Coltrane's oracular and the 1960's Zeitgeist

For this reason Martin is dead;
for this reason Malcolm is dead;
for this reason Coltrane is dead;
in the eyes of my first son are the browns
of these men and their music.

(Harper, Michael S. History Is Your Own Heartbeat. Chicago: University of Illinois, 1971, 33)

On July 17th, 1967 ‘Trane died of liver cancer at age 40. Had he lived he would have been 90.

John Coltrane: cultural saint of the black power/ Black Consciousness/ Black Arts movement, as well as an actual Saint of the African Orthodox Church, which owes its Episcopate and Apostolic Authority to the Syrian Church of Antioch where the disciples were first called Christians, and of which St. Peter the Apostle, was the first Bishop. The Saint John Coltrane African Orthodox Church’s website says:

“Further investigation into this man proved him to be not just a jazz musician but one who was chosen to guide souls back to God”

 The African Orthodox Church was founded in response to racism in the Episcopal Church USA.

In 1784, Wesley responded to the shortage of priests in the American colonies due to the American Revolutionary War by ordaining preachers in America with the power to administer the sacraments. The Methodist Episcopal Church (MEC) was the oldest and largest Methodist denomination in the United States until 1939 This was a major reason for Methodism's final split from the Church of England after Wesley's death. Wikipedia

Coltrane was born and raised in a "Zion Methodist" household and was influenced by African-American religion and spirituality since birth. His maternal grandfather, the Reverend William Blair, was a preacher at an African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church in High Point, North Carolina, and John’s paternal grandfather, Reverend William H. Coltrane, was an A.M.E. Zion minister in Hamlet, North Carolina. John’s parents met through church affiliation and married in 1925. John was born on September 23, 1926. As a youth, John practiced music in the southern African-American church. In A Night in Tunisia: Imaginings of Africa in Jazz, Norman Weinstein notes the parallel between Coltrane’s music and his experience in the southern church.

AME Zion Church: 1796 New York City by African-American worshipers from John-street Methodist Episcopal Church. Sojourner Truth, and Harriet Ross Tubman, Frederick Douglass were Zion Methodists ("Zion Methodist" The Book of Discipline of the AME Zion Church, 2008: 47.) and are listed on the Episcopal Church USA calendar of Saints. Other notable Zion Methodists include Paul Robeson and Coretta Scott King.

Dr. Cuthbert Ormond Simpkins’s 1975 book, Coltrane: A Biography describes Coltrane’s family background with emphasis on his maternal grandfather, Reverend William Wilson Blair, an A.M.E. Zion minister and relentless, trailblazing leader for equal rights:

(Rev. Blair) denounced the white man from the pulpit, teaching that we should work together for our common advancement. Some Blacks thought being so straightforward with important white folks was improper, and that conditions for Blacks need not be improved. Others shuddered as he unleashed attacks with all the fury of the holy ghost.

Black Americans have been part of the American church since colonial times and have long sought to express their spirituality and their African identity through their faith and their songs. African Americans used many of the hymns that were sung in church and integrated them into their songs. The result is an entirely new song with its own form and music. Likewise, Coltrane took the form of at least two spirituals and made them his own.

In the year 1961 when Coltrane began recording Modal Jazz in earnest he recorded two spirituals; "Song of the Underground Railroad" (Follow the Drinking Gourd) (issued on Africa/Brass Sessions Vol. 2) recorded May 23, 1961, The Jazz pioneer multi-instrumentalist Garvin Bushell, whose career began in 1916 is interestingly included in the band on this recording tying 'Trane to the beginnings of Jazz. Follow the Drinking Gourd instructs slaves on how to escape to Freedom. 

On November 1st, 1961 he recorded "Spiritual” (issued on Coltrane "Live" at the Village Vanguard 1962). It is believed that his "spiritual" is based on the spiritual “Nobody Knows the Trouble I See” From The Books of the American Negro Spirituals by James Weldon Johnson (Author), ‎ J. Rosamond Johnson (Author) 

Some variants of this spiritual exist the titles listed below:

Nobody knows the trouble I’ve had: Slave Songs of the United States

by Allen, William Francis, 1830-1889, comp; Ware, Charles Pickard, 1840-1921, joint comp; Garrison, Lucy McKim, 1842-1877, joint comp, published in 1867

J. Rosamond Johnson. Johnson made an arrangement of "Nobody Knows the Trouble I See" for voice and piano in 1917 when he was directing the New York Music School Settlement for Colored People.

