Coltrane on Film

By Fritz Byers

The recent release of Evenings at the Village Gate, a 1961 recording of John Coltrane in performance with Eric Dolphy, propelled both Kim Kleinman and me to share a few thoughts online about ‘Trane and his impact, on us and on the music. (They are below, mine in a Sept. 13 post and Kim’s in a Sept. 26 post.)

The set lists for Jazz Spectrum have moved on, but I’ve been spending a good deal of time in the last month reading about and listening to John’s music. Kim’s thoughtful reflections about the difficulty of disentangling John from the mythos around him have helped me greatly. Alongside that, I recall reading decades ago the formulation, I believe by Martin Williams, that John’s was a lyric voice trapped by its own power. That rings all the more true now, having spent about forty-five years listening to him frequently and in-depth.

Reading. Listening. Yes. And for the last several days, I’ve been watching clips of John. A particularly personal and evocative one is his 1963 appearance on Ralph Gleason’s Jazz Casual. Here, the quartet plays “Afro-Blue,” “Alabama,” and “Impressions.” I saw this thirty-minute film one evening in 1978 at a jazz event on the campus of the University of Missouri-Kansas City, along with Jazz Casual appearances by Sonny Rollins with Jim Hall, by Count Basie, by the Modern Jazz Quartet, and by Dave Brubeck with Paul Desmond. I still recall the revelatory quality of the evening. The next morning I played hookey from work at the steel plant, went to a record store, and bought my first jazz albums.

Here’s Coltrane’s 1963 appearance on Jazz Casual

Here’s the Quartet, live in 1965, with an extended version of “My Favorite Things”

And a 1965 rendition of John’s lovely composition, “Naima”

Happy watching!