Here we are on the last days of 2018. Tenth weekend list and probably the last post of the year. It's been a fast year or maybe that's what I started to feel after a certain age...But who cares when those years are lived in health with family, friends, good music and good food over a couple of fine drinks.
As Henry Wadsworth Longfellow said;
“Music is the universal language of mankind”.
And now this week's list...
The Divine Comedy - "Gin Soaked Boy"
Odetta - "Paths of Victory"
Weather Report - "Gibraltar"
The Good, The Bad and the Queen - "The Poison Tree"
Crumb - "Locket"
Hope you have a great weekend and a very Happy New Year to you all.
nb. You can open the actual youtube page by clicking the name on the upper left side of each video.
Here I am with another post for the weekend songs. I guess it is tough to resist the Holiday Season as we start to feel it more and more all around. So I will only post one song (a bit controversial though) and the rest will be a mix of genres and tastes.
As Leonard Bernstein said;
“Music can name the unnameable and communicate the unknowable”.
Here is this week's list...
John Lennon, Yoko Ono & the Plastic Ono Band ft. Harlem Community Choir - "Happy Xmas"
Greta Van Fleet - "Lover Leaver"
Tom McRae - "End of the World News (Dose Me Up)"
Bessie Jones & Hobart Smith - "That Suits Me"
Answer Code Request - "Audax"
Hope you have a great weekend.
nb. You can open the actual youtube page by clicking the name on the upper left side of each video.
During the week, we were making fun of the German word "Ohrwurm" with a friend who had attended the German School (I did not...) here and with another music loving friend that lives in the German speaking region of Switzerland.
Minutes later, we realized that it was the same "Earworm" that we frequently use in English for a song or part of a song that constantly repeats in our minds when in most cases we cannot remember the name of the song...
I immediately googled the word in order to find out some info about the word's origin or how it happened to be used in that meaning. Of course before finding anything concrete about the "earworm" I was looking for, I came across a youtube playlist by Vox called the "Earworm".
Basically it is a playlist that consists of 13 videos produced by Emmy-nominated producer Estelle Caswell. The videos take us on a musical journey to discover the stories and sounds behind great songs.
The videos are not long, around 10 minutes or so, and they really help to explain certain peculiarities of music in general via giving examples from songs that we all know.
Here is a couple of these cool videos I enjoyed most but I am sure that it is going to be a great experience to watch the whole playlist.
Earworm Episode 2
Earworm Episode 9
Earworm Episode 11
I am still trying to find something on the word "earworm" and till then I guess these videos will keep you busy...
Hello dear readers and followers, another week closer to the end of the year. I was planning to choose some songs about the holiday season but that's kinda cheesy right?
So let's stick to our initial idea of picking songs that I musically like and wish to share with you regardless of genre and era.
As Heinrich Heine said;
“Where words leave off, music begins”.
Here is this week's list...
Gus Gus - "Over"
Yazoo - "Nobody's Diary"
Leonard Cohen - "Boogie Street"
Archie Shepp & Dollar Brand - "Moniebah"
Tenderlonious - "Yussef's Groove"
Hope you have a great weekend.
nb. You can open the actual youtube page by clicking the name on the upper left side of each video.
Already the last month of the year and our 7th weekend list.
Winter is here with all its dreariness but gotta keep the spirit high for the festive season and try to embrace a happy 2019 filled with music.
As Guy de Maupassant said;
“A strange art – music – the most poetic and precise of all the arts, vague as a dream and precise as algebra”.
So here is this week's list...
Massive Attack feat. Young Fathers - "Voodoo in My Blood"
This year has been a great year for films about music. We saw big productions such as "A Star is Born" or "Bohemian Rhapsody" and relatively smaller ones like "Hearts Beat Loud" and now the "Green Book".
It is a movie about the great pianist Don Shirley and his tour to the southern states of the USA that lasted during the last 2 months of 1962.
The movie is directed by Peter Farrelly, who is the elder brother of the Farrelly Brothers, known with their hit movies "Dumb and Dumber" and "There's Something About Mary". Mahershala Ali plays Don Shirley and Viggo Mortensen plays the role of Tony Vallelonga as his tour helper/driver as well as his bodyguard.
