Wednesday is the 100th anniversary of the birth of jazz saxophonist John Coltrane. A tenor titan born a century ago may seem like old news, but with his timeless vision, Coltrane’s relevance transcends the years and extends far beyond the world of music.
Coltrane was jazz’s spiritual leader. He relentlessly pursued an understanding of the human condition. His most profound recording documenting his quest came just two years before his premature death. “A Love Supreme,” released in 1965, is a landmark work of art and faith. In its liner notes, Coltrane describes it as “a humble offering” and “an attempt to say ‘THANK YOU GOD.’”
Coltrane’s lifetime achievements are so immense that, in 2007, he was one of only three musical artists ever awarded a special posthumous Pulitzer Prize citation for a contribution to jazz. It was for his “iconic centrality to the history of jazz” and how through “’A Love Supreme,’ he produced an imposing composition expressing faith.”
Listening to “A Love Supreme,” we hear Coltrane’s metaphysical invocations ascend to the heavens. We hope they are heard; we pray they are answered. Though in the end, their ontological significance may simply be that they were offered.
Coltrane believed that “my music is the spiritual expression of what I am — my faith, my knowledge, my being. … When you begin to see the possibilities of music, you desire to do something really good for people, to help humanity. … I want to speak to their souls.”
This may sound like an awful lot for music to do, but art can indeed explore and express the human dilemma. That is the cleft between the subjective and the objective, the finite and the infinite, the profane and the sacred. The earthy sweatiness of Saturday night is followed immediately by the sacred spirituality of Sunday morning. It’s here where the dichotomy of our existence collides and where, depending on our courage, we attempt to resolve or dissolve these implications.
Coltrane’s art imitated his spiritual life. In a similar way, our daily lives are informed by how bravely we confront the issues Coltrane explored. Our character is expressed in countless ways every day — including how we interact with others.
Coltrane eventually found the courage to face life’s existential challenge. He embraced and then embodied it — spiritually, musically and as a fellow human being. His life came to illuminate the mutually arising conditions of space and sound, tradition and sedition, the individual and the universal, and even life and death.
Coltrane died of liver cancer on July 17, 1967, at age 40. His heroin addiction during the early 1950s was a likely contributor. That time of challenge, however, was before his transformation. In “A Love Supreme,” Coltrane describes how, in 1957, he experienced “by the grace of God, a spiritual awakening which was to lead me to a richer, fuller, more productive life.”
The 17th century mathematician and physicist Blaise Pascal believed the person who searches for God has found him. If so, Coltrane surely found what he sought so passionately before his death. His life moved from pain to promise, despair to hope, and perhaps as humanly possible, from sinner to saint.
Coltrane said he believed in all religions. Along with Christianity, he studied Eastern philosophies and was particularly drawn to Sufism. Part of his evolution does seem rooted in the following sentiment attributed to the 13th century Sufi mystic Rumi: “Yesterday I was clever, so I wanted to change the world. Today I am wise, so I am changing myself.”
I certainly don’t pretend Coltrane’s personal path has all the answers for today’s societal ills — or even that there are any easy answers. But I do see the value in looking inward when striving to understand and endure the questions and trials arising from the contradictions and challenges of life. This is a small but sound starting point toward trying to mend some of humanity’s challenges.
Coltrane summed this up as endeavoring “so that we can see more and more clearly what we are. In that way, we can give to those who listen the essence, the best of what we are. But to do that at each stage, we have to keep on cleaning the mirror.”
This vision clearly led Coltrane to “A Love Supreme.”
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Steven D. Reske is an attorney in Minneapolis and a former longtime jazz journalist for national and local publications. He served as legal editor at large for the magazine Minnesota Law & Politics.
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