Nobody Knows de Trouble I've Seen, 1917. Harry Thacker Burleigh. 

 

Sy Oliver Arranged a variant of this spiritual and it was recorded by Mahalia Jackson and by Louis Armstrong. These are his lyrics.

Nobody knows the trouble I've seen

Nobody knows but He knows my sorrow

Yes, nobody knows the trouble I've seen

But glory, Hallelujah

Sometimes I'm standing crying

Tears running down my face

I cry to the Lord, have mercy

Help me run this old race

Oh Lord, I have so many trials

So many pains and woes

I'm asking for faith and comfort

Lord, help me to carry this load, whoo

Nobody knows the trouble I've seen

Well, no, nobody knows but Jesus

No nobody knows, oh the trouble, the trouble I've seen

I'm singing glory, glory glory Hallelujah

No nobody knows, oh the trouble, the trouble I've seen

Lord, no nobody knows my sorrow

No nobody knows, you know the trouble

The trouble I've seen

I'm singing glory, glory, glory, Hallelujah!

1963

 

The year 1963 was a spitefully malevolent year in race relations in America. In the spring, the Sixteenth Street Baptist church had become a rallying point for civil rights activities. On May 2, more than 1,000 students, some reportedly as young as eight, opted to leave school and gather at the 16th Street Baptist Church. Demonstrators present were given instructions to march to downtown Birmingham and discuss with the mayor their concerns about racial segregation in Birmingham, then to integrate buildings and businesses currently segregated.

In June of that year, Alabama's segregationist Governor George Wallace blocked the entrance to the University of Alabama to prevent two black students enrolling at the University of Alabama.

Photograph: AP

Civil rights activist, Medgar Evers, was shot and killed while standing in his driveway in Jackson, Mississippi on June 12^th.

 

On November 18th, 1963, Coltrane went to Rudy Van Gelder's studio to record a wonderfully profound elegy, Alabama, in response to a church bombing in Alabama that killed four innocent black girls. Alabama mirrors the eulogy The Blessed Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. gave at the funeral service for three of the children - Addie Mae Collins, Carol Denise McNair, and Cynthia Diane Wesley - September 18th, 1963, just two months earlier. I can hear phrases spoken by Dr. King intoned in the melody, rhythm and phrasing in his performance. Particularly “These children-unoffending, innocent, and beautiful” and his poignant conclusion “Good night, sweet princesses… And may the flight of angels (That's right) take thee to thy eternal rest.” Coltrane uses the same c minor key he used for “spiritual” and McCoy Tyner’s left hand provides the drone that Eric Dolphy’s bass clarinet provided in “Spiritual”. I first heard this piece on Ralph Gleason’s Jazz casual Broadcast December 7, 1963, and my 13-year-old soul was awed by the passion Coltrane displayed.

Richard Lischer describes the way Martin Luther King Jr.'s voice moved through a sermon: The gradual ascendancy of his pitch from a low growl at the beginning of the sermon to a piercing shout at the upper range of his high baritone, the predictable rhythm of the rise and fall of his voice, and the relentless increase in the rate of his speech all contribute to the melodiousness, the Song like quality, of his voice. Richard Lischer, The Preacher King: Martin Luther King Jr. and the Word That Moved America (New York: Oxford University Press, 1995) Sounds like a description of Coltrane's playing.

"Alabama," December 7, 1963
Saint John Coltrane wrote the song 'Alabama' in response to the bombing. He patterned his saxophone playing on Martin Luther King's funeral speech.

Thelonious Monk and John Coltrane - Trinkle Tinkle

According to T.S. Monk: Epistrophy is like the first foray into the modal type of thing…that’s where ‘Trane (and Miles) got that from he got that music from Monk he wasn’t going to find that from Bird and all that Be-Bop stuff. 