So the movie is based on actual events and the story of the film has been written by Tony's son.
Both leading artists really play their roles very well and they surely give the viewers a movie fun to watch. The script and the events depicted in the movie are sometimes funny, sometimes dramatic but often times tragic, especially when the viewers witness the extent of preposterous racism in the south states.
It is a sort of a road movie where they travel to beautiful pastoral places in the south but the real contrast is how Don Shirley is welcomed in those beautiful towns.
Maybe one failing I sensed during the film was that the real actual harshness I believe to be experienced by African Americans was much more intense that is shown in the movie. I don't know what message the director wished to give but seems a bit soft message to me. And yet again, that's just my feeling...
Anyhow overall quite a good movie, well written and well played. If you want to catch a good movie these days, might be one of the best alternatives.
Here is the great Don Shirley himself playing the "Man I Love"...
Another week gone by, just two more days till the weekend though terrible weather in my hometown obviously having an impact on souls. Don't know what to choose, dark songs to feel even more depressed or songs to cheer us up...
As Murakami said;
“Music brings a warm glow to my vision, thawing mind and muscle from their endless wintering”.
Anyways let's try to find a compromise between the wintry and summery spirits.
Here is this week's list;
Aurora - "Teardrop"
David Bowie - "Lady Grinning Soul"
The Bad Plus - "Heart of Glass"
Marcus Miller & Selah Sue - "Que Sera Sera"
Louis Prima & Keely Smith - "Baby Won't You Please Come Home"
Hope you have a great weekend.
nb. You can open the actual youtube page by clicking the name on the upper left side of each video.
Hello everybody, already the fifth week of the "Five Songs for the Weekend" title.
Time does fly and I hope you listen to a lot of good music in the meantime; that's one of the rarest things what makes this messed up world more enjoyable.
As Aldous Huxley said:
"After silence, that which comes nearest to expressing the inexpressible is music"...
So here is my list for the week and I wish that all of you to get a kick out of these 5 songs during the weekend.
Calexico - "Under The Wheels"
Sons of Kemet - "In The Castle of My Skin"
Tiger Lillies - "Gin"
Fazıl Say - "Black Earth"
Ramsey Lewis - "John Henry"
Hope you have a great weekend.
nb. You can open the actual youtube page by clicking the name on the upper left side of each video.
I would like to introduce you a book that I have just finished reading. It is about the "27 Club": musicians, artists and actors who have passed away at the age of 27.
The book mainly covers the stories of the most famous musicians of the 27 Club, namely Brian Jones, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison, Kurt Cobain and Amy Winehouse. The readers can also reach an extensive list of other celebrities who have died at the age of 27 as an appendix.
I have always wondered if there has been any real explanation about the same age deaths of these great music people. Maybe a little spoiler but the book does not try to dig out the reasons why all these people died at the age of 27 nor tries to make any correlations between them.
I guess there is no proof about that at least on a statistical or a scientific level. However the reader can immediately understand one single commonality among these talented musicians is that their excessive alcohol and drug abuse...
Rolling Stones incl. Brian Jones - "Paint It Black" in 1965
The book is fun to read, as the writer, Howard Sounes, has made an impressive research especially about the last days of the musicians. However I must say that the axis of the book revolves around Amy Winehouse, maybe due to the fact that her death was the most recent one or Sounes probably had conducted a better research on her.
Jimi Hendrix Experience - "Hey Joe"
Sounes tries to tell each rock star's story mostly based on facts. In certain parts of the book, he tries to connect the tragedies to either their childhoods or their relations with their past or at the time present lovers. But again he avoids making concrete assumptions.
Janis Joplin - "Piece of My Heart"in 1968
One argument that the writer clearly makes all along the book is that all the iconic members of the 27 Club have entered a self-destructive path since their teen years. It is sad to read about their physiological and psychological meltdowns but on the other hand it is not fair to judge or easy to show empathy to such great talented minds.
The Doors - "Riders On The Storm"
If you expect to discover urban myths and legends, this is not the book to read on the 27 Club. In fact I don't know if there is such a book. However if you are really interested on the critical snapshots (I say snapshots because there are many other books to read about these 6 talents if you want full life stories or biographies) of these rock starts and more importantly the causes what have driven them all to this tragic end, this might be the book to read.
