Posts Tagged Coltrane

I like collaborations in music especially when giants are involved: Ellington and Coltrane, Coltrane and Miles Davis, Waylon & Willie.

In the world of literature, such collaborations do not seem to work. I have read a few “collaborative” works. The result is seldom satisfying. The work seems disjointed and disconnected. Not so in music.

While this collaboration between two saxophone giants is admittedly more “Friday Night” than “Monday Morning” music , what the hell! Snow and cold in April leads to desperation.

Enjoy!

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In music as in poetry I find myself returning again and again to certain artists, certain songs. Maybe it is part of being middle-aged to want to return every now and then to what we already know and understand. Maybe it is simply an aspect of being human… seeking the comfort of the familiar.

When the poet is great enough – Yeats, or Keats, or Milton – no amount of returning will ever exhaust the well of revelation and comfort. When the musician is “great” enough it is the same way.

Coltrane is great enough in every sense of that word. Great enough to return to again and again and again.

On on beautiful fall day when the leaves are just turning, Coltrane is just the thing.

Enjoy!

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Last week on The Current, I heard this song for the first time… it instantly became a favorite. I spent the week listening to Gil Scott-Heron… poet, jazz, proto-rapper. And I wonder… as I do so many times in life… how come I did not find Scott-Heron and this song earlier. The category of great musicians I have never listened to is vast.

The sound-quality and images-quality from this particular video leaves much to be desired. But on a Monday morning when the economy is in the toilet and thinking of heading to sea… what could be better than a song reminding us of the power of music.

Enjoy!

Selected lyrics from “Lady Day and John Coltrane”

Ever feel kinda down and out, you don’t know just what to do–
Livin’ all of your days in darkness let the sun shine through–
Ever feel that somehow, somewhere, you’ve lost your way–
And if you don’t get help quick you won’t make it through the day–
Could you call on Lady Day,
Could you call on John Coltrane
Now ‘cause they’ll
They’ll wash your troubles
Your troubles your troubles
Your troubles away!

Plastic people with plastic minds are on their way to plastic homes–
No beginning there ain’t no ending just on and on and on and on and on, it’s
All because they’re so afraid to say that they’re alone–
Until our hero rides in, rides in on his saxophone.
Could you call on Lady Day,
Could you call on John Coltrane
Now ‘cause they’ll,
They’ll wash your troubles,
Your troubles, your troubles
Your troubles away!

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What better way to start a week than with two – count them… two – jazz legends together.

“So What” is Miles Davis’ signature piece and when he does it with John Coltrane live… well, it does not get any better than that.

If this doesn’t warm you up… nothing will.

Enjoy

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Coltrane Quartet

On a cold Monday morning what would be better that some good music. And what music is better than the Coltrane Quartet: Coltrane  (of course), McCoy Tyner  (Piano), Jimmy Garrison (Bass), and Elvin Jones (Drums).

“Naima” may be a bit intense in spots for a Monday morning, but it will certainly warm things up.

Enjoy!

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John Coltrane and Stan Getz

Jazz like everything good in life is an acquired taste: coffee, beer, bourbon, members of the opposite sex. You need time to grow into certain things, to acquire the attitude and maturity necessary to discriminate and appreciate things with edges.

I came across this video of Coltrane and Getz playing together. As far as I can discover with my minimal research (a few hours one afternoon), it is the only somewhat decent recording of these two saxophone giants on one stage.

It is grainy, but keep your eye on Stan Getz as he listens to Coltrane, an artist appreciating art.

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For the last Monday in May, a song as close to perfection as you can get, John Coltrane and Duke Ellington together, “In a Sentimental Mood.”

The video is just a montage of pictures someone put together. But the song remains beautiful.

Enjoy!

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The best quote I know about the fickle nature of affection comes from W.B. Yeats. Quoting his father, who may very well have been quoting Balzac, Yeats wrote: “A man does not love a woman because he thinks her clever or because he admires her, but because he likes the way she has of scratching her head.”

We all have books we love for reasons that we could never explain to another, let alone to ourselves. There are books we love because of where we were when we read them. Others we esteem because of how we think they changed us.

The bridge that art creates between the world and ourselves is important enough to make time for, even during the busiest of days. A few pages from a book of poetry or a good novel or a few minutes with our iPods listening to a Coltrane session are as necessary to our spiritual life as prayer, another thing we too often neglect.

We know that humans are spiritual as well as physical beings. Those things that nourish us spiritually– religion, art, love and friendship– are easy to overlook, to push to the end of the to do list, to save for the weekend when time is not so valuable.

When we are young, I think we manage this balance a little better. Age and responsibilities, though, conspire against us. This is one of the reasons that the books and songs of our youth can still bring so much pleasure, can seem so much like a tonic at times.

In his prologue to Dyers Hand, W.H. Auden lists 6 characteristics of a critic. It is my hope that this blog, MontanaWriter, will grow to live up to Auden’s list.

1) Introduce me to authors or works of art of which I was hitherto unaware.
2) Convince me that I have undervalued an author or a work because I had not read them carefully enough.
3) Show me relations between works of different ages and cultures which I could never have seen for myself because I do not know enough and never shall.
4) Give a “reading” of a work which increases my understanding of it.
5) Throw light upon the process of artistic “Making.”
6) Throw light upon the relation of art to life, to science, economics, ethics, religion, etc.

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