Coltrane - the story of a sound

1729 Views 12 Replies 9 Participants Last post by Reedsplinter, Oct 29, 2007

Frank D

Discussion Starter · Oct 14, 2007

Anybody reading this new book by Ben Ratliff, jazz critic for the NY Times? The first part is a biography, documenting how Trane came up, who he played with and how his style changed over the years.

The second part gets into how his music influenced others, and reflected the political environment of the day. This part started out slow for me, but I'm starting to get into it. I remember hearing about this stuff at the time, but was too young to really understand what was going on.

Your thoughts?

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Kelly Bucheger

· #7 · Oct 27, 2007

Ben Ratliff is the best and most insightful jazz writer the Times has got, and I'm consistently impressed with his work there. For that reason alone I'm looking forward to checking out the book and seeing how well he pulls off the longer form....

Reedsplinter said:
I'd like to know more about the history and dynamics of Trane's (or any player's) physical and mental involvement with the saxophone per se, from the inside (would would Coltrane's sound have been had he gravitated to the trumpet? His process of musical discipline and analysis and transcendence might have been the same, and his band might have been the same, but the result would have been very different). Unfortunately, this is a story that is damned near impossible to get at, and even if you did, how many would want to read it?

Man, Reedsplinter, I think you pose a fascinating question, and I'd love to read that book!

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