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Spirituality In Jazz And The Coltrane Effect
“I experienced, by the grace of God, a spiritual awakening which was to lead me to a
richer, fuller, more productive life.” – John Coltrane
What role does spirituality play in Jazz and what effect does this have? How
important is spirituality to the music? Almost all considerable Jazz musicians (past
and present) have links to religion and spirituality, often affecting the music they
create; it’s purpose, it’s sound, it’s meaning. Connections between Jazz and
spirituality are rife throughout the short history of the music, often defining an artist,
genre or movement within Jazz. When studying the links between spirituality and
Jazz, one name appears frequently - John Coltrane. His was not the only career and
music to be deeply rooted in spirituality, but it is certainly one of the most high profile
and highly publicised. However, to understand how spirituality could take precedence
in the latter stages of Coltrane’s career, we must first understand the background to
spirituality in Jazz and how Jazz is anchored in the church and religion.
It is widely recognised that one of the key origins of Jazz is church music – gospel
songs, hymns and “spirituals” sung by the black slaves transported from Africa to
America in the 1800s-early 1900s. Most of the ‘founders’ of jazz from New Orleans
attended church regularly, if not as followers of Christ, for social reasons. They were
well acquainted with the styles of black gospel singing and the outpouring of
expression in worship, all of which played a large role in the creation of Jazz. The
original Jazz bands played at weddings, funerals and many other Christianity-based
festivals and celebrations in New Orleans. Christianity (in many forms and
denominations) is a large part of the African-American history from which Jazz grew.
Many Jazz musicians have converted to a religion or found faith through the music.
Muslim converts include Art Blakey 1, Billy Higgins and Ahmad Jamal. Herbie
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whose band ‘The Jazz Messengers’ was reportedly a tribute to the prophets – or
‘messengers’ – Jesus, Mohammad and Moses, as well as the fact that it’s first
incarnation was made up almost entirely of Muslims.
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JJ Wheeler – Spirituality In Jazz And The Coltrane Effect
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Hancock, Wayne Shorter and Charles Lloyd are all Buddhists, Chick Corea and Isaac
Hayes both follow scientology and even Dizzy Gillespie eventually became a believer
in Bahá'í. It is interesting to note that, although not strictly a religion, Freemasonry
(an organisation based on religious principles) also plays a large part in the history of
Jazz, with a long list of members including Louis Armstrong, Count Basie, Nat
‘King’ Cole, Duke Ellington and Lionel Hampton. Duke Ellington played a series of
‘Sacred Concerts’ and wrote many tunes such as Ain’t Nobody Nowhere Nothin’
without God (Ellington, D 1965) and Come Sunday (Ellington, D 1966) based on his
religious beliefs and spirituality, especially towards the end of his career. He was also
a regular member of the congregation at the Rev John Garcia Gensel’s “Jazz
Vespers 2” at St Peter’s Lutheran Church from 1961.
Jazz uses many of the same aspects of spiritual music used for worship, including the
principles of “feeling” the music, rhythmic concepts (connected to mantras or
chanting), improvisation, ‘losing’ oneself in the music (being wholly submerged),
freedom of expression, communication through music and a collective form of
expression – the principle of community through music. It can also be argued that
another key principle of Jazz – ‘tension and resolution’ – represents the philosophical
and theological idea of everything working in opposite partners in the world (e.g.
Good vs. Evil, Dark vs. Light). In The Freedom Principle (Litweiler, J 1990), John
Litweiler argues that the cyclic structures of Jazz music represent the cycle of life and
the inner-self. In the bible Romans 6 talks about Christians being:
both bound and free…We need both limitation and liberation, and we need
to hold them in proper tension. (Romans 6 v18, NIV)
Limitation and liberation are key aspects of Jazz music, especially the idea of being
free (to improvise) whilst still being bound (sometimes by a chord sequence, or a
structure or rhythmic ideas).
Leland Ryken in The Word of God in English notes that:
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Sunday night meetings designed to accommodate gigging Jazz musicians who could
not make Sunday morning services due to playing late Saturday nights.
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JJ Wheeler – Spirituality In Jazz And The Coltrane Effect
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the most prevalent interpretation of the notation “Selah” in some of the
psalms is that it indicates places where instrumental music took over while
the singing ceased temporarily” (Ryken, L 2002 p134)
Jazz music is (in most cases) instrumental, and the word “Selah” is often seen as the
highest heights of worship and spirituality, just as Jazz often climaxes during a
particularly meaningful or passionate solo.
