As
a statement of faith, John Coltrane’s liner notes for A Love Supreme rank alongside The
Confessions of St. Augustine, but as meaningful as his words are, they
still can’t compare to the music waxed within. Decades after his tragically
early death, Coltrane is still influencing musicians and listeners, both
musically and spiritually. Indeed, how many musicians of any category have
inspired a church dedicated to their music? The significance of Coltrane’s life
and gifts are explored by his family, colleagues, and admirers in John
Scheinfeld’s Chasing Trane: The John
Coltrane (trailer
here),
which opens this Friday in New York.
Before
we proceed, let us invoke Coltrane’s own words: “ALL PRAISE BE TO GOD TO WHOM
ALL PRAISE IS DUE.” It is a prayer of great humility, yet it makes the hair
stand up on the back of your neck.
John
Coltrane’s childhood was filled with struggle and tragedy but he became one of
the few jazz musicians who “crossed over” to mainstream audiences. He first
gained prominence as a member of Miles Davis’s first “Classic Quintet” (the
trumpeter had two), playing on the mother of all jazz bestsellers, Kind of Blue. Coltrane notched his own
legit hit with his modal exotic sounding rendition of “My Favorite Things,” but
A Love Supreme serves as the
centerpiece of the film—and rightly so. The suite of sacred music had a depth
of feeling that remains astonishing, but it also served as a summation of all
Coltrane’s musical experimentation up to that point, while even hinting at the
avant-garde journey he was about to embark on.
Trane is the first
Coltrane documentary produced with the cooperation of his family. As a result,
we get a fuller perspective of Coltrane as a family man. The memories of
Antonia Andrews, Coltrane’s stepdaughter from his first wife Naima, are
especially touching. We also hear from real deal colleagues like Sonny Rollins
(Coltrane’s media-made rival for tenor saxophone supremacy), former Dizzy
Gillespie band-mate Jimmy “Little Bird” Heath, childhood friend Benny Golson,
Wayne Shorter (tenor player in Davis’s second “Classic Quintet”), and McCoy
Tyner, the last surviving member of Coltrane’s iconic quartet. We also hear
from Coltrane’s son Ravi, who rather remarkably became a first-rate tenor and
soprano player in his own right, braving inevitable comparisons to his father.
It
is fine to also include commentary from experts like Wynton Marsalis, and
biographers Ashley Kahn and Lewis Porter, who truly know their stuff, but the
talking head sequences with Bill Clinton add nothing (and risk needlessly alienating
viewers). However, when the film sticks to the music, it is always on solid
ground. There are indeed a lot of Coltrane recordings incorporated into the
film. Granted, selecting from his towering musical legacy surely must have been
a daunting task (yet, we still have to ask how they could leave out the
arrestingly beautiful “Dear Lord?”). Happily, everyone assembled readily
acknowledges the contributions made by Coltrane’s signature quartet sidemen:
Tyner on piano, Elvin Jones on drums, and Jimmy Garrison on bass. Frankly, it
is just as hard to imagine “My Favorite Things” without Tyner’s cascading solo
as it would be without the leader himself.