Customer Reviews

World According to John Coltrane [VHS]

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is it folks. This is as close as you'll get to a John Coltrane solo, and hence, according to some, as close as you will get to God in this lifetime. Not only can you hear the notes, but you can see the riveting intensity that consumed Coltrane when he was playing. All the great jazz players can play lots of notes, but Coltrane can tear you up with one note. In addition to ferocious runs up and down the horn Trane plays lots of long searing notes. Just one note, but the attack, the tone, the intensity, the release, are unparalleled in jazz. If you are new to jazz, listen to these notes, they embody the essence of Coltrane, they will tell you all you need to know, for now.

In the tape of "So What" the camera is right in Miles face as he finishes his solo. The picture is perfectly clear, you can see the minutest detail of the expressions on his face as he creates in the moment classic jazz. As he finishes he steps aside as Trane moves up to the mic, playing a few casual notes. Then, immediately, Coltrane reaches white hot intensity, playing long screaming notes alternating with arpeggios defining his harmonic concept. This is it. The Ultimate. It is interesting to see the other players nonchalantly standing about as Trane plays, Occasionally one will look over. The world had never heard music like this before, and Trane was scandalizing critics and fans by the thousands, but these guys were cool. What a moment!

The video is about the music, and are several extended cuts included, along with commentary by musicians that played with Trane, this commentary is not too compelling, but, it does give some idea of how Trane's contemporaries related to him. The only way I can think of to make it better would be to make it longer. Another astounding thing to me is that this footage of Trane in action exists. It appears from this video that there is lots of it. How about a sequel, now that we really need one!

I like the DVD edition, first, because it's digital, indestructible, etc., and second because you can have immediate access to the individual `chapters' making up the disc without scanning through the commentary, etc.

Coltrane and his music is really genius. The same I expect from the movie about him.
Why I consider it weak:
1. It is only 60 min and not all the time is for his music. DVD can fill > 3 h.
2. Comments are interrupting his performance. The sessions are cut at the middle.
I think I need to wait for DVD writer and create the movie that I want by myself. I want to have whole session of performance from Jazz Casual (weak picture, but the sound recording is good). I want to see as much as possible from Kind of Blue, My Favorite Things, Giants Steps and Love Supreme. I saw the parts from these sessions but I want to have all of it. I don't care that the picture can be weak, but I want to see Coltranes fingers and hear his sax.
Also for music DVD it should be the option to play only music without comments, because after couple of times you probable want to hear only music and not listen to the story.

John Coltrane keeps growing larger each year. Prestige, Atlantic and Impulse all have massive box treatments of this man. there are30 books in print from ... that deal with him{from Lewis Porter's definitive biography, to a collection of poetry dedicated to him, DEAR John Coltrane} There is an African Orthodox Church in San Francisco that is called the church of St. John Coltrane.So ,it would seem, there is soemthing profound about coltane that touches many people at their very center. this Video, done in cooperation with Alice Coltrane{hence the somewhat reverant tone] is a compilation of mostly muscial clips taken from the early 60's, with soem nice moments of coltrane with the Miles davis quintet. Some grainy black in white footage{though the sound is surprisingly good},compliments the color footage of Newport ,and the interviews{Tommy FLanigan, Rashid ali}are helpful. The music, though is the real star here. look at Coltrane as he goes into a loong, long solo,what passion and energy he consumes. he was looking, we are told, for God, and the sound of God.With the legacy he left, I think he may have found it. Well done, far from definitive, though a good part of the canon.

I've watched quite a few documentaries lately and this is one of very best. It is straight ahead--covering Coltrane's background and musical journey through the years. There is a lot of excellent footage of him and other musicians playing--a real treat for those who like jazz from his era, as I do. There are short clips of Charlie Parker, Monk, and Ravi Shankar. In addition, one gets exposure to members of Coltrane's bands including solos by Eric Dolphy and Roscoe Mitchell, and plenty of good footage of Elvin Jones on the drums. Early on, there is a clip of Coltrane when he was in the Miles Davis band. Miles plays a bit, then Coltrane steps into a solo and the viewer can immediately see what a powerful force he was.

This film includes a long solo of Coltrane and his band playing "My Favorite Things"--where he works himself into a feverish mood. The film effectively draws a comparison between Coltrane's playing and a spiritual trance, not unlike what he would have experienced in church as a young person in North Carolina.

