Tracing a wide-ranging musical life
Documentary captures the spirit of jazz musician
It’s the reverence.
That’s one of the lasting impressions from John Scheinfeld’s documentary on John Coltrane, the reverence people have for the legendary jazz saxophonist. In Chasing Trane, most of the interviewees — including family members, musicians, journalists and former U.S. president Bill Clinton — speak in awe and sometimes hushed tones about Coltrane’s musicianship as well as his spirituality. You can practically see the pedestal.
What is it about Coltrane’s music that inspires such reverence? Was there a 20th-century musician who more embodied the combination of musicality and spirituality? Maybe not — not many musicians have had a church started in their name. At one point in Chasing Trane, guitarist Carlos Santana says Coltrane’s sound “rearranges molecular structures.”
That’s heady stuff, but Chasing Trane isn’t a heady doc. Through the eyes of others, Scheinfeld personalizes the man behind the mythological music. (The quotes from Coltrane are voiced by Denzel Washington.) In one endearing anecdote, stepdaughter Antonia Andrews describes how Coltrane walked home from a gig during a snowstorm to help save money to buy her new shoes.
The enlightening personal stories complement the main story of Coltrane’s wide-ranging musical life. Chasing Trane traces his career from his North Carolina beginnings to his death in July 1967 at age 40 from liver cancer.
He packed a lot in, and Chasing Trane more than covers the high points. Some examples: His two tenures with Miles Davis in the 1950s produced some of the most acclaimed jazz in history, including Kind of Blue (1959) — considered by many to be the best jazz album of the bunch. Coltrane’s swirling soprano-sax interpretation of My Favourite Things in 1961, reinvented a show tune and became a hit.
He then added bassist Jimmy Garrison to pianist McCoy Tyner (interviewed in the documentary and the only living band member), and drummer Elvin Jones in what would become known as the classic quartet.
In December 1964, the foursome recorded what’s considered Coltrane’s spiritual and musical apex: A Love Supreme. Chasing Trane provides extensive background and commentary on A Love Supreme, which features a final movement titled Psalm. Coltrane wrote a liner prayer for Psalm and interpreted it via his tenor saxophone. His spirituality and music are entwined; the documentary makes that clear.
After A Love Supreme, Coltrane continued his search by exploring more abrasive — or what he called “cleansing” — sounds and adding musicians to the classic quartet. He lost a lot of fans, critics and musicians in the process — Tyner and Jones both left by the end of 1965. Chasing Trane explores the pro and con reaction, but doesn’t go into much detail about Coltrane’s polarizing final musical phase. Coltrane’s free-jazz landmark Ascension — recorded with 10 other musicians about six months after A Love Supreme — is heard on the soundtrack but not discussed. There is, however, plenty of detail on the final year of Coltrane’s tragically short life, including fascinating coverage of his tour of Japan.
As you would expect, Chasing Trane is crammed with music from Coltrane’s career, but it’s very much a visual documentary as well. Gorgeous photos from jazz’s heyday of the 1950s and ’60s, concert and studio footage and never-before-seen home movies help present the humanity behind the musical icon.
Chasing Trane accomplishes dual goals: Coltrane devotees will cherish it, but it’s also accessible enough for the uninitiated to enjoy. The documentary will undoubtedly inspire those same uninitiated to explore Coltrane’s music. And once you start to explore it, it becomes a labour of love. A love supreme.