Nirvana - "Smells Like Teen Spirit", last time it was played live
I was planning to post a clip from Amy Winehouse's last concert in Belgrade (in which she was really in a bad shape) but then I thought that it is not fair to her to be remembered like that so here is another one from 2008 (can't promise she is sober on this one tough...).
While I was reading the book I couldn't help thinking if these tragic events could have been eliminated? Could they have enjoyed normal lives? Who are the ones that are really responsible? Many questions, but definitely one answer: they were great talents and none of them will ever be replaced...
One of the greatest trumpeters of our generation has passed away last week. He was only 49.
Roy Hargrove, a Texan, was discovered by Wynton Marsalis during his high school years.
He attended the Berklee College of Music for a year and moved to New York and enrolled in the New School.
His first recording was in 1988 as a sideman with Bobby Watson's band on the "No Question About It" album. The first record he made was called "Diamond in the Rough" and came out in 1990.
Apart from his true jazz roots, he recorded with many respectable soul artists such as D'Angelo, Erykah Badu, Anjelique Kidjo and rapper Common.
Roy Hargrove Quintet - "Strasbourg/St. Denis" - Live in Paris
His band the RH Factor was an influential band combining two worlds, jazz and R&B/HipHop.
RH Factor blends a core band of two sax players, three keyboard players, two bassists and drummers, and two guitarists (including legendary soul session ace Cornell Dupree) with the best and brightest from the soul and R&B 'new schools' including D'Angelo, Badu, Meshell Ndegeocello, Steve Coleman, Karl Denson, Marc Cary, and two hip-hop MCs: Common and Q-Tip.
The RH Factor feat. Erykah Badu & Meshell Ndegeocello
Hargrove made more than 20 records as a band leader and even more than that with other distinguished musicians such as Herbie Hancock, Michael Brecker, Antonio Hart, Sonny Rollins, Steve Coleman and Oscar Peterson just to name a few.
I believe Roy Hargrove was an artist who had tried to spread the jazz (or a newer version of jazz merged with soul music) to wider audiences. He was a leading figure in the neo-soul movement during the first decade of the new millennium. But above all he was a true jazz man whom I often compare with Miles Davis; not personally, not musically but with his adaptability and enthusiasm to create new forms and always stay ahead of the curve...
Starting from this week, I will be posting 5 songs to listen to carefully selected by myself. I hope you will enjoy them as much as I do.
Please note that the songs mentioned in these posts do not belong to any specific genre, taste or musical era; they are merely the songs I like and want to share with you...
Here is this week's list with the links!
Lana Del Rey - "Mariners Apartment Complex"
King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard - "People-Vultures"
I first heard the name of Kip Hanrahan when I started to show serious interest in Hi-Fi and its tag-along, high quality recorded music, in late 80s and early 90s. Kip Hanrahan albums were tough to find but they were really a treat for the ears especially played on a good system as they were all very well recorded and mastered.
I need to make a clarification here before going on with Kip Hanrahan because there is a belief, especially among average listeners, arguing that Hi-Fi enthusiasts pay more attention to the quality of the sound compared to the quality of the music. I might say that this is a valid and fair judgment and yes I admit, sometimes Hi-Fi craziness can make you do irrational things...
However Kip Hanrahan has never been a favorite of mine just because of the sound quality of his recordings, but more based on his witty, complex and interesting albums.
Hanrahan was born in 1954 in Bronx and even in his teenage years he was interested in various forms of art such as sculpting and film. If you listen to his albums you might easily feel the impacts of his early age studies. In his recordings he merely contributes as a musician (he is a talented percussionist) but he rather acts as a film director bringing the right people together and coordinating the musical scene.
I remember Hanrahan mentioning in an interview how difficult it was working with Jack Bruce musically and intellectually, but on the other hand how Bruce's vocal (especially his deep and darker voice at his later years) carried his musical ideas to another level and fit to the sound perfectly in his imagination.
"Buddy Bolden's Blues" from All Roads Are Made Of The Flesh
Kip Hanrahan also made 3 records with "Conjure" including great musicians such as Taj Mahal, David Murray, Allen Toussaint, Steve Swallow, Jamaaladeen Tacuma, Carla Bley and Lester Bowie. I think the best of these 3 albums is "Music for the Texts of Ishmael Reed". Here is a piece from that recording.
