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Rifftides

Doug Ramsey on Jazz and other matters...

John Coltrane, 1926-1967

September 23, 2019 by Doug Ramsey

Today is the 93rd anniversary of the birth of John Coltrane. We are going to show you a film about Coltrane’s life and work. The name of the documentary is Saint John Coltrane. Some have found the title presumptuous, even blasphemous. Still, the film was made to tell the story of the great tenor saxophonist, one of the most influential musicians in jazz history. The Rifftides staff believes that its producer and writers created an informative and valuable documentary. As you will see when it’s over, we would like to know your opinion of the film.

To send a comment about the film, scroll down to Leave A Reply. Rifftides posted the documentary thanks to YouTube.

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Comments

  1. Patrick Hussey says

    September 23, 2019 at 11:28 pm

    Thanks Doug;. Fascinating!

  2. Douglas Treem says

    September 25, 2019 at 2:25 pm

    Jean Genet said that sainthood is the process of becoming a saint. The title of this film makes perfect sense./ d.

  3. Stephen G Provizer says

    October 2, 2019 at 10:45 am

    I enjoyed it. Just a few things: I’m not sure that someone like Colrane needs a “signature tune.” “Obsessive nature”? I suppose. Personally, I never linked the music of A Love Supreme to the specific words of his poem. Great story about Elvin and Ascension.

  4. Charles Levy says

    October 4, 2019 at 3:41 pm

    Glad I watched it. I may never make my peace with late music such as Ascension, (the sheer intensity of which scared me when I heard it in 1967 or 1968). Looking back (listening back) on the immense musical pilgrimage preserved in his recordings, he seems to have had no spiritual or musical comfort zone. And as they say we are all, or can be all, the richer for it.

  5. Tom Simek says

    October 20, 2019 at 5:09 am

    Saint John Coltrane was my introduction to the Rifftides Blog. Whew, what a start! Though I was familiar with many of the vignettes in this documentary, there were several stories that were new to me. Thanks for them. As ‘Trane moved along in his personal and musical journey, giving up alcohol and heroin and finding the Almighty, it is interesting that he, like Bill Wilson (the founder of AA) turned to LSD to help with connecting to God. Though I find his Ascension period not as musically satisfying as earlier periods I have to give it up to him for pursuing his dream. Again thanks for sharing this with your readers. (BTW, I was turned on to this site by Dave Rife, co-editor of the award winning jazz journal Brilliant Corners).

Doug Ramsey

Doug is a recipient of the lifetime achievement award of the Jazz Journalists Association. He lives in the Pacific Northwest, where he settled following a career in print and broadcast journalism in cities including New York, New Orleans, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Seattle, Portland, San Antonio, Cleveland and Washington, DC. His writing about jazz has paralleled his life in journalism... [Read More]

Rifftides

A winner of the Blog Of The Year award of the international Jazz Journalists Association. Rifftides is founded on Doug's conviction that musicians and listeners who embrace and understand jazz have interests that run deep, wide and beyond jazz. Music is its principal concern, but the blog reaches past... Read More...

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Doug’s Books

Doug's most recent book is a novel, Poodie James. Previously, he published Take Five: The Public and Private Lives of Paul Desmond. He is also the author of Jazz Matters: Reflections on the Music and Some of its Makers. He contributed to The Oxford Companion To Jazz and co-edited Journalism Ethics: Why Change? He is at work on another novel in which, as in Poodie James, music is incidental.

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Alex Ross: The Rest Is Noise
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