Analytical Blog
176-210 John Coltrane
Throughout Coltrane's life, a devotion to finding unique sounds seemed to be prevalent. At the beginning of his career, Coltrane was unknown and somewhat undeveloped as a musician. This is simply due to the fact that he had not experienced much as far as new jazz was concerned. Coltrane's experience and level of musicianship can be explained by answering the essential question, "How does experience shape a musician?". So far, from what I have read about Coltrane's life, the answer is that experience outweighs everything as far as being a musician is concerned. In Coltrane's case, experience is what helped him develop such an interesting, progressive approach to jazz music that people are still amazed by! The book talked a lot about Coltrane's time with Miles and how it changed his views and perspectives on music. Before his time with Miles, Coltrane was playing standards, swing and bebop jazz as that is all he knew had existed. When he joined Miles' band, his knowledge of what existed and what was possible expanded drastically as they recorded "Kind of Blue". On this album, Miles apparently told the band that he was not going to tell them what to play, only what not to play, leaving them with the possibility to do anything that they want. On this album, you will find that a lot of the solos are mostly linked to the popular jazz of that time, but on tunes like "So What" and "Blue In Green" there was no way that any of these musicians could apply their common ideas due to the new forms.
On "Blue In Green", Coltrane took a solo which inspired him to seek out and find what else was possible with jazz. The big thing with Blue In Green that inspired Coltrane was how the form varied from single time, to double time, to quad time for Bill Evans' piano solo. Another thing that sparked Coltrane's interest was the chords that Miles chose for this song. Each chord had many extensions that allowed the musician a much larger range of possible harmonic ideas. After recording "Kind Of Blue" with Miles, Coltrane left the group and started his own group. It was in the same year that Coltrane released his own experimental album titled "Giant Steps". This album is one of the albums that really changed the face of jazz as it redefined what a soloist can do with a specific set of changes. Thanks to the experience that Coltrane had learned from being with Miles, he went on to write his own stuff and push for new exciting ideas that people had not heard of before.
Here is a link to "Giant Steps" I would call this album the hard rock/ metal music of Jazz.. or the rap music of jazz.. The songs "Giant Steps" and 'Countdown" are INSANE!!
I think that what Coltrane did with his own experiences really show what significance experience has on a musician. For me, looking forwards in my studies with music, I am thinking of setting some goals to try to get myself somewhere like Coltrane did. So far, my experience has told me a lot about what does and does not work as far as writing and performing jazz is concerned. I think that if there was one thing that I would like to grow in my playing based of my experience right now, it is being able to play more rhythmically interesting ideas that have ties to modern music. That way, I can sound more unique and I can connect to the audience better.
Throughout Coltrane's life, a devotion to finding unique sounds seemed to be prevalent. At the beginning of his career, Coltrane was unknown and somewhat undeveloped as a musician. This is simply due to the fact that he had not experienced much as far as new jazz was concerned. Coltrane's experience and level of musicianship can be explained by answering the essential question, "How does experience shape a musician?". So far, from what I have read about Coltrane's life, the answer is that experience outweighs everything as far as being a musician is concerned. In Coltrane's case, experience is what helped him develop such an interesting, progressive approach to jazz music that people are still amazed by! The book talked a lot about Coltrane's time with Miles and how it changed his views and perspectives on music. Before his time with Miles, Coltrane was playing standards, swing and bebop jazz as that is all he knew had existed. When he joined Miles' band, his knowledge of what existed and what was possible expanded drastically as they recorded "Kind of Blue". On this album, Miles apparently told the band that he was not going to tell them what to play, only what not to play, leaving them with the possibility to do anything that they want. On this album, you will find that a lot of the solos are mostly linked to the popular jazz of that time, but on tunes like "So What" and "Blue In Green" there was no way that any of these musicians could apply their common ideas due to the new forms.
On "Blue In Green", Coltrane took a solo which inspired him to seek out and find what else was possible with jazz. The big thing with Blue In Green that inspired Coltrane was how the form varied from single time, to double time, to quad time for Bill Evans' piano solo. Another thing that sparked Coltrane's interest was the chords that Miles chose for this song. Each chord had many extensions that allowed the musician a much larger range of possible harmonic ideas. After recording "Kind Of Blue" with Miles, Coltrane left the group and started his own group. It was in the same year that Coltrane released his own experimental album titled "Giant Steps". This album is one of the albums that really changed the face of jazz as it redefined what a soloist can do with a specific set of changes. Thanks to the experience that Coltrane had learned from being with Miles, he went on to write his own stuff and push for new exciting ideas that people had not heard of before.
Here is a link to "Giant Steps" I would call this album the hard rock/ metal music of Jazz.. or the rap music of jazz.. The songs "Giant Steps" and 'Countdown" are INSANE!!
I think you're well on your way, Jake. It's fascinating to read your writing about this because lots of times, as a not-music person, just have no idea what you're talking about.
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