"Sky Diving"
Overall there are more than 15 albums released by Kip Hanrahan dating from 1981 to 2017. If you are fond of rhythmic sounds combining jazz, Latin and African elements and like to listen to some innovative, diverse, distinct and unique music, I suggest you try to listen all or at least more than one. I am sure you will get a different taste from each recording.
Listen to the man in the shadows that creates an unusual tale with each album.
I decided to jot down this post when I received a message from one of Istanbul's best record shops informing its already limited number of customers that the shop would be closing due to economical reasons. The message was also saying that it was not the business that was closing down but the owner rather would continue his operations from home. Will it be the same as before? I don't think so but we will see...
I can already hear your arguments and thoughts saying that oh man are there people who still actually buy records? Let me tell you this post is not intended to discuss formats like vinyl vs. Spotify or paper books vs. Kindle etc...I enjoy those new formats as much as anyone and appreciate their advantages over some conventional formats. I would never judge the usage of various formats as long as they are properly done. If you want to read a book on Kindle, that's perfectly fine...
What I really want to express is that the general population and especially the younger generations are being pulled away from some basic elements that make up, I hate this definition but, an intellectual human being. They are being guided into some pre-designed boxes where all types of control (i.e. political, commercial and behavioral) are much easier, cheaper and most importantly standardized.
Of course there are exceptions and I am happy to observe that these exceptional people can achieve much better than the generations before them did on an individual basis. I believe this type of success is a pure result of that individual's cultural loneliness or alienation from his/her environment and I am sure that even this type achievements will start to fade away in the future.
What I cannot understand is how will the younger generations will enjoy life and culturally nourish in such a monophonic environment? Another sad thing I observe is that these generations generally do not have one single hobby. They are not even aware what a hobby is. When I ask young people what their hobbies are, the most common answer I get is "playing video games". There might be some people who are involved in video games at a hobbyist level but most people confuse pastime and hobby. A hobby is something that cannot only serve to maketimepassagreeably, it needs at least some basic effort, except your fingers... I meet people saying that listening to music is their favorite hobby and what they only do is turn on the radio. In my opinion this is not listening to music but rather hearing some music. In this sense one can argue that there is not even one human being in the whole 7 billion world that listening to music is their hobby.
But whose fault is it? Is it only the final consumer of culture? Is it the politicians and governments? Is it the education system? Is it the older generations? I believe it is a collective and an intentional effort. Unfortunately where the world is being carried to is quite a dull place for the general population and interestingly this process is being conducted by the most creative minds via using really high technology. We are all surrounded by our smart phones which we replace at the core of our lives and TV stations that can tie you to a La-Z-Boy feeding you with shows they want you to watch. There is an abundance of material but we never enjoy anything anymore like we did with our portable cassette players or black and white TV sets. We don't get to choose (which requires certain level of effort) but we rather try to catch everything that's on the market.
I obviously do not know how to overcome this very serious situation but I truly believe that with focusing on art and culture we can at least alleviate its personal impacts. In today's hectic and cruel world we need to embrace artistic things that would culturally and mentally enrich our inner selves. We need to hang on to our hobbies, support its supporters and do not let anything to take them away from us.
It has been more than two years since the release of "Blues and Ballads", latest recording of Brad Mehldau's classic trio. The fans were impatiently waiting for a new recording and here it is : "Seymour Reads The Constitution"...
As usual, Brad Mehldau along with Larry Grenadier on bass and Jeff Ballard on drums, take the listener on a journey right from the opening piece. The trio travels in time and between styles but the musical and artistic coherence can be heard on each and every piece.
The album consists of 8 tunes. 3 original compositions of Mehldau, an American songbook classic, 2 pop songs covers from McCartney and Beach Boys and 2 jazz pieces from Elmo Hope and Sam Rivers.
After listening to this album, I started to wonder which musical format suits Mehldau the best. Obviously there is no doubt that all his work,be it the solo ones, classical or even electronic ones are pretty much among my favorite all time albums but the ones with his classical trio have a special soul. I almost feel that he is even freer with the trio compared to his solo recordings. The synergy and the unity of the three musicians might be creating this feeling but it is for sure that whatever it is, always end up with one hell of a good jazz album.