There are some great interviews with Rashied Ali, Tommy Flanagan, Jimmy Heath, Wayne Shorter, LaMonte Young and Alice Coltrane. In addition to the well-chosen footage, I like this film so well because it treats the viewer as intelligent. It isn't filled with superlatives and excessive fawning. It isn't condescending. "A Love Supreme" is barely mentioned. The interviewees talk to the camera (to you) like you're a real person who's curious about the life and the music of Coltrane. For a jazz fan, this is a real treasure. For someone who doesn't know much about Coltrane, it would probably be an excellent introduction. The length is about one hour.

If this version of MFT was only available on CD, it would certainly be the best version ever...
There's only some problems with that: although the doco does contain the entirety of Coltrane's solo after Tyner's, it does not include the beginning of the performance...and also, the sound quality is so extremely bad that it almost makes you weep.

Still, this is incredible music. Coltrane here breaks so free from the studio version of the piece that one wonders why none of the recorded (or bootlegged) versions seem to have this much power...this is truly an outstanding performance, which we are lucky to have.

The visuals are also astoundingly powerful - you can see the strain in Coltrane's face, and in Elvin Jones' - drool begins dripping out of the end of the soprano sax, and at one point Coltrane (deeply into the performance) accidentally clubs the microphone with it! The visual details make this performance almost frightening to watch - one wonders what a real live performance of coltrane was like.


The other performances on this disc are very fine too - look at the ONLY complete recording of Alabama (not a single CD version has the whole piece) and it's on video too! There's a couple of fierce performances of Impressions - one with Eric Dolphy - and a superb Naima.

There is finally colour footage of Coltrane at the Newport '65 concert (New thing at Newport) which shows the frightening energy of his music making as well as the fact that James Garrison had appalling dress sense...

The video gives a comprehensive overview of Trane's career. Although the biographical coverage is superficial, it does provide some chilling clips of some hypnotic performances. The producers offer us a great deal of live tape spanning his career without littering the film with excessive hype and the unwelcomed, unsavoy commentary that we so often find in documentaries of popular artists. I found myself longing for more performance, especially from the 50's and early 60's during his collaborations with Miles and Theloneous. It also lacks bio for his supporting musicians such as Flanagan, Tynor, and bassist-extraordinaire Paul Chambers, who made such great contributions in the creation of Trane's treasured works of art (After all, how many musicians can run with the complexity and intensity of Trane's work's like "Giant Steps"?). Watching this video left me with a great yearning to see all those performances from which those soul teasing clips came. To the producers credit, they would need half a dozen videos to cover the depths of Trane's prolific career. This video does an excellent job of commanding awe and respect for the greatest spiritual artist in jazz-- John Coltane.

Even though this DVD is rather short (60 minutes), it captures the essence of the spirituality of Coltrane's music. Covers the approach of openess Coltrane took to his music incorporating Indian and eastern rythmns which inspired him and which was a basis of his spiritual development. It has a complete take on "My favorite things" which is really electrifying and also shows Coltrane jammin with Miles Davis as well. John Coltrane's music captures you and takes you on a spiritual journey unlike any other jazz musician (except maybe Miles). Very introspective interviews with his former sidemen as well. Even though the picture quality is grainy on some parts, the music is alive and mystifying and conveys Coltrane's musical genius. I highly recommend this DVD to any Coltrane fan, this is now one of my favorite DVD's in my collection along with "Miles Electric".

The performance footage alone would be worth the price of this 1 hour documentary that focuses on the music and life of John Coltrane. Clips are included from his work with Miles Davis and also his classic quartet in an extended version of My Favorite Things. In addition there is a clip that flashes back and forth between the Southern Church tradition and Coltrane's soloing that clearly links the two and demonstrates the roots of his art in a tangible way. The interviews with Alice Coltrane, Wayne Shorter and others are illuminating and show how influential Coltrane was for other musicians. For any fan of Coltrane's music that never had the chance to see him perform this DVD offers a great opportunity to get a glimpse at the man behind all of that wonderful music. I absolutely loved it.

Se você gosta do som espiritual único de Coltrane, vai encontrar nesta fita um excelente material. O diretor realmente captou o espírito da coisa. Takes longos mostram excelentes momentos de várias fases da carreira de Trane com depoimentos de músicos de primeira. Estranho é a voz em off sem imagens da esposa Alice Coltrane enquanto outros depoimentos são acompanhados de imagem. Alguns takes são realmente hipnóticos com imagens impressionantes de Coltrane em transe profundo. Imagens adicionais da banda de rock Birds e Ravi Shankar mostrando um panorama da época. No final a imagem de Pharoah Sanders é sintomática como o herdeiro do inigualável mestre.