Miles Davis fired 'Trane from his quintet in 1957 for His drug and alcohol abuse. He said: "he'd be playing in clothes that looked like he had slept in them for days . . . and when he wasn't nodding, [he'd be] picking his nose and sometimes eating it"(Miles: The Autobiography [Miles Davis, Quincy Troupe], 212)

He decided to do something about it he went cold turkey and Matriculated in the Thelonious Sphere Monk University. Coltrane carried a copy of Nicholas Slonimsky’s Thesaurus of Scales and Melodic Patterns with him from 1957–1959

According to T.S. Monk (Thelonious Sphere Monk III):…   he would come every day they started in the morning and they would play all day and daddy always yelling at this young guy and I said to myself “why is he always yelling at this young guy” … what he was saying was “you can play this, no you can play this”. “no man don’t worry about what the critics have to say about that because that’s your stuff”… he just pushed him and Coltrane was so grateful 'cause one has to remember that at the time Coltrane interfaced with Thelonious, he was like a 27-year-old has been. He had been part of Miles’ band… He’d been kicked out; he was a dope fiend… so he was done he was cooked, stick a fork in him.  Ironically after Coltrane came back to such great success when they would ask Coltrane “What happened between Miles and you and ‘Giant Steps’… and he would say “Monk” and nobody would believe it because monk didn’t run around talkin’ about “I just hooked this cat up”. But that relationship uh Coltrane was profoundly humble and just… I feel now that I’m a musician over these years I know that had Coltrane lived at one point he would probably say “Monk saved my life”. Now it’s 1959, and Coltrane is in Monk’s quartet, Thelonious is getting back into the swing of things so he could only afford a quartet, he don’t have a record contract no record company to support what’s going on they do their thing but they go their separate ways. But what happens? Some very interesting things happened between Monk and Coltrane. Coltrane now picks the quartet as his optimum ensemble and Monk picks the quartet as his optimum ensemble. Within that Thelonious had come up with Coleman Hawkins, Johnny Griffin, and Sonny Rollins all these guys that are proponents of Ben Webster and Coleman Hawkins with that BIG BIG BIG tenor sound but Coltrane didn’t have a big sound, Coltrane had this smaller more direct laser kind of sound coming out. What does Thelonious do when he gets his quartet? He doesn’t go for the Sonny Rollins-Johnny Griffin sound he goes for Charlie Rouse who also has this really focused intense new sound from the tenor.  Coltrane had come up with Red Garland, Wynton Kelly, people like that but after Monk who does he go and get for his quartet? He gets this real Monk proponent of rhythm and harmony McCoy Tyner… Totally influenced by Monk also Coltrane with Monk had played with Shadow Wilson. Shadow Wilson is the cat that profoundly influenced Elvin Jones Coltrane doesn’t go and get Philly Jo Jones he doesn’t get one of those cats he goes and gets this new kind of sounding drummer. So Monk and Coltrane, although Monk was the Mentor and Coltrane, was the Mentee they profoundly influenced each other for the rest of their careers in terms of the music they put out. You know so Monk and Coltrane spiritually they got it from each other, they really, really got it from each other although technically Thelonious was the Mentor and Coltrane was the Mentee Coltrane influenced Thelonious heavily, had a tremendous impact on Thelonious just like Monk had a tremendous impact on Coltrane.          

Miles Davis went to Columbia’s 30^th street studio to record Kind of Blue recorded March 2nd and April 22nd, 1959 considered to introduce listeners to the modal concept. However, in 1958 he recorded the album “Milestones” which had the track “Miles” which was among the first modal pieces he recorded.

Giant Steps
Recorded May 4th, 1959

 DMA Dissertation Submitted to the Thelonious Sphere Monk University 

Before he would delve into the modal world Coltrane felt he had to sum up his post-bop work with Monk and Slonimsky with the issue of “Giant Steps”. In this piece, he divided the Circle of Fifths into three segments and freely progressed through the key signatures and chord changes a masterpiece of virtuosity. 

 

  “Coltrane circle”

E-flat augmented triad chord in root position, 1st inversion and 2nd inversion, the root of the E-flat augmented triad is, of course, E-flat, the third being G, and the fifth being B. Giant steps starts in the key of B modulates to the key of G and ends in E-flat spelling an E-flat augmented triad inverted.

Cedar Walton was John Coltrane's first choice pianist for Giant Steps, they recorded at least eight takes of the composition on March 26, 1959*.  (This session has previously been listed in discographies as taking place on April 1, 1959. However, documentation recently discovered at Atlantic reveals that it actually took place on March 26, 1959. Source: The Jazz Discography Online (TJD Online) https://www.lordisco.com) Walton only soloed on one take to my knowledge He said: “Those harmonies aren't easy to manipulate on any instrument, let alone the piano. I should have taken a solo. I was just too young.”

