coltrane

It took a long time for me to come around to john coltrane's music, despite the fact that he was the most famous sideperson on perhaps the greatest album ever. I resisted in large part because of john's non-secular inclinations, but when i finally heard an entire album (which by chance was GIANT STEPS), i was blown away. I'd never heard music so clearly wrestle with its own possibilities.
Are you surprised by the absence of trane's "masterpiece", A LOVE SUPREME, on the following list? I initially dismissed miles' veiled dismissal of that work, as motivated by the typical competitive jealousies of bonded alphas. But davis was right...it's a simplistic appeal to god-oriented longing, and looked at objectively, it treads no musical ground trane hadn't trod before...and arguably not as brilliantly. It's truer to say that ASCENSION is the one trane "religious experience", transcending the boundaries of convention...though as fascinating as that album is, it doesn't measure up musically. Here's the masterpiece, and the others that come close.
JOHN COLTRANE'S GREATEST ALBUMS
-GIANT STEPS (1960)
Has there ever been a more appropriate title? You can almost literally feel the sound of metaphorical elbows pushing hither and yon.
-AFRICA/BRASS (1961)
Somehow both laid-back and grand. Most of the album never strays from the key of F, yet it's utterly enthralling.
-OLE' (1962)
More entrancing than its likely inspiration, SKETCHES OF SPAIN.
-THE JOHN COLTRANE QUARTET PLAYS (1965)
"Chim Chim Cheree" elicits an initial groan, sounding like yet another pandering cover...but before long, your eyes might pop as you wonder whether you've ever heard a more perfect sax solo. Just impossibly muscular and graceful. "Brazilia" is mesmerizing, "Nature Boy" features a bed of dissonant strings underscoring a magisterial solo, and "Song of Praise" is a drum/sax dialogue that feels like being inside a desert wind.
-INTERSTELLAR SPACE (1967)
I didn't imagine any of his "free jazz" entries would make this list...but this album-length duet with drummer/percussionist rashied ali is breathtaking. Even with a smattering of blats and shrieks, it's mind-blowing. Take away chords and scales, and focus on one musical voice flying free, like a mythological bird taking bites out of the ether. Ali's drumming is relentless and unself-concsious.
STRAY GEMS
"After the Rain"
"My Little Brown Book"
"Alabama"
"Wise One"