Passing a Stone
by ChrisFebruary 1st, 2006 1:06 am
This post is mostly for Dan Rubin’s benefit, though I hope a few of you bastards get something out of it as well. I spoke briefly with Mr. Rubin earlier this evening and he was nice enough to mention something I had posted about the album Miles Davis in Stockholm 1960 with John Coltrane. Anybody who wants to talk to me about that recording, out of the clear blue sky, earns themselves a special place in the lexicon of people I don’t know very well.
Somewhere in our brief conversation, Mr. Rubin noted that John Coltrane sounds at times as though he is trying to pass a stone on the Stockholm recording. That’s not at all a bad description. I can’t speak for him, but I think that Mr. Rubin was referring to a section of Coltrane’s solo on the tune All Blues where Coltrane employs some extraordinarily harsh saxophone multiphonics. Believe me when I say that the use of obvious saxophone multiphonics, no matter how primitive, was a fairly radical approach to the instrument in 1960. Regardless, that portion of Coltrane’s solo on All Blues has been used as an example when critics want to describe some of Coltrane’s last performances with Miles Davis Quintet as practicing on stage. To be honest, I’ve only known one person who really got the solo on his first listen. Most people just hate it. I’m not kidding when I say that it usually takes a few dozen listens before anybody really starts to really gets what is happening in that solo. There is unbelievable beauty if you are able to make the trip.
Anyway, Mr. Rubin mentioned that his tape of the 1960 performance is broken. That is awful news. Since I’ve always planned on posting the entire recording, as it has only ever been sold illegally and with no benefit to the musician’s families, tonight seem like as good a time as any to post second track for download. Enjoy.
Click here to download or play All Blues.
March 13th, 2006 at 2:58 am
You have great taste in music!
This Trane solo on All Blues is one of my favorites of the solos he did with Miles. I can see why someone would say Trane is practicing on stage. But, on the one hand, Trane is, I think, in much better command of the multiphonics than it seems at first. On the other hand, it seems to me that he is taking advantage of the difficulties in handling the multiphonics to add an element of randomness to his performance. Playing a phrase that is just beyond something he is sure he can plan cleanly means that Trane is not entirely certain what is going to come out of the horn. And that gives him a challenge for the next phrase.
Miles often does something similar when he takes advantage of limitations in his technique–as well as occasional note choices that don’t quite fit a chord in an obvious way. I think Miles once said that any note can be played against any chord, depending upon what precedes and suceeds that note. (I can’t recall, but he might have actually been quoting Duke in sayign this.) Similarly a trumpet clam can be made part of a coherent statement if Miles can find a way to integrate it his solo.
Rollins pushes himself in this way as well.
You can think of these random uncontrolled elements in the music as one place where jazz meets John Cage.