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1. Slow_Hand · 1790543847 · focus · HN ↗

   Career musician here. My dirty secret is that Coltrane doesn’t resonate with me at all. Not one iota; despite me being a huge jazz fan.

   For my taste, his harmonic language tips over the threshold where it goes from being viscerally enjoyable to a more heady, academic exercise. It all feels like a blur to me. Maximal in it’s vocabulary, and yet flat in it’s overall effect. It’s often so dense that it ends up feeling “same-y” and grey to me. Like Schoenberg’s serial music.

   Maybe my impression here comes from the fact that by the time I began listening to him in the mid 2000’s an entire school of derivative jazz players had long since developed upon and retroactively made his innovations feel far more common (to no fault of his own). It’s that flavor of jazz where you get the impression that the players are enjoying this way more than the audience. It’s not for me.

   1. dharma1 · 1790547441 · focus · HN ↗

      Which era Trane are you talking about? The man went through at least 4 major shifts. I’m guessing you are talking about Giant Steps and the later avant garde years?

      He did a lot of stuff too which is not dense at all and very approachable - Naima, A Love Supreme, My Favorite Things, Kind of Blue with Miles, a lot more, enjoyable, classic albums.

      Dig deeper

      1. rayval · 1790580983 · focus · HN ↗

         the songs you mention are ones that I've played time and again for 40+ years. Never get tired of them.

         Giant Steps is more abstract but still worth dipping into once in a while.

         Here is a musical analysis of Giant Steps (basically the Circle of Fifths):

         <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=62tIvfP9A2w" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=62tIvfP9A2w

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