The concept behind the Favorites series is
a simple one; this series allows antiMUSIC writers and occasional guest
rock stars to share their favorite albums and tell us why that particular
album had made a lasting impression on them.
Note: due to the nature of this series, the reviews
may tend to be more in the first person than you are used to with music
criticism.
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This month we have a special edition of Favorites. This month
DeadSun goes solo with a review for an artist that really deserves to be
in the Legends or Classic's series but we decided to let DeadSun dedicate
this month's Favorite's feature to one of his favorite recordings from
this legend.
John Coltrane
- Sun Ship
"The Music of Heaven and Hell."
... a DS Favorite
It isn't a difficult task to, through the
application of the intellect, identify the benefits brought to us by an
immersion into the arts--- be it music, prose, poetry, painting, sculpting,
and so on.
For each of us who fall into this category,
we will--- perhaps four, maybe five times during the course of our lives---
stumble upon the work of an artist that is able to communicate with our
minds in a language that transcends the uttered word. Regardless of the
medium which it is presented in, it provokes the senses and the cognitive
reflex in a way that lies beyond the reach of our understanding. It bypasses
the filter of the steely intellect, and stirs profound reactions within
us.
Speaking only for myself, one such exceedingly
rare artist is John Coltrane--- and the particular work in question is
"Sun Ship".
Recorded on August 26th, 1965, at RCA Victor
studios, "Sun Ship" features John Coltrane on tenor sax, McCoy Tyner on
piano, Jimmy Garrison on bass, and the ingenious percussionist Elvin Jones
at the drum kit--- arguably the greatest and most accomplished quartet
that John Coltrane ever assembled. The years falling in between 1955 and
1967 are almost universally regarded as the period during which John Coltrane
released the body of work that--- literally--- revolutioned jazz, and ultimately
Western music itself. I believe this would not have been accomplished were
it not for the rhythm section that sat in--- the same players--- for a
straight four years of those recording sessions and gigs. By 1965, this
quartet had developed a musical intuitiveness toward one another that bordered
on a precognitive gnosis--- as if sixteen limbs were functioning by way
of the same mind. The months within and around 1965 yielded sessions like
"A Love Supreme", "Meditations", and "Ascension". Not only was Coltrane's
creative element whirring in a godly overdrive, but it was prolific in
a way that was (and remains) virtually without precedent in modern music.
"Sun Ship" was--- from a perspective of
conventional attitudes toward musical form, rhythm, dynamics, and tonality---
aeons ahead of its own time, and I venture to say that we in the present
have yet to catch up with it. "Sun Ship" is the great and terrible musical
storm of the century; with Jones' dynamic, free tempo fills providing the
peels of thunder, Garrison's frenetic plucking the downpour of hail and
rain, Tyner's hard chordal passages the touchdown of atmospheric electricity,
and Coltrane's tenor sax the narrative conciousness. The opening track
rushes in with sonic intensity, and whereas (the works of) Miles Davis
revolutioned the intellect of the artform, it can be said that the sonic
free forms explored by Coltrane in "Sun Ship" (et al) revolutionized the
spiritual dimension which clearly courses through the veins, to a greater
or lesser degree, of not merely jazz, but within all music.
This is not a recording for the crude ear.
An initial, half-hearted spin will often strike the novice listener as
messy, chaotic scalework--- a sloppy free for all. Several uninterrupted
listens reveal a brilliant and deliberate mastery over conflicting structures
and seemingly incompatible tempi. Polyrhythmic flutters overlap, Coltrane's
augmented scales clash abrasively but purposefully against Garrison's pizzicato
counter-strikes, and Elvin Jones conducts the entire beast of rhythmic
savagery with a dynamism and confidence that utterly stupefies the brain.
Elvin Jones' work with John Coltrane on "Sun Ship" stands as an immoveable
monument that explains his legendary status among drummers of every age
and style. This is music for its own sake and expression. The music heard
is not only music as a profound artform--- it is the quintessence of music
in its most exalted state, faithfully and sincerely crafted to brim with
every redeemable quality we credit to music. From the opening, relentless
tumult of the title track, to the wind-down tempo and strummed final, triple
stop on Garrison's bass--- "Sun Ship" is a journey from start to finish.
Whatever your stylistic preferences are---
be it Rock, Classical, Blues, Hard Rock, Metal, Punk, Ska, Country, Electronica---
if you embrace music as an artform, then I am here to encourage you to
acquire this recording, along with any other of Coltrane's works from that
period (circa 1965). He was truly one of the most profound musical visionaries
of the 20th century. John Coltrane's influence has taken root within artists
of every caliber and grade. Based upon my own estimations of what music
ideally means and represents, "Sun Ship" approaches the divine.
It is the music made in both heaven and
hell.
Until next month, this is DS, signing off.
Listen
to samples and Purchase this CD online
Tracks:
1.) Sun Ship 6:12
2.) Dearly Beloved 6:27
3.) Amen 8:16
4.) Attaining 11:26
5.) Ascent 10:10
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