In one my previous posts I had announced that a lost album by John Coltrane was about to be released. The newly discovered and previously unreleased album finally hit the market on the last day of June 2018.
Normally the late discovered albums are not considered to be the highlights of an artist and that is why I have always approached this concept as a marketing gimmick. But not for this one... I can easily say that the album is probably going to be considered as a truly great Coltrane album.
The album was recorded in 1963 with the "Classic Quartet" (i.e. John Coltrane, Jimmy Garrison, Elvin Jones and McCoy Tyner).The story is that the master tape was destroyed by Impulse Records in order to optimize storage area (can this be true I don't know) and the sole copy was handed to John Coltrane's wife.
The new release has been compiled by Coltrane's son Ravi Coltrane and Ken Druker including liner notes from Sonny Rollins.
There are two different versions, one with 7 tracks or a deluxe version with 14 tracks. Both available as CD and Vinyl. I doubt the recording quality will be that great but hey, this is a new album from the great Trane.
The culinary world lost its naughty boy last Friday leaving millions of people devastated. He took his own life as the news reports indicate. It is weird to see that even such people who have achieved most of their ambitions and lived the fullest life many can only envy about. But that's life and that's human mind. At least we can say that he died with memories rather than dreams. Only that is aspiring enough...
I had been an avid fan of him after reading his book "Kitchen Confidential" in 2000. Since then I have been following all his works, mainly his books and TV appearances.
His first book published in 2000
Tony was born in 1956 in New York to a father who was a classical music executive for Columbia Records and a mother who was an editor for New York Times. His paternal ancestors are from Arcachon, France.
It is said that his love for food was first noticed during a family trip to his grandfather's hometown in France while tasting oysters for the first time.
He graduated from the Culinary Institute of America (one of the top chef schools in the world) in 1978. For 20 years he worked in various restaurants including the Supper Club and Sullivan's. In 1998, he was recruited as the executive chef of Brasserie Les Halles in Manhattan where he worked for many years.
His writing career began with an article called "Don't Eat Before Reading This" in New Yorker.
A year later he published his first book "Kitchen Confidential: Adventures In the Culinary Underbelly". When I read the book I was shocked along with many culinary hobbyists because the book revealed the real life behind the dining rooms of the restaurants. The book made him a real celebrity.
2 years later he started his TV career with a show called the "A Cook's Tour" on the Food Network channel. But in my opinion his prime show was the "No Reservations" on the Travel Channel. The series lasted almost 7 years until 2012. I strongly recommend this program where he and his team traveled almost anywhere in the world highlighting not only the local food but a very good depiction of the authentic cultures.
In November 2011 he started another series called "The Layover" in the same channel visiting various cities for 24 or 48 hours.
He quit the Travel Channel in 2012 over disputes about his show. He went on to host the "Parts Unknown" for CNN. The show was still being broadcasted until his death.
He even had dinner in Hanoi with President Obama in one of his shows. And here is Obama's tweet.
You can also watch a part from an episode where he visits Istanbul, my hometown.
Excerpts from the Istanbul episode
Well there is not much to say after all. He was a real guy, a perfect storyteller and an inspiring character. His when-in-Rome avidity enabled many people who are interested enjoying different cultures and different tastes experience the farthest corners and remote wonders of our world.
Just for that he was a pioneer in the culinary culture. He helped the world realize the social, political and cultural value of food and he always did that showing the proper respect to the places he visited and people he encountered with.
We can at least wave him goodbye with The Ramones, his favorite band.
Normally I am good at following such news even when they are rumors but due to a busy period I somehow missed this one...
And yet, thanks to a very dear friend from France who is a real jazz aficionado, I had the possibility to hear about it before it's too late...
A new album of previously unheard compositions from 1963 😉 is on its way.
Yep, it has been recorded 55 years ago but has never been able to be issued.
If you want to learn whose album this is, take a deep breath and please check the link below, but be ready to get blown away!
I am totally aware that I neglected the blog during the month of May. This does not mean that I was absent from the musical and foodie experiences. I traveled a lot, first to a beautiful seaside town in the North Aegean to open the beach season and taste the fresh seafood and other local delicacies. Right after that straight to Berlin for the world's biggest synth and electronic music fair called the "Superbooth". I also had the chance to see Venetian Snares live on stage. It was an amazing experience. In the second part of May it was work, work and work...
