The word "leisurely" applied to Coltrane is almost an oxymoron. So, to say that Trane jettisoned a steady beat in order to develop his ideas in a leisurely way is hard to buy. The picture is complex, of course. His playing had always created as dense a space as possible (sheets of sound, overblowing, harmonics); techniques with which one could say he was stretching or circumventing chord changes. Then, modal tunes like "Impressions" opened up, to some extent, the space for extended ideas. But at a certain point, it became not about being able to extend an idea rooted in Western harmony or traditional jazz "beats", but about a new way to make each moment as intense and personal as possible. Pharaoh and Shepp, Ali, Alice. McCoy saw the specific tonality of a keyboard instrument was unneccesary and Elvin felt that he too was made unneccesary. If this was about eschewing a "steady" beat to extend ideas, it was only so peripherally.
Spring ... 1966 I visited Chicago and together with Bob Koester, a Saturday night, went to The Plugged Nickel to listen to John Coltrane and his band ...
When we entered the room … the band was gone … no McCoy, no Garrison and no Elvin!
Instead … two drummers, one bassist, Alice on piano and Coltrane and for me one unknown saxplayer …but no rhythm … but a lot of screaming, from both Coltrane and Sanders … AND the audiance!
A very strange experience … especially the fact that the rhythm was gone … for me and probably for most of his fans.
But years later Pharoah Sanders came along … and John Coltrane was back …
Coltrane is my favorite saxophonist (and Sonny Rollins also). I followed some of his later albums, the ones with Alice and Pharoah. But the one album that I couldn’t get into no matter how hard I tried (and I tried everything) Ascension. There was just too much going on. There seemed to be no rhythm or melody, nothing that I could really get into, just an impenetrable wall of sound. Later I became a big Pharaoh Sanders fan. He to me was the truest disciple of Coltrane. What I loved about Pharaoh was his ability to start with a conventional beat and melody, delve into the free jazz and bring it back home to the original beginning of what he started with. Of course Pharaoh’s later albums were more of a commercial style and very successful. I read the biography of Trane that you mentioned and enjoyed it immensely. I like all of his work with Miles and immediately after but the Classic Quartet is my favorite band of all time. I listen to most of Coltrane’s body of work quite regularly. Thanks for your thoughts on his work on his last years.
To me it’s kind a hard to envision ’Peace on Earth’ as being a free form exercise. It is outerworldly beautiful and just another ballad in the stretch of ballads and slow tempo songs he presented occationally. His playing is in a way old fashioned, reflecting how reed-men in the 1930’s would handle their saxophone. I find it natural, in my childhood having listened to a lot of such players, to see the connection to Coltrane on such occations when he would skip overblowing, the sheets of sound, a.s.o, and look for pure beauty, in melody, harmoni, tone, and composition. Maybe I am simplyfying, because I am musically illiterate. But sometimes I do like to judge and dig Trane on pure feeling!
The word "leisurely" applied to Coltrane is almost an oxymoron. So, to say that Trane jettisoned a steady beat in order to develop his ideas in a leisurely way is hard to buy. The picture is complex, of course. His playing had always created as dense a space as possible (sheets of sound, overblowing, harmonics); techniques with which one could say he was stretching or circumventing chord changes. Then, modal tunes like "Impressions" opened up, to some extent, the space for extended ideas. But at a certain point, it became not about being able to extend an idea rooted in Western harmony or traditional jazz "beats", but about a new way to make each moment as intense and personal as possible. Pharaoh and Shepp, Ali, Alice. McCoy saw the specific tonality of a keyboard instrument was unneccesary and Elvin felt that he too was made unneccesary. If this was about eschewing a "steady" beat to extend ideas, it was only so peripherally.
Spring ... 1966 I visited Chicago and together with Bob Koester, a Saturday night, went to The Plugged Nickel to listen to John Coltrane and his band ...
When we entered the room … the band was gone … no McCoy, no Garrison and no Elvin!
Instead … two drummers, one bassist, Alice on piano and Coltrane and for me one unknown saxplayer …but no rhythm … but a lot of screaming, from both Coltrane and Sanders … AND the audiance!
A very strange experience … especially the fact that the rhythm was gone … for me and probably for most of his fans.
But years later Pharoah Sanders came along … and John Coltrane was back …
Coltrane is my favorite saxophonist (and Sonny Rollins also). I followed some of his later albums, the ones with Alice and Pharoah. But the one album that I couldn’t get into no matter how hard I tried (and I tried everything) Ascension. There was just too much going on. There seemed to be no rhythm or melody, nothing that I could really get into, just an impenetrable wall of sound. Later I became a big Pharaoh Sanders fan. He to me was the truest disciple of Coltrane. What I loved about Pharaoh was his ability to start with a conventional beat and melody, delve into the free jazz and bring it back home to the original beginning of what he started with. Of course Pharaoh’s later albums were more of a commercial style and very successful. I read the biography of Trane that you mentioned and enjoyed it immensely. I like all of his work with Miles and immediately after but the Classic Quartet is my favorite band of all time. I listen to most of Coltrane’s body of work quite regularly. Thanks for your thoughts on his work on his last years.
To me it’s kind a hard to envision ’Peace on Earth’ as being a free form exercise. It is outerworldly beautiful and just another ballad in the stretch of ballads and slow tempo songs he presented occationally. His playing is in a way old fashioned, reflecting how reed-men in the 1930’s would handle their saxophone. I find it natural, in my childhood having listened to a lot of such players, to see the connection to Coltrane on such occations when he would skip overblowing, the sheets of sound, a.s.o, and look for pure beauty, in melody, harmoni, tone, and composition. Maybe I am simplyfying, because I am musically illiterate. But sometimes I do like to judge and dig Trane on pure feeling!