I must have listened to at least 30 versions of this by Trane, and never get bored with it. The major scale wailing modal stuff tends to be simply ethereal.

ZoSo_the_Crowe: I must have listened to at least 30 versions of this by Trane, and never get bored with it. The major scale wailing modal stuff tends to be simply ethereal.

I don't dare listen to it in the car. I end up completely entranced.

Transcendence does that to me too.

It's almost like someone challenged Trane: "Take the whitest, most soulless song you can find and turn in into something so spiritual people forget it was ever done any other way."

Of course Coltrane himself liked the original - saw something in it no one else saw.

Thanks for the post, great performance!

To this day, Coltrane's take on My Favorite Things is about the only version of that song I can stand to listen to for longer than five seconds. Pure brilliance.

I'm a a huge Jazz fan, but have always thought Coltrane sounds like a bunch of elementary school kids jumping on inflated bagpipes.

Not a fan....makes me want to punch something.

p.s. Not saying Coltrane wasn't talented, but man....a little melody now and then would be nice.

scotth: p.s. Not saying Coltrane wasn't talented, but man....a little melody now and then would be nice.

Have you tried Blue Train or stuff with Miles Davis (Milestones) or Thelonious Monk (...at Carnegie Hall)? That's probably a much better representation of his melodic playing. (And his Ballads is pretty amazing, too.)

scotth: I'm a a huge Jazz fan,

I bet your a huge Kenny G fan.

MiamiBlues: It's almost like someone challenged Trane: "Take the whitest, most soulless song you can find and turn in into something so spiritual people forget it was ever done any other way."

Yeah, what's up with that? And his "Chim chim cheree" will tear your face off! Too bad it's not as popular as this one, but it's some of his scariest soprano work.

scotth: p.s. Not saying Coltrane wasn't talented, but man....a little melody now and then would be nice.

Your listening to "Alabama", "Naima", "Crescent", the album with Johnny Hartman, the album with Ellington, the "Ballads" album, most of his Altantic recordings, his version of "Lush Life", and "A Love Supreme" would be nice as well.

scotth: I'm a a huge Jazz fan, but have always thought Coltrane sounds like a bunch of elementary school kids jumping on inflated bagpipes.

Not a fan....makes me want to punch something.

p.s. Not saying Coltrane wasn't talented, but man....a little melody now and then would be nice.

Here is a 1961 version for comparasion

galleech: scotth: I'm a a huge Jazz fan, but have always thought Coltrane sounds like a bunch of elementary school kids jumping on inflated bagpipes.

Not a fan....makes me want to punch something.

p.s. Not saying Coltrane wasn't talented, but man....a little melody now and then would be nice.

Here is a 1961 version for comparasion

Yeah, this version is well into his transition into free jazz. This isn't too long before the recording of "Ascension", which is an album I can really get into sometimes, but other times makes me tear off the headphones and toss them across the room to try to get that sound out of my head.

Sorry. Just sounds like noise to me. I'm all for working on a theme of something, but when it sounds like you're playing 9 notes and every tenth has to be from the original score, I guess I don't get that as music.

Tenebreux: Sorry. Just sounds like noise to me. I'm all for working on a theme of something, but when it sounds like you're playing 9 notes and every tenth has to be from the original score, I guess I don't get that as music.

i get it as music, i just get it as music i don't particularly like.

i am a huuuuuuuuuuge sucker for the lines that cannonball adderly blows. when he and coltrane were side-by-side on miles' "kind of blue" i fell for the cannonball stuff harder.

to me it's the difference between stuff that makes me think "how are they doing that?" and stuff that makes me feel.

OBVIOUSLY coltrane's wildly talented, but i honestly get more emotionally moved by the stuff miles or even louis armstrong would blow back in the day.

...it's kinda tony rice vs. jerry garcia, if you're into bluegrass.

Meh. too many solo's, not enough song.

if you can't hear the melody, as-is, the problem is with you, not with John Coltrane. He's certainly not playing random notes, if thats what you think.