John Coltrane

by Bill Cole

Reissued to commemorate the 75th anniversary of John Coltrane's birth.

Here is the book that distinguished music critic Leonard Feather called a "brilliantly perceptive examination of the forces that shaped Coltrane's brief life." Illustrating the influence of African folklore and spirituality on Coltrane's work and sound, Bill Cole creates an innovative portrait of the legendary tenor saxophonist. With illustrative diagrams, a discography, and more than twenty photographs, this is an essential addition to every jazz fan's library.

Genres: Music, Biography, Jazz

300 pages, Hardcover

First published December 1, 1976

Reviews

[Lukasz Pruski · Rating 2 out of 5]

"... I want to be a force for real good... I know that there are bad forces, forces put here that bring suffering to others and misery to the world, but I want to be the force which is truly for good."
(John Coltrane, as quoted by Frank Kofsky

John Coltrane, one of the greatest artists in history, creator of many pieces of music of unparalleled beauty, compositions that transcend the usual human limitations and have inspired thousands and thousands of listeners to be forces for good as Coltrane himself set out to be, deserves a better biography than Bill Cole's John Coltrane (1976). This is a horribly dated book, full of obsolete New Age claptrap and pseudo-intellectual gibberish, stuffy, pretentious, and hardly readable. It avoids the bottom rating from me only because it contains quite a lot of musicological theory ruminations and being a complete dummy in this area I have to give the author the benefit of the doubt: at least in the theory of music he may be saying something worthwhile. I trust that when he writes about "vertical" (chordal) vs. "horizontal" (melodical) playing, he knows what he is writing about.

The first sentence of the Preface is quite promising:

"There are two things in particular that I would like to get at in this book: John Coltrane as a musician, and John Coltrane as a religious person."

But then, already on page 15, the reader is offered a diagram of four concentric circles that represent the "four worlds of the traditional man," the worlds of "Action," "Formulation," "Creation," and - wow - "Emanation." Even worse, on the next page the author begins to quote fragments of research works by Fela Sowande who treats us with such groundbreaking concepts as John Coltrane's "western lobe or the intellectual side of [...] brain" as opposed to "eastern lobe or the intuitive side."

The author continues quoting Sowande all the way through the entire book. We have to suffer the New Age mumbo-jumbo on "central energy" (the "life force" in Coltrane's music), on intuition vs. intellect, moving from Zodiac period of Pisces to the Aquarian period, and - that's a good one - masculine vs. feminine elements of Coltrane's mind and how his compositions depend on their proportions. The gibberish reaches its apex in Sowande's diagram (page 158) that supposedly illustrates "how art is connected with will, content, form, idea, and imagination."

The reader gets all this blather instead of a portrait of John Coltrane, a great artist and true innovator of contemporary music. Since the book is a reworking of the author's doctoral thesis I suspect that Mr. Sowande was on the committee that decided whether Mr. Cole would be granted a PhD degree. Alice Coltrane's short yet wonderful quote that opens Chapter 17 adds more to the text than all passages by Sowande combined.

Another telling detail is that the author heavily praises Om, a late album recorded in 1965, called by many critics the worst album in the composer's career (Coltrane himself seemed to be ashamed of that work and did not want the album to go public - it was released only posthumously). Mr. Cole writes more about Om, a piece of heavily dated curia, than about, for instance, one of Coltrane's masterpieces, Transition.

At least the author has enough common sense to dwell on how unique in the history of music John Coltrane's so-called "classic quartet" was. How the four great instrumentalists composed a unit that far transcended the sum of their individual talents.

Two stars.

[Tony Gleeson · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was one of the earliest bios of Coltrane and while it has some decent information in it, it's not as good as the ones by J. C. Thomas or C. O. Simpkins from around the same time. Cole's discography system (he uses the same one in his bio of Miles Davis) is a little more difficult to follow than some others.

[Gage Hoefer · Rating 3 out of 5]

Technically 3.5.

I agree with what a lot of other reviewers have said- a lot of the interpretation and analysis of Coltrane’s music, when not directly focused on breaking down rhythmic phrases, chord changes, and lines, is weighed down by New-Age mumbo-jumbo that I found disappointing. However, I did think it was great to hear the author discuss at length the times they saw Coltrane play live, and about the various important periods throughout his life. If I had a suggestion for improvement, I’d say get rid of a lot of the quotes and analyses of Sowande, and focus more on Coltrane himself.

[Chris Fluit · Rating 1 out of 5]

A real slog. Not every doctoral dissertation should be turned into a book. The author spends way too much time on his pet philosophies of aesthetics and esoteric theories about the emanation of ideas and not nearly enough time helping us understand Coltrane as a musician or a person.

[William Strasse · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was loaned to me by my awesome new roommate. He told me it primarily focuses on the technical side of Trane's music and his "African-ness" and he wasn't wrong. I've never been a very technical musician, and I'm not very African myself, and the author does tend to gush to the point where you sometimes wonder if he's reading certain things into the music and intentions of Coltrane that might not have been there. That said, it was still an interesting book and the author did give some personal insight into the discipline of Coltrane, which was obviously pretty immense. If you skip the more technical musical parts, it makes for pretty quick reading.

[Kurt · Rating 3 out of 5]

The life and work of Coltrane as viewed through the prism of spirituality. This book is good, particularly in the passages containing a close reading of music and the accompanying transcriptions, but I thought there was too much Fela Sowande and not enough Coltrane. I enjoyed reading this, but would more highly recommend J.C. Thomas' "Chasin' the Trane".

[Deniz]

a super book about coltrane, when you're into his music.

[Serge Pierro · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting look into Coltrane's life.