A true jazz pioneer, a free improviser, an atonal composer and a pitchless keyboard banger passed away during the week leaving many discussions behind. The jazz world lost Cecil Taylor at the age of 89.
He was maybe one of the most discussed and argued over jazz pianists of all time.
Cecil TAYLOR:
Born in Queens, New York in 1929 he was encouraged to play music by his mother at an early age. He began to take piano lessons when he was six, studied percussion with his uncle who was a performing professional artist. He is probably one of the first jazz musicians who had undergone a formal music training in jazz, composition and arranging at the New England Conservatory. During these years he was very much involved in classical music, especially with the works of Bartok and Stockhausen which we can definitely see the influences in his later career.
Cecil Taylor is known as one of the main musicians to create the free jazz scene along with Ornette Coleman and Albert Ayler. We can even argue that he is the leading figure of the modern jazz. His playing was so different that he did not play with a swing feel at all and his primary focus was to try to create jazz textures rather than jazz phrases. His percussive technique on the piano is quite unique to him. His compositions are complex and surrounded by a vast level of energy. His approach to jazz music is significantly different than other artists and even other styles. When we listen to him we can find many similarities to 20th century classical music like the works of Ives and Stockhausen (you can listen to the Max Roach & Cecil Taylor's Historic Concerts album for this).
His unmelodic improvisation style, his fast stylistic changes and virtuosic technique is like no other jazz player. Here is a good proof for those traits.
"Excursion on a Wobbly Rail" by the Cecil Taylor Quartet
Now let's take a look at his main discography. He recorded his first album "Jazz Advance" in 1956 followed by the "At Newport" album in 1957. The third one "Looking Ahead!" that came out in 1959 was probably the beginning for Cecil Taylor to show his true genius.
Most of the jazz critics agree upon (it is rare for critics to agree upon something when it comes to Cecil Taylor) that his two masterpieces are "Unit Structures" and "Conquistador!", both from the Blue Note label in 1966.
"Enter Evening"
A difficult and dissonant album, much further from its era. As you can imagine, just like all music ahead of its time, this album was not commercially successful for Taylor. However it is today well appreciated.
The second greatest work of Cecil Taylor is the "Conquistador!" album. It was more successful musically than the "Unit Structures".
Both these albums are recorded without a single notation that Taylor had given up in the early 60s right after Charles Mingus.
"Conquistador"
At the same time, Taylor was also a poet. He often integrated his poems into his musical performances, and they frequently appear in the liner notes of his albums. The CD Chinampas, released in 1987, is a recording of Taylor reciting several of his poems, accompanying himself on percussion.
He will always be remembered as a musician constantly pushing his own and his audience's limits in many unexpected ways.
In my "Chasing Trane: The John Coltrane Documentary" review post I had mentioned that I was going to write about Coltrane himself and believe me I have been thinking about it since then.
I had a vast amount of ideas how to structure what I could write about him but whenever I sat down to put the words together, lots of other things came to my mind about him and I felt that I was still not ready to do it in a proper way. But as Julius Caesar said it rightfully, "Cowards die many times before their deaths"... So here comes my post on one of the greatest, well maybe the greatest according to many, jazz musician of all time.
John COLTRANE:
The first thing comes to my mind about Coltrane that in his short life (he passed away when he was 40), he lived the lives of many. Not only musically but personally and artistically as well. After all is there any other jazz musician that has been made patron saint of a church? If you ever visit San Francisco you can pay a tribute to him by visiting the Saint John William Coltrane African Orthodox Church (http://www.coltranechurch.org/)
As you might have noticed by now, I do not like to write biographical posts due to the fact that there are many other sources to get much better information on an artist's life. Therefore just like my other posts this one may also come discursive to you but bear with me as I will try to recap and induce along the way as much as possible, just like Coltrane...
His contributions to the jazz world, impacting many musicians until the present time, his innovations on improvisation and his novel approaches mainly to the concept of jazz and also to saxophone playing are colossal when compared to his short career and even shorter recording period of just 12 years. In this short span of time, he could cram in many albums both as a leader or a side man but most importantly practicing the real prominent jazz styles such as bebop, hard bop, modal jazz and free jazz.
