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There has long been a conflation between jazz
music and the open road. Perhaps this is due in part to the vagrancy
inherent in the life of a jazz musician, traveling from town to town,
catching gigs where possible. Jazz is the great American art form, and no
one conveyed itsromanticism and spontaneity like John Coltrane.
Coltrane’s music resembles nothing so much as a journey by rail, landscape
bouncing gaily by as you glide onwards, never exactly sure where the next
stretch of track will take you. Here, the destination is nothing, and the
journey is everything. Coltrane’s music evokes movement in its purest sense.
It’s not music to dance to, but music that dances on its own, alive with a
supernatural animation.
Of course, most will recognize Coltrane’s inescapable cover of “My Favorite
Things,” a frenzied version of the Sound of Music classic that’s been used
in more TV commercials than probably any song, ever. But where Coltrane
really shines is in the moments where he dials back all his manic tenor
saxophone energy, such as the show stopping Giant Steps track “Naima.” The
incredible purity of that sound, nearly naked, dressed only in light piano
and a brushed-drum shuffle, must make modern production engineers weep.
Coltrane’s work is a reminder that music, like all art, cannot be
manufactured, cannot be invented, cannot be devised. It is already there,
always was there, just waiting for the right medium to share it with the
world. John Coltrane was one of those mediums, a ubiquitous jazz giant who
didn’t so much revolutionize the genre as he did embody it. If Jazz is God –
and who’s to say it’s not – Coltrane was certainly His Metatron.
Celebrate the tenor saxophone virtuoso's birthday with a Blue Train
cocktail, so named after Coltrane's iconic hard bop album of 1957. The
purplish blue color of the cocktail is created with a dash of Crème Yvette
which is a 100-year-old liquor distilled from Parma violet petals, vanilla,
and spices. When production of Crème Yvette was halted in 1969, bartenders
substituted a drop of blue food coloring which notably affected the taste of
this classic cocktail. Production of Crème Yvette was revived in 2009.
We suggest that
sip a few while watching
The World
According to John Coltrane (1991).
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