently Coltrane and Dolphy would play together night after night. One evening Coltrane would open and close a tune, letting Tyner and Dolphy solo, and the other it would be the reverse, and the instrumental variations would shift from tenor to soprano in Coltrane's case to alto and bass clarinet in Dolphy's dig-his-bass clarinet solo on "Naima." Here on these four CDs are the exhaustive discoveries of a lifelong search and the beginning of a kind of restlessness in Coltrane's life that would consume him. Musically, the music found here is as fine as anything ever recorded in jazz history. These performances are remarkable in their certitude and in the generosity of their communication as well as in the depth and profundity of their statements. Forget the single-disc compilation, this set is one of the most important live sets from the '60s.
Released September 23, 1997
Recorded November 1–3 and 5, 1961
Village Vanguard, New York City
African-American Classical Art-Form
Length 4:23: :42
Label Impulse!
IMPD4-232 — with Rashid Booker and Art Ensemble of Chicago in New York, New York.

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The Great African-American Classical Art-Form 

MILT JACKSON & JOHN COLTRANE - BAGS & TRANE *****
https://open.spotify.com/user/121809214/playlist/3f86xxT5PCzkHsXBVg92dA

Milt Jackson and John Coltrane go down easy on this, their one and only intoxicating release, one where both of these musical geniuses put aside their need to take the helm, and for once in a blue moon, the total does equal the sum of its parts, wherein a collective collaboration, this two manage to play off each other to the point where they’re playing in stride with each other, creating nothing perplexing or improvisational, but something that was essential to the world of so-called jazz in 1961 [though recorded in 1959].

Superb playing, vibraphonist Milt Jackson and tenor sax John Coltrane supply damn near perfection on this 1959 studio session, the only time they recorded together when Coltrane was with Atlantic Records. Backed by Hank Jones on piano, Paul Chambers on bass and Connie Kay on drums, Bags & Trane cooks, simmers, then cooks again. There are two Milt Jackson originals, the best being "The Late Late Blues", the duo also plays three standards which include "Three Little Words,"The Night We Called It a Day," and "Be-Bop." It's an interesting and pleasing, at least to me, contrast, vibes and tenor saxophone sharing top billing. I like vibes, they are soft, sort of muted then comes the louder and more pronounced, sharper saxophone. On early recordings with Coltrane, I can hear the craftsmanship, but a willingness to stray. Of course you can't stray too much on a hard bop album, playing tracks titled "Be-Bop", the predecessor of hard bop, and even though  so-called cool jazz was pointing the way forward to more experimental roads that jazz would eventually go down and cool jazz shared the so-called jazz spotlight in the 50's with hard bop albums such as this, I like them both and like that they were distinct from one another in that time period.    

Harlem USA 125th St Keeping The Idiom Alive Rashid "The Jazz Aficionado" 

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