Alice Coltrane walked out onstage, joining an ensemble led by her son Ravi on a recent and historic night at Joe's Pub. The bassist Darryl Hall played an immediately recognizable four-note line and the group (also featuring drummer E.J. Strickland) launched into the only reasonable song they could have chosen for the evening, if one that many in the packed room might well have thought would be too much to ask for. Meanwhile, a continent away stands a church that has taken the author of that composition, Alice's late husband John, as a patron saint. And while claiming a saint outside the proper channels - the pope is unlikely to recognize Trane anytime soon - is an unorthodox move, if anyone in jazz is a contender for sainthood, well, they picked the right man.
The night at Joe's Pub marked the release of a two-disc reissue of John Coltrane's signature 1965 record, A Love Supreme, and a book chronicling the making of the classic record. The album is not just a brilliant achievement by one of America's most important musicians. It's not only an apogee in the development of jazz, standing as one of the watermarks during a vital time when jazz was being stripped of such notions as theme-solo-theme, chordal progressions and even successive solos. It is quite simply one of the major statements of faith in a higher power in recent history. Removed from its importance in the jazz pantheon, the album is a bowing before God in a country and during a century when such statements were decidedly unfashionable.
The tradition into which Trane entered in the 1940s, and to which he was devoted until his death in 1967, was at least in part a religious endeavor. At that time, much of the source material was still gospel and spiritual songs, blues and slave songs, much of the inspiration coming from the church. Coltrane was hardly alone in bringing this foundation to the fore; Duke Ellington composed masses, Pharaoh Sanders and Albert Ayler professed their faith in no uncertain terms, and countless others blurred the lines within Black American music. But with A Love Supreme, Coltrane made a statement. It's not the stuff of a jamboree or an evangelist tent, but a dignified, pronounced and above all serious work. It's hard to imagine even the most cynical remaining untouched. In the introduction to A Love Supreme: The Story of John Coltrane's Signature Album, author Ashley Kahn goes even further in stating the case that cannot be overstated:
"It's difficult to write of Coltrane and not sound heavy-handed. As enticing as the inevitable Trane/train metaphors may be, so are the Christ-like parallels. The saxophonist's life of self-sacrifice, message of universal love, death at an early age - even his initials - amplify the temptation." Needless to say, none of those are points Kahn was the first to notice. The casting of Coltrane as Savior has been taken, perhaps, to the extreme at a small, storefront church in San Francisco. Calling itself the St. John Coltrane African Orthodox Church, the congregation holds jam sessions after sermons and takes Coltrane as their patron saint. The walls are decorated with mock stained-glass windows featuring Trane, an eternal flame leaping from the bell of his horn. If it's all a little extreme, it still shows the esteem in which the man is held.
It's an extreme into which his widow, however, politely does not buy. While she worked with the congregation, which was founded in 1969, during the ‘70s, she said the focus on her husband - or any human - led her to part ways with the church.
"You can believe in who you wish," she said. "It's something in your heart. So when people say, 'Oh, he was like an angel', I don't take it away from them because who knows the set of experiences that can bring about a religious experience?
Re: Кто слушает джаз? Автор:pempeДата: 12.09.05 20:13:45
Оьмечаю две подборки лучших на мой вкус ударников, одна роковых, вторая скажем джазовых
John Bonham Terry Bozzio Ginger Baker Keith Moon Mike Portnoy Cozy Powell Danny Carey Ian Paice Bobby Rondinelli Lars Ulrich Neil Peart Carl Palmer Virgil Donati Ansley Dunbar Bill Ward
Vinnie Colaiuta Dave Weckl Steve Gadd Billy Cobham Bill Bruford Dennis Chambers Steve Smith Bobby Previte Peter Erskin Simon Phillips Rod Morgenstein Stanton Moore Chad Wackerman Chester Thompson Gary Husband
Re: Кто слушает джаз? Автор:pempeДата: 11.09.05 21:29:40
2SergeK Тогда берем относительного старичка (50 лет) Wayne Horvitz с командой Zony Mash или барабанщиком Bobby Previte, видел ихний концерт - Wayne монстр.
Re: Кто слушает джаз? Автор:pempeДата: 11.09.05 14:57:28
2Kalina когда 14-и летний юнец выпускает добротный пост-бобовый альбом со своими композициями его иначе как гением и неназвещь. Поменциал есть, а жизнь покажет как кам дальше. То что в дебютном альбоме играют John Patitucci и Michael Brecker - показатель профессиональности Элдара.
2papan Скофилд и разнообпазен и чертовски продуктуктивен - почти каждый год альбом рожает. У Скофилда уберджамовская лиеия началась с "A Go Go" (мне он супер), где с ним играют Medeski Martin и Wood, далее он набира молодеж, делает "Bump", "Uberjam", "Up all night".
Re: Deep Purple Автор:pempeДата: 10.09.05 22:26:18
2papan Советую послушать Канадского пианиста Andy Milne и альбом его команды Dapp Theory "Y'all Just Don't Know". Свежий звук - смесь авангарда, фьюжин, современных ритмов, традиционного джаза.
Live in Europe 1968 If you devour everything about the Doors, then Live in Europe will help you sate your collectivist yearnings quite nicely. But if you're a Doors neophyte seeking tangible proof about the band's mythic celebration of the Dionysian creed, this ain't the altar at which you want to worship. It's a nice, good-sounding document of a moment in time, and the intro by former Jefferson Airplane mates Grace Slick and Paul Kantner puts the whole '68 tour in context (the two bands co-headlined). And yet, the guy you really need to dissect-that beautiful dangerous poetic Jim Morrison fella-is usually either bombed, disinterested, distracted, dorky, or mostly dead throughout much of the action.
To be fair, there are a few transcendent moments when his brooding sexuality, liquid voice, and feral theatricality shoot right through to the essence of why people go bat wacko over charismatic superstars. But, of course, he ruins it all within minutes by channeling one or more of the vibes described earlier. Frustrating. Then again, if you're brave enough to revisit an era when true artists could be true artists-meaning, basically, that said artisans would follow their muses without giving two hoots about selling records and t-shirts, making nice with corporate sponsors and media peoples, or doing what you and I expected them to do-then Live in Europe is one hell of a seminar on the poetry of freedom. Feed your head. Eagle Vision.