Help me understand John Coltrane .... seriously.

The thing I always find interesting about John Coltrane at his best is he does not play the notes you would expect him to play. He is always doodling/improvising with the material. He goes off on riffs with his sax much the same way say an Eddie Van Halen would later go off with his guitar, often, but not always, with great success.

Let me put it this way, I love jazz, well maybe 1% of it, anyway. The other 99% you couldn’t pay me to listen to. John Coltrane, Miles Davis, Pat Metheny and just about everyone else playing jazz are in both categories. 

The stuff I like includes hundreds if not thousands of albums, though. Enough to fill up all the jazz listening time I have. It’s good to challenge yourself sometimes and to just listen to something you enjoy with no effort other times.

erik_squires

The Coltrane catalog is wide and vast in depth.  The best place to start is Miles Davis "Kind of Blue"(1959).  This album is an excellent gateway into the world of John Coltrane. After this session, which is A-List all of the way, JC released his debut- Giant Steps(1960).
Digest in small doses and have fun!

Happy Listening!

2nd Note;

as above, "A Love Supreme" is not for the beginner- far too advanced in depth and nature. One has to work his way up to this release from JC debut album, IMO.

Happy Listening!

I guess it’s how you absorb things Jafant. I liked A Love Supreme right off the bat with zero jazz listening experience. The rest of his prior catalog was easily and greatly appreciated after that. Same thing with Stravinsky’s Rites of Spring, listened to as a kid. Don’t know why they both immediately made sense. Maybe both had a strong unmistakable statement to make, which was hard to miss and not appreciate. Who knows?

On the other hand it’s taken near fifty years to get a handle on Miles Davis Bitches Brew, another landmark recording which sounds great to me now, but was a complete mystery when I first heard him play live at the Fillmore East in 1970. I took a girlfriend to see Laura Nyro that night who we both liked, and Miles was on a double bill with her. All I could think when hearing him for the first time was "What is this". I was lost like a stranger in a strange land, and had no idea what he and his band were playing. Similar experience with Coltrane’s post Love Supreme free form work, although listening to that is still a work in progress. So either Erik will catch on in short order or maybe fifty years from by now easing into it. Well worth the trouble either way. Take it easy my friend,

Mike