John Coltrane, Frank Kofsky Interview 1966 Part 1

John Coltrane, in his longest recorded interview, speaks with nebbishly communist Frank Kofsky one year before Coltrane's death. "Phrases don't mean much to me."

Category:

Music

Tags:

• coltrane
• jazz
• interview

[osensei2987]

This dude is so obsessed w/ race! Coltrane was truly a gentleman to give this moron the time of day!

[sisyphus511]

His Giant Steps have made him for ever an icon that superseded and transcended all the commercial jazz that was played in those days. And his humble but very classy demeanour could only be admired because he took no s--- from nobody!

[DerekMenchan]

bravo. the point is the 'trane doesn't dig labels; indeed, phrases don't mean much to him. he is getting as one with the music and all that talking stuff is wholly other, and ex post facto.

[numbskullandy]

I love it! Kofsky is desperately trying to project his own socialist ideology onto Coltrane, about jazz music being an expression of what's happening in the black community, and other such mumbo jumbo. And Coltrane responds that it's up to every individual to "call it what you may, but myself: I recognise the artist, and I recognise an individual, I see his contribution, and when I know a man's sound, well, to me: that's him." What a wise man.

[SeerTrulth]

Mister Coltrane is kind, grounded and not even caught-up in the elements of these questions. He's thinking about patterns of sounds that God is trying to get through a human body, and has only courteous time for this level of questioning. What a pleasant genius.

[daddysevenpointfiver]

@Pizuzuzimmer while your run-on sentence was true it is short-sighted. Trane elevated, through music and meditation, beyond race. His personality is music, love and unity.

[kevinherbert]

@sisyphus511 : get over your prissy attitudes: interviewers are meant to dig for a story..it may not be the one you like, but that's their gig......

[sisyphus511]

It was 1966 after all, the squeaky interviewer was with one of the greatest jazzman that has ever dared to express unique musical extravagance that will be for ever appreciated by those who don’t dwell on racial background but rather on creative darings; notice how the man himself answered the petty questions!

[BennyGaberMusic]

@osensei2987 different times man

[Pizuzuzimmer]

You geniuses who are so eager to get Trane away from any recognition of American racism conveniently overlook the central reason why a black musician who wants to make a living in a white-dominated society might avoid talking too much in an interview about what any observer with even one working eye could hardly miss. Any black man in America in 1966 knew what speaking openly about race and racism could get you, and none of it was good.

[MrBubblegumballs]

people like Brubeck, Rich, Haden, (white guys) are indistinguishable from the blacks racially..but the hardest thing to an improviser is to be the shiny nice instument in their grasp..then the content in themes they play can either be good, GREAT or crap (kenny g).