Coltrane, born in 1926, started his musical life with clarinet and then switched to alto saxophone. He was a big fan of Charlie Parker and during his military service in Hawaii, he tried hard to imitate him. One remark here is that he enlisted in the army on the day the US dropped the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima; this event would be an important event for Coltrane's life and we will discuss about it.
"Koko" by John Coltrane, recorded during his army days in Hawaii
Right after his military service, he began touring with the band King Kolax and during this period he started to develop a vocabulary of high register squeals and low squawks both of which would be his important assets in his own music, especially during his free jazz period.
In 1948 he bought his first tenor saxophone and made it his permanent instrument. During later years he would also add soprano sax and flute but tenor sax was the instrument he built his reputation with.
Until he joined the Miles Davis band in 1955 he had the opportunity to tour with Dizzy Gillespie working heavily to develop his bebop playing.
According to jazz historians, it was a bold decision that Miles Davis had hired John Coltrane to his band. Their playing formats and approaches were significantly different. Miles Davis was at the height of his career with a laid back style and a darker tone. On the contrary, Coltrane had an authentic bright, steely and almost no vibrato sax tone which would become the norm later for many bebop sax players. His solos were rather aggressive, long, busy and complex compared to Miles Davis. There is a famous anecdote of the odd couple where Miles Davis criticizes and questions Coltrane on his never ending solos and Coltrane tries to rationalize his playing and answering that he does not know how to stop. Miles Davis immediately replies back: "Just take the fuckin' horn out of your mouth"...
Coltrane worked with Miles Davis until he fired him in 1957 because of Coltrane's heroin addiction. The main album from this period is "Round About Midnight".
"Round Midnight" by Miles Davis Quintet incl. John Coltrane
Being fired from the quintet was a wake-up call for John Coltrane. He had found himself at the crossroads, he was either going to go to the very bottom or he was going to quit drugs. He eventually quit cold turkey, locking himself in his Philadelphia home as he battled withdrawal. Following this tough period, as told in the Trane documentary, when he cleaned up, things became much clearer for him. It was like he was enlightened.
He joined Thelonious Monk's Quartet for a short time in 1957, where he always credited Monk for both teaching him his new musical ideas and giving him the space to make new discoveries. There is not too many recordings from those days but here is a live piece from the Carnegie Hall concert.
"Epistropohy" by Monk Quartet feat. Coltrane
This was most probably the recording Coltrane invented his authentic playing technique of running arpeggios at an incredible speed throughout the whole range of his saxophone (he was playing hundreds of sixteenth notes a minute). The famous Downbeat jazz critic Ira Gitler would call this technique as the "sheets of sound".
In 1959, Coltrane rejoined the Miles Davis' band which was now a sextet. He made two key recordings during this time. First one, "Kind of Blue" with Miles Davis, and the second one, "Giant Steps", a breakthrough album for Coltrane as a leader.
"Kind of Blue", acclaimed by many, as the greatest jazz recording ever, was a masterpiece of Miles Davis. The modal jazz offered a new direction that Coltrane would pursue during the coming years of his career.
"So What" by Miles Davis incl. John Coltrane
On the other hand, "Giant Steps" was Coltrane's pinnacle and final word on the harmonic complexity of bebop. Harmonically it was an amazing technique by John Coltrane which was named after him as the "Coltrane changes". Basically they are variations of harmonic chord progressions by using alternative chords over common jazz chord progressions. Listen below how he plays the title track with a superhuman tempo and chord progression. It is said that Coltrane had composed this very piece for practicing purposes...
"Giant Steps" by John Coltrane
Another important thing about this album is a creation of a different compositional technique by Coltrane. In the piece "Naima" we can listen to a single note called the "pedal point", repeating continuously like a drone underneath the melody. The technique creates a suspense for the listener and an expectation of a chordal change.
"Naima" by John Coltrane
Coltrane left the Miles Davis band in 1960 in order to form his own quartet. It took some time to fully settle the group. His desire was to create such a band that could reflect his energy and interest in modal jazz but at the same time giving him the freedom to explore new solos. The members of the new "Classic Quartet" were McCoy Tyner on piano, Elvin Jones (I believe the best jazz drummer of all time) on drums and Jimmy Garrison on bass provided much more he was looking for.
