Off to Space

I’ve been a fan of John Coltrane’s music for a very long time. He was too modern for my jazz loving Nan, but we I went down the jazz wormhole fully in my teens, his tenor sound lit the way.

A few years ago I heard In Movement, an album so good I’ve played it regularly since its release. The sax player on it is Coltrane’s son, Ravi Coltrane and on one of the tracks he and the drummer, Jack DeJonette, play tribute to Rashied Ali, the drummer who had played on Coltrane Snr’s last recordings.

Recently I was exploring the last Mile Davis and John Coltrane concerts when it dawned on me that I’d never heard these original drum and saxophone duets. So, after getting my hands on Interstellar Space, Coltrane’s last recording, I donned the headphones and took off.

Reviewers have described this album as inaccessible, and they do have a point. If you try to hang the music on a specific structure, or label, it gets hard. You have to let yourself go and enjoy the journey. 

You have to surrender.