Interview with John Coltrane

This interview was conducted in the lobby of the old Astoria Hotel in New York City. Coltrane had just finished up a run of shows at the Vanguard downtown and was ready to take some time off before performing again.


NF: How have the shows been.

JC: They've been really good. Great, actually. Last night was especially good. I feel really good about the group of people I've been playing with lately. It's not forced, which is the best part.

NF: So, suffice it to say, you're having a better time now than you were as a side-man a few years ago?

JC: Well, I mean, you have to understand, that was a rough period for me. I was in a bad way with horse (heroin), and I just couldn't keep down a gig. Miles (Davis) fired me, then rehired me, then fired me, and then finally rehired me! So I mean, it was a tough period. But I think a lot of the music still holds up. You listen to a record like Round About Midnight or Kind of Blue and it still holds up. Miles is a great bandleader and a genius and working with him was great. Right now though I'm really happy to be composing and playing my own stuff.

NF: Your last record, A Love Supreme seemed to cause a pretty big debate in the jazz world. A lot of people loved it, but at the same time, a lot of the, well, I guess "purists" like some writers over at Downbeat Magazine seem to think that people like you, and Ornette Coleman, and Eric Dolphy are just playing noise.

JC: You know, Downbeat definitely has a sort of mission and it seems to be to avoid experimentation and different things. I don't hold them against them, it's just one group of people's opinions. Like you said, there were plenty of people who loved A Love Supreme. The fact is, you can't please everyone.

A lot of my style has changed in the last five years. You listen to a record like Blue Train and that to me sounds somewhat dated. It sounds like what we were doing on Kind of Blue, utilizing scales as opposed to chords. But I love all of that too, so I really think my sound is somewhat varied. I love standards just as much as I love my own compositions. But right now what I think I am trying to do is play more purely. To let the notes just drip out and to not try and clutter them with too much structure. They call it "free-jazz" but it's really just music.

NF: What is your opinion on being labelled as "free-jazz?" Are you comfortable with those connotations?

JC: It's just another way for people to pigeonhole things they may not immediately grasp. It doesn't sound like what's come before to them, so it's "noise" or "free-jazz" or "the new thing" or whatever they want to call it. I'm a musician. If they like it great, but I'm not going to worry myself about it if they don't.

NF: How did you end up getting your group together? You've been playing together for at least a few albums now, which, in the Jazz world, is pretty impressive.

JC: Yeah, it is. It definitely is, and it's something that I'm very thankful for.

McCoy (Tyner; Piano) I've known for some years before and we always wanted to work together, but the opportunity only came about a few years ago. Jimmy Garrison (Bass) came on shortly after Eric (Dolphy) left in 1962 and Elvin Jones (Drums) has been with me since I first formed the group.

NF: What direction do you think you're going to take it in next?

JC: Phew... I really don't know. I have been listening to a lot of eastern music, which is something that definitely showed up on A Love Supreme. Whatever it will be, it will be something different.

NF: A lot of fuss was made when you switched from tenor to soprano saxophone. Did you just get tired of the tenor? Exhuast it's possibilities?

JC: Absolutely not! I love playing tenor. There's a lot of tenor on A Love Supreme and frankly, I haven't given it up so much as I've given equal space to the alto. A lot of what I'm working on right now is utilizing the soprano, and just exploring it's sonic possibilities. The recording of "My Favorite Things" is using soprano and I really like the stretch that it gets. You can stretch the melody and sound in a way that you can't with a tenor or alto.

NF: So it wasn't the old story that you heard Charlie Parker and figured he's exhuasted the alto?

JC: I've heard that. But nah, that wasn't it. Though Charlie certainly did a great deal to advance music. He was a genius, but like all geniuses, it was his own thing. If he were still alive, I feel like he would just be leaps and bounds ahead of everyone else.