Help me understand John Coltrane .... seriously.

Yes. A Love Supreme
And Donald Byrd Cristo Redentor.

What are the tracks that puzzle you about him?

Almost all of it. I mean, of course I can listen to My Favorite Things, but it doesn't sound remarkable.... and the rest, I have a really tough time resonating with. A love supreme is honestly difficult for me.


So it's clear to me I am listening to him completely out of context and without an appreciation for what he brings extra to standards like My Favorite Things.

This thread is of course not to mock him, at all, but to try and hear enough of his world to hear him like others do.
Best,
E

No one can make you like something you don't.  I love swing era jazz.  Most bop and post bop stuff leaves me cold.  I watched Sonny Rollins going on for 10 minutes with his horn at a jazz festival and it just sounded like random notes to me.   I like a lot of Miles and a lot of Miles I don't like.  Coltrane could play sweet ballads but most of the time he spewed out a wall of sound that just gives me a headache.  In my opinion, if you're not going to play the melody at all, then stop telling me that your playing a song.  Other people love that stuff.   Who says we all have to like everything or what we are somehow inferior fans for not liking everything?   Some things just don't resonate.  All of our brains are different.  If you don't like Coltrane, go listen to Coleman Hawkins or Johnny Hodges or Ben Webster.  These guys weren't inferior to 'Trane, they were just different.  Some of the jazz players from opposite ends of the spectrum didn't like each others music.  Why do you think you have to like it all?

 Listen to the song In a Sentimental Mood he does with Duke Ellington. If Coltrane still evades your soul only MP3 for you!
I appreciated your Picasso argument. At some point subjective reaction can appear to betray laziness and/or suspect pre-conditions. You feel guilt.
The distinction between appreciation and beauty and truth
Axiology. Asthetics. 
Jazz is music of Individuality first and foremost. Free to feel. So as an individual there is some jazz I dig, and some I just tune out. Hoisted on its on raison d'existence. 
 

Coltrane leaves almost all people behind at some point and today's jazz musicians have left Coltrane behind.  Start with his most accessible stuff, listen to the recommendations made above and enjoy what connects with you and stop listening when you no longer get it.  That's what Tidal and Qobuz are for.