I Love Jazz

I love John Coltraine's music, especially with a good book and a cup of coffee while my wife and two children are taking a Saturday afternoon nap and the weather is wonderful like it has been the last week or so and the sky is so blue that makes you happy. . . and all along inside my ears I hear the talking horn of John Coltraine and the wonderful jazz drumming of Elvin Jones and McCoy Tyner on piano and if you listen in you realize that all of it is grounded by some bass player allowing the music to sound wild and free, but still tied to rhythm, still grounded by something you could almost do by tapping your fingers, something you can understand with your mind. . . but the part that I love is the emotions that fill the other things (it doesn't have to just be the bass keeping everyone in the same musical language), these jazz musicians seem to take turns on who remains orthodox and dogmatic, usually the majority will remain fixed to the song itself, while in turn they try their hand at a kind of free play. They are safe because of the others and probably if I knew about music I would hear them following rules of keys and harmony .. . but it is the improvisation that works like children's play and gives the music such emotional power. It is both of these things together, watching each others back, keeping each other from falling off any cliffs, that I love about Jazz, especially in the form of John Coltraine. 

This is a cleaned up bit of writing I jotted down in 2004.