Happy Boxing Day. Listening once again to Coltranes Offering at Temple U months before he checked out & I have this advice for those who are skittish about sampling it: Dont think about the difficulty! Stop squirming because it jumps off the walls & doesnt press the usual buttons youre expecting music to do! Stop feeling assaulted by the fiery, vertiginous leaps of his saxophone or take it as some arcane form of Black Anger. Hes not angry, but maybe YOU are & dont know it. Instead...join in, goddammit! Share the empowerment in raw, unchecked possibility! You dont necessarily have to play an instrument like he does, but you sure as s--t can reshape time & space on your own canvases the way generations of artists, poets & writers have after opening themselves up to such bold, exotic wanderings. Elvin Jones, before leaving Trane behind, said only poets could understand what his soon-to-be-former boss was doing. I along with many others at the time took it as dismissal. I now know for certain he was being descriptive. You wanna Dream Big? Look over this part of the past & maybe youll find your future!
Posted on: Fri, 26 Dec 2014 18:01:55 +0000