On rehearsing Giant steps with John Coltrane at his (Trane's) house Walton said: “I felt like I was in the presence of God. That's without exaggeration. It was so perfect, and his sound went right to my heart.”

 In the spring of 1960, Coltrane made a European tour with Miles Davis. In Miles: The Autobiography, Davis said, “He gave me notice that he would be leaving the group when we got home. But before he quit, I gave him [a] soprano saxophone…and he started playing it.” On June 28th, 1960 Trane went to Atlantic Studios, New York and recorded “The Blessing” with members of Ornette Coleman’s band on Soprano.  

By October 21st, 1960 his soprano playing was so good he recorded his biggest and most memorable hit “My Favorite Things”. The record was played on AM radio, in jukeboxes and was his “one-hit wonder”. He played this tune throughout his career. It was an unlikely hit and he made a commitment to modal improvisation here. My Favorite Things Lead sheet

On July 2^nd. 1966 about a year before his death, Coltrane played a 22-minute version of “My Favorite Things at the Newport Jazz Festival. Unlike former performances he played the head pretty much straight until he got to the final “…And then I don't feel…” and he broke out with a free screaming solo as if he was in great pain. It is as if he were trying to say how bad he felt. Pictures exist of him holding his side during his trip to Japan a week or so later. 

“As Coltrane's relationship with God strengthened, he had dreams in which God revealed various ideas and musical works to him. Eventually, in the winter of 1964, Coltrane said that God revealed the entire work of "A Love Supreme" to him, just as He had revealed the various texts of the Bible to his believers. Coltrane was now ordained as a minister and he received the command to go out and preach God's word as a mature musician both musically and spiritually committed to God. From this point on until Coltrane's death in 1967, he claimed that 90 percent of his playing was prayer." 

(http://www-Mcnair.berkeley.edu/95journal/EmmetPrice.html

As the 60’s progressed Coltrane connected African tonal languages and the inflections of Martin Luther King Jr.'s rhythmic voice and God-given message to its African roots via largely extra-verbal sprechgesang. Coltrane was aware of the African tone languages where the natural melodic structure of the text mirrors the tonal inflections of the song texts.

Compositions such as Africa, Liberia, Dahomey Dance, Bakai, Dakar, and Afro Blue celebrated a new black aesthetic and freedom that expressly linked African America with Africa, thus celebrating the pan-Africanist transnational imagination. Coltrane was revered by a younger generation of revolutionary poets and writers who found comfort and inspiration in his music.

  www.blackpast.org/aah/coltrane-john-william-1926-1968

Coltrane became friends with Nigerian drummer, educator, social activist, and recording artist Babatunde Olatunji (April 7, 1927 – April 6, 2003) in his autobiography, To the Beat of My Drum said: “John Coltrane became my number one fan, and didn't hide it. He let me know that he really appreciated my contributions and would really like to do projects with me. He always came to see me whenever we performed.” 

“He told me in no uncertain terms, 'I really admire what you've been doing. Every chance I get, I come to see and hear you. And when I do, I listen close to every move you make, everything you play. So one day I want to come a little nearer and learn something from you."

John Coltrane helped found the Olatunji Center for African Culture in Harlem where Coltrane made his Ultimate live recording. Recorded April 23, 1967

"Ogunde" based on "Ogunde Varere", an Afro-Brazilian folk song whose title translates to 'Prayer of the Gods'. This song "re-emphasises Coltrane's amalgam of spiritual passion within the huge sound of his solidarity with the African people" Searle, Chris (2001-12-08). "Final improvisational fire of a jazz colossus". The Morning Star. p. 11.

So sick

you couldn’t play Naima,

so flat we ached

for a song you’d concealed

with your own blood,

your diseased liver gave

out its purity.

Michael S. Harper, "Dear John, Dear Coltrane" from Songlines in Michaeltree: New and Collected Poems. Copyright © 2000 by Michael S. Harper

"Some of the strongest yet most mysterious sounds of discontent were coming from the avant-garde jazz community, with artists such as Charles Mingus Jr., Max Roach, and Archie Shepp and free-thinking experimenters such as Ornette Coleman, Cecil Taylor, and John Coltrane musing upon ideas of what radical change is all about." PARTY MUSIC, Copyright © 2013 by Rickey Vincent