Coltrane: The Story of a Sound by Ben Ratliff
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

"I feel this music, or rather, as I said, it opens up a part of my self that normally is tightly closed, and seldom-recognized feeling, emotions, thoughts well up from the opened door and sear my consciousness."
(From Don DeMichael's review of Coltrane's Meditations, 1965.)

I wish I were able to describe my feelings about Coltrane's music as eloquently as in Don DeMichael's quote shown above. Along with Johann Sebastian Bach, John Coltrane is my favorite artist in music. Coltrane is known as the most accomplished saxophone player in the history of the instrument, but he also was a phenomenally gifted composer, great band leader, and a true visionary whose quest for perfection made a profound impact on the 20th century jazz and music in general. In 2014 I reviewed here Lewis Porter's biography of Coltrane, John Coltrane: His Life and Music , widely recognized as the most authoritative source on the composer's life and music. While Ben Ratliff's Coltrane: the Story of a Sound (2007) is not as acclaimed I think it largely matches the quality of Porter's work and in some aspects surpasses it.

The book contains two rather distinct parts: the first tells, in chronological order, the story of Coltrane's music, and the second - called by the author a "posthumous mirror" - describes the story of Coltrane's influence on jazz, other music, and culture and society in general. In Part One the author takes us from Coltrane's first listening to Bird (Charlie Parker) in Dizzy Gillespie's group in 1945, through joining Miles Davis band in 1955, working with Thelonious Monk in 1957, to the first album he released on his own, Giant Steps. Then, in 1961, come the famous Live at the Village Vanguard recording sessions and the so-called classic quartet is formed (Coltrane, Tyner, Jones, and Garrison) whose art culminates in late 1964 with A Love Supreme, to me the most breathtaking piece of music ever created along with several Bach compositions and the Late Quartets by Beethoven. Finally, comes the so-called "free-jazz period," Coltrane's experimentation with expanding the band, and other tremendous albums like Transition or Meditations.

Part Two - the story of Coltrane's influence on other artists and on society - is drawn on the backdrop of social and cultural changes of the 1960s. The author offers fascinating insights like, for instance:

"Love of God emboldened [Coltrane] toward a position of silence about music and about politics. As the ambient noise of sixties culture grew louder around him, the more he desired to block it out and hear only himself; the more he went inward."

Yet, to me, that part of the book suffers a little from the author's attempts to find some unifying theme, an overarching motif that would explain the evolution of Coltrane and his music. It almost feels as Mr. Ratliff were trying to develop a Grand Unified Theory of Coltrane's music. I doubt any such thing is feasible - human stories and stories of art are influenced by so many factors that they are in effect random. Still, it is a great book about one of the most important artists in human history. Highly recommended!

Four stars.

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