John Coltrane - The World According to John Coltrane (1993)

John Coltrane is easily one of the key innovators, visionaries, and virtuosos of American Jazz. Coltrane's spiritually influenced and challenging music not only turned the jazz world upside down in the 1960s, but directly impacted all modern music for decades to follow. It is this relationship between music and spirituality that is the core of John Coltrane: The World According to John Coltrane. Produced with his wife's cooperation, The World According to John Coltrane is truly a heartfelt documentary on his work and influence on the music community. The bulk of the 60-minute documentary focuses on Coltrane's eastern spirituality/musical direction in the 1960s as told through the voices of friends, fellow musicians, and admirers. Perhaps the most impressive aspects of this documentary are its live footage clips. Listening to Coltrane is extremely powerful, but watching him pour his heart and soul into his sax is absolutely awe-inspiring. These clips will leave you yearning to see the entire performances, unedited. Unfortunately, this is the DVD's one fault; no extras of the performances in their entirety. Oh well. A fan can dream. --Rob Bracco Amazon.com

Very enlightening!

Even though this DVD is rather short (60 minutes), it captures the essence of the spirituality of Coltrane's music. Covers the approach of openess Coltrane took to his music incorporating Indian and eastern rythmns which inspired him and which was a basis of his spiritual development. It has a complete take on "My favorite things" which is really electrifying and also shows Coltrane jammin with Miles Davis as well. John Coltrane's music captures you and takes you on a spiritual journey unlike any other jazz musician (except maybe Miles). Very introspective interviews with his former sidemen as well. Even though the picture quality is grainy on some parts, the music is alive and mystifying and conveys Coltrane's musical genius. I highly recommend this DVD to any Coltrane fan, this is now one of my favorite DVD's in my collection along with "Miles Electric". May 2, 2005

The best ever My Favorite Things...

If this version of MFT was only available on CD, it would certainly be the best version ever...
There's only some problems with that: although the doco does contain the entirety of Coltrane's solo after Tyner's, it does not include the beginning of the performance...and also, the sound quality is so extremely bad that it almost makes you weep.

Still, this is incredible music. Coltrane here breaks so free from the studio version of the piece that one wonders why none of the recorded (or bootlegged) versions seem to have this much power...this is truly an outstanding performance, which we are lucky to have.

The visuals are also astoundingly powerful - you can see the strain in Coltrane's face, and in Elvin Jones' - drool begins dripping out of the end of the soprano sax, and at one point Coltrane (deeply into the performance) accidentally clubs the microphone with it! The visual details make this performance almost frightening to watch - one wonders what a real live performance of coltrane was like.


The other performances on this disc are very fine too - look at the ONLY complete recording of Alabama (not a single CD version has the whole piece) and it's on video too! There's a couple of fierce performances of Impressions - one with Eric Dolphy - and a superb Naima.

There is finally colour footage of Coltrane at the Newport '65 concert (New thing at Newport) which shows the frightening energy of his music making as well as the fact that James Garrison had appalling dress sense...

April 26, 2005

Excellent Documentary

The performance footage alone would be worth the price of this 1 hour documentary that focuses on the music and life of John Coltrane. Clips are included from his work with Miles Davis and also his classic quartet in an extended version of My Favorite Things. In addition there is a clip that flashes back and forth between the Southern Church tradition and Coltrane's soloing that clearly links the two and demonstrates the roots of his art in a tangible way. The interviews with Alice Coltrane, Wayne Shorter and others are illuminating and show how influential Coltrane was for other musicians. For any fan of Coltrane's music that never had the chance to see him perform this DVD offers a great opportunity to get a glimpse at the man behind all of that wonderful music. I absolutely loved it. August 18, 2004

"He integrated all of the music of the world"

I've watched quite a few documentaries lately and this is one of very best. It is straight ahead--covering Coltrane's background and musical journey through the years. There is a lot of excellent footage of him and other musicians playing--a real treat for those who like jazz from his era, as I do. There are short clips of Charlie Parker, Monk, and Ravi Shankar. In addition, one gets exposure to members of Coltrane's bands including solos by Eric Dolphy and Roscoe Mitchell, and plenty of good footage of Elvin Jones on the drums. Early on, there is a clip of Coltrane when he was in the Miles Davis band. Miles plays a bit, then Coltrane steps into a solo and the viewer can immediately see what a powerful force he was.

This film includes a long solo of Coltrane and his band playing "My Favorite Things"--where he works himself into a feverish mood. The film effectively draws a comparison between Coltrane's playing and a spiritual trance, not unlike what he would have experienced in church as a young person in North Carolina.

There are some great interviews with Rashied Ali, Tommy Flanagan, Jimmy Heath, Wayne Shorter, LaMonte Young and Alice Coltrane. In addition to the well-chosen footage, I like this film so well because it treats the viewer as intelligent. It isn't filled with superlatives and excessive fawning. It isn't condescending. "A Love Supreme" is barely mentioned. The interviewees talk to the camera (to you) like you're a real person who's curious about the life and the music of Coltrane. For a jazz fan, this is a real treasure. For someone who doesn't know much about Coltrane, it would probably be an excellent introduction. The length is about one hour. July 19, 2004

Coltrane is great - movie is weak

Coltrane and his music is really genius. The same I expect from the movie about him.
Why I consider it weak:
1. It is only 60 min and not all the time is for his music. DVD can fill > 3 h.
2. Comments are interrupting his performance. The sessions are cut at the middle.
I think I need to wait for DVD writer and create the movie that I want by myself. I want to have whole session of performance from Jazz Casual (weak picture, but the sound recording is good). I want to see as much as possible from Kind of Blue, My Favorite Things, Giants Steps and Love Supreme. I saw the parts from these sessions but I want to have all of it. I don't care that the picture can be weak, but I want to see Coltranes fingers and hear his sax.
Also for music DVD it should be the option to play only music without comments, because after couple of times you probable want to hear only music and not listen to the story. January 2, 2003

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