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The tunes from John Coltrane's Expression album are from Coltrane's last two recording session recorded shortly before he died in July, 1967. Coltrane was suffering from incurable liver cancer and knew that he was dying at the time of these recording, although he told almost no one of his condition. Despite the evidence of his own mortality, Coltrane invented amazing music almost up to the end. I've always thought of this album as Coltrane's musical last will and testament. Carl Sagan's crew at Jet Propulsion Laboratories compiled an album that was attached to the Voyager space probes which would represent the best musical utterances of all of humanity, because the Voyagers were going to be the first man-made objects to leave the solar system. I've always felt that Ogunde from this album should have been one of the recordings that was included. It is a short performance, less than 5 minutes. I feel when I listen to this that Coltrane was trying to sum up his entire life in this one short performance. His sound is incredibly large and lyrical and centered, with a huge vibrato. Soloing, he shows his incredible mastery of harmony and rhythm, floating away from the theme and then returning to it twice. He ends the piece with a seemingly endless flow of fast pitches that he breathes at a whisper. No one has shown this kind of mastery of the tenor saxophone in the 33 years since Trane's passing. Offering and Expression both share a similar kind of plan. They both start with lyrical, out of tempo melodies, that Coltrane varies very freely. The drummer, Rashied Ali, rolls lightly in accompaniment and Alice Coltrane plays arpregiated harp-like piano. After several repetitions of the main themes, Ali swells up like a storm and Coltrane turns to duel with him. Coltrane plays circular roll-like figures in the middle of his horn that sound like he's imitating Ali's drum figures. He constantly breaks free of these loops and screams high or drops low on his horn, sometimes seeming to play in the high, low and middle registers all within the same beat. At the end of each duel, Alice and Jimmy Garrison re-enter and Coltrane returns to the main theme of the pieces, each time like the sun breaking through storm clouds and shining like glory. The fourth piece on the album, "To Be" is one of the few performances where Coltrane is recorded playing flute. I've heard that he was playing a flute that he inherited from his friend Eric Dolphy for this. His young friend, Pharoah Sanders, accompanies on flute. The piece maintains a single slow mysterious mood for all of its 15 minute length. I don't usually listen this much, since it's not as substantial a piece of music as Ogunde, Offering and Expression. Coltrane's music can seem dangerous at first. You need preparation. It's a little mean for me to make Expression the first Coltrane album that I've written about. This was his last recording. He used every bit of his musical knowledge to make it. Coltrane's music is strong stuff. If you are unprepared, it may overwhelm you and leave you bewildered. Here are some things you should know.
He could play very fast. Listening to Trane, you have to give up the idea that you are going to catch every note as it blows past you. Instead, the notes melt together and give you a composite feeling. There is a lot of evidence that when he was playing his fastest he was playing notes that outline a chord so you can hear him play chords against what his piano player was playing. He invented a new sound for the saxophone. He came from a family of black preachers and his saxophone sound emulates a preacher who is feeling the Holy Spirit,especially in his later recording. In every period of his career he had a high keening sound on tenor saxophone. By the early 60's, he had mastered ways of producing multiphonics (notes that sounded two or three notes at once). He was able to bend his notes to find blue sounds at any instant in his lines. He could change his range so quickly that he could honk a low note and scream high in just an eyeblink. He's a portal through which African ideas entered Western music in a very strong way. His favorite drummer, Elvin Jones, played polyrhythmically (multiple rhythm streams that maintain more than one pulse at the same time) and with great intensity. Elvin was playing on his drum set what an African drum ensemble with four or five drummers would play. Elvin was always changing the flow of the rhythm as Trane soloed and would change his accompaniment for each soloist in the band. He and his quartet played like they were having a four way conversation, where everyone had space to say something at any moment. Trane would go high and Elvin would cymbal bash to send him higher. Elvin would roll and Trane would play a repetitive rolling pattern to match Elvin's figures. Elvin would play a pattern on his low drums and Trane would honk low to get down there with him. At the strongest moments, all four men would together spin the music like a giant man, whirling, getting ready to throw a huge weight for miles. His sound was very vocal. He wasn't trying for the clean sound that Westerners idolize. He was willing to moan, sob, shout and scream with his horn. blog comments powered by Disqus
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Last update: Tuesday, June 15, 2004 at 8:59 AM. |
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