In my opinion, this quartet was one of the most important and influential groups in jazz history.
With each new recording with the classic quartet, Coltrane intensified his music. His interest in Eastern cultures after quitting his drug abuse, carried him to a higher spiritual level. He began to experiment with the soprano saxophone for its clear and nasal timbre that starts where the tenor sax leaves off. He made the album "My Favorite Things" in 1960 and the title track became a hit.
"My Favorite Things" by John Coltrane (listen to Eastern influences)
Most probably the major work of the classic quartet is the "A Love Supreme" recorded in 1964. It is the masterpiece of Coltrane where he combines his musical genius with his spiritual side. However there are differentiated opinions about the album, one for example from Miles Davis, calling it "an album for people loving peace, like hippies and all"... It is also an important album in my opinion where Coltrane began to test the avant-garde sounds.
Part 1: "Acknowledgement" by John Coltrane Quartet from the album "A Love Supreme"
Pretty soon, he was going to let go the modal context to a degree that tonality and meter did not matter anymore. A fine example from this free jazz period is his "Ascension" album which he recorded with a more crowded band. It was an album that Coltrane experimented with multiphonics (production of more than one note at a time through fingering and blowing techniques, extremely difficult I must say)...During the recording, he did not give the band members any direction for their solos and the whole band was free to improvise during their solos. And it was an album where the main concentration was on these solos.
The new Coltrane sound was quite new to his fans around the world but his interest in free jazz was not so new. He had worked with Cecil Taylor and Don Cherry much before he recorded "Ascension". In order to intensify the new sound he decided to extend the band. He hired Eric Dolphy, Pharaoh Sanders and Rashied Ali. These new recruitments resulted with the departure of McCoy Tyner and Elvin Jones. He replaced Tyner with his wife Alice Coltrane on the piano.
As you can see and hear, John Coltrane had many different styles both as a player and a composer since the day he went into the studio with Miles Davis in 1955 until his death in 1967.
One can never hear a sloppy note coming out his instrument. He was always hard working, serious and intense. He played with remarkable speed and agility. I am not sure, but he can be the most copied jazz figure in the jazz history and not only by sax players but for other instrumentalists as well. You can even find all the scores of all his solos.
I guess it would not be fair to complete the post without mentioning his spiritual side. Even though he was coming from a practicing Christian family (his both grandfathers were reverends) he was not a fully religious personality in the sense of Christianity until the late 1950s. He tried to practice religion through his music and playing. However after he quit his drug and alcohol abuse in 1957 he became a true spiritual man turning his face to Eastern cultures. As he stated in the liner notes of his "A Love Supreme" album, "I experienced, by the grace of God, a spiritual awakening which was to lead me to a richer, fuller, more productive life. At that time, in gratitude, I humbly asked to be given the means and privilege to make others happy through music".
He was never in favor of one specific religion and he had adopted a more universal approach for his spirituality. He was truly interested in Mysticism, Hinduism, Sufism, the Kabbalah, Krishnamurti, African history, and the philosophical teachings of Plato and Aristotle. Coltrane also became interested in Zen Buddhism and, later in his career, visited Buddhist temples during his 1966 tour of Japan. The Japan tour, the year before he passed away is an important one as he was really interested in the Japanese philosophy and culture. Even though there were significant problems with the turnout, he extended the tour to smaller cities as well, like Nagasaki, where he paid his tribute to the victims of the second atomic bomb.
Liner notes from the album "A Love Supreme"
One can easily argue that he was one of the most serious musical thinkers of the jazz scene in the 50s and 60s. Even today there are many sax players whose playing is heavily indebted to him. His commitment to his craft, excelling in all the styles he had practiced, his ideas, his innovations and especially his courage is remarkable.
You might say that his music was not always easy to grasp or appreciate. He had unpleasant sounds, yes, but he always tried to reflect the situation of this world to the people of this world. No doubt about that he always played from his heart and that heart was a mirror for the listeners to witness both the beauty and the ugliness of our world.
Almost after 50 years after his death, we can still learn from him...