In fact, a large proportion of jazz musicians (especially early-mid 1900s) were
brought up in the Christian church and learnt to play their instruments there –
musicians such as Horace Silver, Thelonious Monk, Grant Green, Hampton Hawkins
and Ornette Coleman. All of these musicians played tunes in respect to their religious
upbringing - Monk’s rendition of Abide With Me (Monk, T 1957), the opener of
Monk’s Music being a prime example.
John Coltrane was also brought up in the church; his grandfather was a Pastor.
However, it was not until later in life that Coltrane took an interest in spirituality and
religion. In 1955, Coltrane married his first wife, Juanita Naima Grubb3, a Muslim
convert. This was to be his first meaningful contact with Islam and eastern religion
and, when his dependency on alcohol and narcotics got so desperate that Miles Davis
fired him from his quintet in 1956, bassist and good friend Donald Garrett told
Coltrane:
You've got to go to the source to learn anything, and Sufism is one of the
best sources there is.
Thus, in spring 1957 John Coltrane went cold turkey, successfully kicking both drug
and alcohol addictions. He later attributed the will power and strength to do so to:
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for whom he later wrote Naima.
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JJ Wheeler – Spirituality In Jazz And The Coltrane Effect
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a spiritual awakening which was to lead to a fuller, more productive life.
(Liner Notes from A Love Supreme)
Adding:
In gratitude, I humbly asked to be given the means and privilege to make
others happy through music.
Coltrane had become enlightened and started a ten-year spiritual and musical journey,
which would change his music and the landscape of Jazz as we know it. In his quest
for spiritual understanding, Coltrane studied many different forms of religion, taking
particular interest in those from eastern cultures, such as Islam, Buddhism, Sufism
and Hinduism. It is often said that Coltrane did not believe in one religion, but all of
them, and worked hard to try to fuse both eastern and western beliefs together. He
also explored areas such as astronomy, Plato, Aristotle, mathematics and science in
his search, as well as taking particular interest in the works of Paramahansa
Yogananda4 , a man whose life was also a quest for the ultimate truth, much like
Coltrane. Jiddu Krishnamurti, an Indian philosopher, was another man whose ideas
struck a chord with Coltrane. He preached that:
each person must look within and work for personal change in order for
the world at large to change. (Nisenson, E 1993 p167-168)
Krishnamurti once said:
One must be an individual…not belonging to any race or any particular
ideology. Then perhaps sanity and peace will come back to the world.
(Nisenson, E 1993 p168)
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The author of Autobiography of a Yogi
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JJ Wheeler – Spirituality In Jazz And The Coltrane Effect
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This is very similar to Coltrane’s idea that no one religion was correct and explains
his determination to explore all paths on his way to spiritual understanding.
Coltrane’s spiritual quest ran intertwined with his music. He tried to apply his feelings
and spiritual discoveries to his playing, often searching and meditating on one phrase
for several choruses until he had exhausted all ways to play it. He became more and
more driven to find a complete way of playing, and in doing so found new concepts at
a rapid rate. His musical output shot up, recording record after record, each a step
further on from the next. Giant Steps (Coltrane, J 1959) shows his concept of playing
in cycles, whereas My Favorite Things (Coltrane, J 1961) shows his ‘sheets of sound’
concept, playing vertically (harmonically – all of the notes of the chord or scale in
rapid succession) rapidly. Each record had a new concept, and by the time they were
released Coltrane had already moved on and was trying out new ideas in concert.
Performing live, Coltrane’s solos became longer, often lasting thirty or forty minutes,
as he wound his way up into a meditative state, playing what was coined by Ira Gitler
“sheets of sound”(Gitler, I 1958) and becoming more and more obsessed with finding
new ways to play the instrument. Squeaking and ‘honking’ often took more frequently
as Coltrane continued his search, as well as playing ‘out’. All of this experimentation
was often met with high criticism, especially in John Tynan’s Downbeat November
1961 article, which described a recent performance as ‘anti-jazz’.
December 9, 1964 saw John Coltrane record one of the most famously ‘spiritual’
albums ever released – A Love Supreme (Coltrane, J 1964). This four-part, three track
album was recorded as an ‘offering’ by Coltrane to God and, on release, was
accompanied by handwritten liner notes by Coltrane praising God who is “gracious
and merciful, his way is love, through which we all are. It is truly – a love supreme
-.”. The liner notes talk about a pursuit of “his righteous path” and his “spiritual
awakening”. All four parts of the suite represent a form of worship and praise to God,
especially the final, touching ballad Psalm, in which Coltrane simply plays a melodic
voicing of his prayer in the liner notes. If you listen carefully and follow the notes,
you can hear the melody recite the prayer word for word.
