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CD 3.18 Listening Guide 18.1 “My Favorite Things” JOHN COLTRANEListen & Refl ect
- Listen to this song as it appears on a Broadway cast record or fi lm soundtrack of The
Sound of Music. What features of the song do Coltrane and his musicians retain in their
versions, and what features seem entirely different? - Listen to any of Coltrane’s uncut recordings of this tune, from his 1961 album My Favorite
Things or one of the later versions. What musical effects does he achieve with the longer
time span that cannot be heard in this shortened version?
track was trimmed down and cut in two for release on side A (LG 18.1) and B of a
45-rpm single.
Many of Coltrane’s later compositions bear titles that refl ect his interest in
non-Western religions, from African traditions to Islam and Zen Buddhism. Two
1965 albums, A Love Supreme and Ascension, mark the apex of his efforts to carry
jazz into new expressive territory. The fi rst is a four-movement suite that includes
Coltrane’s overdubbed voice chanting the title phrase as though it were a mantra.
The second is a sprawling forty-minute free-jazz improvisation for eleven musi-
cians that captures some of the intensity of his group’s live performances in those
years.
W hether improvising the frenetic streams of fast notes that one critic dubbed
“sheets of sound” or revealing his gentler, more lyrical side, Coltrane projected
a seriousness of purpose that won the respect of musicians both within the jazz
world and beyond. Among the many musicians inspired by Coltrane’s spiritual
approach was his wife, harpist Alice Coltrane, who combined Hindu spiritual
practices with her musical activities. And as a later section in this chapter shows,
his infl uence extended beyond the jazz world into the classical sphere.CHAPTER 18 | CLASSICAL MUSIC IN THE 1960sK John Coltrane (1926–
1967) revived interest in the
soprano sax around 1960.non-Western infl uences172028_18_440-467_r3_sd.indd 445 23/01/13 11:02 AM