There is a moment during that fantastic footage from the 1959 US TV programme ‘ The Sound of Miles Davis’ in which Miles opens with the wondrous tune ‘So What’ , that he gives way to the tenor sax playing of a young John Coltrane. Every time I see it, it simply gives me goose bumps.

‘Trane, as he was known by the jazz community, slowly glides up to the mike and unleashes a flowing, seemingly effortless solo that still sounds as fresh as paint nearly 60 years later.

I’m guessing this would have been my first exposure to Coltrane and I came to him through my then obsession with Miles.  Davis was then the coolest of the cool; at least to my eager jazz learning eyes and ears back then in the early 1980s.  Then, once having seen and heard Coltrane, I was off on any journey down many a musical rabbit hole.

On my next visit to Ray’s jazz shop on Shaftesbury Avenue, I picked up the albums ‘Love Supreme’ and ‘My Favourite Things’, which without knowing, exposed me to the old and the new work of Coltrane.

I was reminded of all this recently, after watching the documentary ‘Chasing Trane’ from 2016, directed by John Scheinfeld.

Some of the story was familiar to me, as I have read a little on the man and his life, but as with all good documentaries, you learn even more and it gives you opportunities to explore the subject to a greater extent.

Coltrane was born in the September of 1926 in North Carolina, later moving to Philadelphia, where he first picked up an alto in his high school years.

He made his first recordings whilst serving in the US Navy in which he had enlisted in 1945. By the time he was back in Philly, after being discharged a year later, he was now playing on the Be Bop circuit and by 1947, the tenor sax was his weapon of choice. The early influence on him, from the work of Charlie ‘Bird’ Parker now meant there was a noticeable progression in his playing.

He free-lanced in various bands up until the mid 50s, and then he hooked up with Miles Davis who now free of his troubles with heroin was playing again on the circuit. Ironically, soon after hooking up together Coltrane had developed his own problems with drug addiction, which contributed to the end of the association around two years later.

But by ‘59, they were back together. Coltrane had gradually gotten clear of his demons by going cold turkey and he was there until 1960, contributing to sessions like ‘Milestones’ and ‘Kind of Blue.’

Trane was busy, and had recorded his own album ‘Giant Steps’ in 1959, and the big selling ‘My Favourite Things in 1961.

A personal favourite album of my mine around this time,  was one he recorded with vocalist Johnny Hartman from ’63 and then 1964 saw the release of ‘ A Love Supreme’ which has gone on to attain legendary status over the past 50 years or so. Watching the doc. we discover that he wrote the music for the album over four days at his home, effectively shutting himself off from his young family, so overtaken was he by the work.

The sound on that album can only be described as spiritual and it reflected Coltrane’s own belief and love of God.

It is deep, deep, deep.

Perhaps if I’m honest, it was a little too deep for me when I first bought it aged 23/24. But now, classified as a senior man, I ‘get’ it, well my own interpretation of it anyway. It is simply a beautiful, wonderful piece of work.

I guess, in some ways, the next period of Coltrane’s output, can be best described as ‘challenging’. He had developed an interest in a more avant-garde style and he was going to play it, simple as that. This is illustrated perfectly by the 1965 album ‘Ascension’ on which he is joined by his second wife Alice, a fine performer in her own right.

Sadly, he was gone by 1967, dying of liver cancer aged just 40.  In effect it was a relatively short life, but the body of fine and interesting work he has left behind, is forever being discovered by a new generation, and that as legacies go, is one to be proud of.

Documentary – https://www.amazon.co.uk/Chasing-Trane-John-Coltrane-Documentary/dp/B0765W3MR3/ref=sr_1_1?s=dmusic&ie=UTF8&qid=1514732890&sr=8-1&keywords=john+coltrane+dvd

With Johnny Hartman – https://www.amazon.co.uk/John-Coltrane-Johnny-Hartman-Classics/dp/B001KEJWUE/ref=sr_1_1?s=dvd&ie=UTF8&qid=1514732607&sr=8-1&keywords=johnny+hartman+coltrane

A Love Supreme – https://www.amazon.co.uk/Love-Supreme-John-Coltrane/dp/B001KEMZVC/ref=sr_1_1?s=dmusic&ie=UTF8&qid=1514732866&sr=1-1-mp3-albums-bar-strip-0&keywords=john+coltrane+love+supreme

The Mumper of SE5