When asked what freedom meant, Nina Simone said “I’ll tell you what freedom is to me, no fear.” I have a lot of things hanging over me and a lot of things that keep me anxious or worried. But when I hear John Coltrane, it all disappears. For me, Coltrane’s music is freedom.
John Coltrane would have been 100 today. He left behind an oeuvre that continues to touch those who listen. For Coltrane music was spiritual. He believed Musicians were prophets and making music was done for the greater good. I wholeheartedly believe that Coltrane’s music and philosophy changed my life for the better. When I hear it I hear him praying that he could bridge the gap between the person he was and the person he wanted to be.
“I know that there are bad forces, forces that bring suffering to others and misery to the world. I want to be the opposite force. I want to be the force which is truly for good.” -John Coltrane
On “Naima,” when he hits that first D on his tenor, I’m frozen. I fall into the hypnotizing nature of his tone. Time stops. I can breathe. When the world around me resumes, I’m left with a feeling of peace. “Naima,” from Coltrane’s 1960, Giant Steps, is such a smooth, alluring piece and the acoustic reverb of his saxophone floors me every time.
I attended a John Coltrane 100 listening event hosted by music journalist, Marcus J. Moore & Dr. Anyabwile Love, a tenured Assistant Professor of Black Studies & History at the Community College of Philadelphia (and founder of The John Coltrane Symposium). At the event, Dr. Love said the question Coltrane faced when creating Naima was “how do you write a song expressing how much you love someone when all words just seem to get in the way.” Coltrane wrote Naima for his first wife and in my opinion it’s one of the greatest love songs of all time.
“I love rockin’ tracks like John Coltrane love Naima” -Talib Kweli, “Astronomy (8th Light),” Mos Def & Talib Kweli Are Black Star (1998)
Another Coltrane song that sounds like freedom is “Living Space.” I’m specifically talking about the version released posthumously on the 1972 album Infinity. This version of the song was enhanced by his wife, Alice Coltrane, and featured newly recorded elements to the song which was recorded in 1965 (2 years before his passing). This song featured John Coltrane on Soprano saxophone, McCoy Tyner on piano, Jimmy Garrison on bass, and the one and only Elvin Jones on the drums. These four are able to craft a piece that feels like a new apartment in a new city with nothing but potential.
In every picture I see of him, John Coltrane looks like a normal dude and I think that’s where the power of his music comes from. It’s like Spider-Man. “Anyone can wear the mask.” Anyone can become a vessel for the music. So every time I pick up my saxophone, all my effort goes into creating a tone so strong and a timbre so decisive because Coltrane made me believe more than anything that I can.
John Coltrane stood next to artists such as Miles Davis & Thelonious Monk and held his own. He played on Davis’ Kind of Blue, the best-selling jazz record of all time. Then he went further with Giant Steps in 1960. It was a technical breakthrough with chord changes that moved in thirds and didn’t follow traditional Western Jazz practices. Coltrane broke the rules that music had followed and showed every musician going forward that those boundaries did not define good music. That’s freedom. That’s what John Coltrane affords me.