I am sorry to say that I don't know much about John Coltrane. I'd heard the name, of course, but I hadn't listened to his music until I read something about his album Interstellar Space. It's been too long for me to remember exactly what it was that I read, but something along the lines of "John Coltrane knew he was dying when he went into the studio to record this album." So of course I had to have that.
Interstellar Space was recorded on February 22, 1967 with Coltrane on tenor saxophone & bells and Rashied Ali on drums. * Coltrane died on July 17, 1967. He was 40 years old.
The first time I listened to the album, I was aghast. It was just noise, after all, wasn't it? It was 36 minutes and 27 seconds of drums being thrashed while a saxophone ran up and down the scales in a hideously disconcerting manner. With occasional bells. I hated it. I found it repulsive. I wanted my money back.
But this was John Fucking Coltrane.
And he was dying when he did this.
So I kept listening.
I've tried to adopt the attitude that if I don't immediately like something, it might be due to the fact that I don't understand it. Of course, such openness can lead to giving things that don't deserve it more than a fair shot. Like Ayn Rand's The Fountainhead, for instance. Read the book. Watched the movie. Read the book again. It's bullshit and I want my time back. And the same is probably true of Finnegans Wake, I'm sorry to say. Because I want to love James Joyce, and a lot of people who are much smarter and more well-read than I am say that this is one of the greatest novels of all time...but I read it...every damn word of it...out loud, actually, and I've got the videotapes to prove it...and I just didn't get much out of it. For me it was an exercise in perseverance and frustration, and in the end it actually wasn't worth doing. On the other hand, I persisted in looking at and reading about Jackson Pollack's paintings, and he has come to be very important to me. Long story short, I continued to play Interstellar Space.
Once I asked my #1🌞, who was about 6 years old at the time, if he would listen to it with me. He obliged, and shortly after the first "song" started he burst into laughter. I asked him what was funny, and he couldn't answer. I asked him what the music made him think of, and he said, "Chickens running from a thunderstorm." Well, out of the mouths of babes.
I'm still listening to Interstellar Space. Even as we speak, matter of fact. I still don't really get it, but it's come to mean something to me. Like a frenetic meditation session, wherein you don't try to calm yourself, but work yourself up into a frenzy of anger and confusion. I'll give you this: when it's over and you re-enter the world, you feel like you're twenty pounds lighter.
From Interstellar Space I proceeded to listen to other Coltrane albums, so eventually I got to A Love Supreme.
It's another Record-In-A-Day album...December 9, 1964...and it's about the same length at 33:02. The band is bigger: John Coltrane on vocals, tenor & soprano saxophone, Jimmy Garrison on double bass, Elvin Jones on drums, gong, timpani, and McCoy Tyner on piano. And although there certainly are frenetic moments...and, for that matter, puzzling moments...it is pretty much the opposite of Interstellar Space. And it is considered to be Coltrane's masterpiece.
Today is its 57th Anniversary.
If you don't own a copy, you can find it on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ll3CMgiUPuU.
As for me...
* Though not released until September 1974.
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