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JJ Wheeler – Spirituality In Jazz And The Coltrane Effect
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Another key record by Coltrane in his spiritual and musical journey was Ascension5
(Coltrane, J 1965). For this he gathered eleven musicians (including two bassists) to
record a mainly improvised piece of music, based on the form ABABABA etc; ‘A’
being a theme played collectively, followed by ‘B’ a free solo accompanied by a
rhythm section, in which the soloist may express themselves any way they want,
followed by the theme (‘A’) again, followed by another solo (‘B’) and so forth. The
idea was for the ensemble to crescendo and diminuendo between every solo and for
the soloists to find a new spiritual state of meditation and rapture within their solo.
The piece was so spiritual and moving, Marion Brown claims that those in the control
room were “literally screaming. I don’t know how they managed to keep it out of the
mix!”. Along with his regular rhythm section (Tyner, Garrison and Elvin Jones),
Coltrane employed musicians known for their spiritual ways of playing and their
shared longing for spiritual and musical unity. Musicians such as John Tchicai,
Pharaoh Sanders, Archie Shepp, Dewey Johnson and Marion Brown feature on the
record. Shepp interestingly described the record as “like a New Orleans concept, but
with 1965 people”, possibly alluding to the collective improvisation and solo
concepts of New Orleans music, which originates in the collective worship of the
church.
Coltrane went on to record many more records, often using LSD 6, including Om
(Coltrane, J 1965) - a reference to the sacred symbol in Hinduism, becoming more
and more ‘out’ and free until his death in 1967. Some reports attribute his death to a
heart attack, others to hepatitis and others to various illnesses. However, some
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Two takes were made of this record, now named Edition I and Edition II. Edition I
was the first to be released, but in 1966 Coltrane decided he didn’t like the contrast
between the two alto saxophone solos back to back, so Thiele (producer) substituted
Edition I with Edition II on all subsequent pressings of the record, even though it
didn’t match the liner notes (which contained the order of solos).
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the time LSD was a legal substance and was thought to aid in spiritual awareness
and succumbing to one’s spiritual being, rather than the physical. It was a substance
used to meditate and become more enlightened. Coltrane was said to have taken so
much LSD on occasions toward the end of his life that he would often have to be
directed back onto the stage after an interval.
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JJ Wheeler – Spirituality In Jazz And The Coltrane Effect
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suggested that Coltrane’s death was in no way medical, but spiritual. They claimed he
had seen God and no man who has seen God could possibly live.
In 1971, Archbishop Franzo King and Reverend Mother Marina King set up the
Church of St John Will-I-Am Coltrane after what they called a “spiritual encounter”
during a concert by Coltrane years earlier. The church has grown and still practices
today, based on the ideology, quotes and music of John Coltrane and believing him to
be “not just a “Jazz musician” but one who was chosen to guide souls back to God.”
Many of the musicians who played on Ascension (Coltrane, J 1965), or with Coltrane
towards the end of his career made it their mission to continue in Coltrane’s quest for
spiritual and musical unity, with albums such as Pharaoh Sanders’ Karma (Sanders, P
1969) featuring The Creator Has A Masterplan (a repetitive, meditative chant set to
music) or Freddie Hubbard’s Blue Spirits (Hubbard, F 2004).
The music Coltrane made (especially toward the end of his life) is closely linked with
‘Avante Garde’ music or ‘The New Thing’. This form of free jazz was just that – free.
It is based on spirituality and expression of emotions, feelings, meditation and a
deeper meaning through sound. Albert Ayler’s Spiritual Unity (Ayler, A 1965) is a
prime example of early ‘free’ jazz, and clearly shows the link between the music and
spirituality in its track titles - ‘Ghosts’, ‘The Wizard’ and ‘Spirits’. David Such writes:
Because out music [free jazz/avante garde] connects the mundane and the
physical with the emotional and spiritual, life achieves purposefulness.
(Such, D 1993 p161)
This draws on the idea that, through playing ‘out’ or ‘free’ you can achieve spiritual
fulfilment through music. Jemeel Moondoc, a prevalent musician of the genre, claims
that he is “continually searching for something that is beyond what he is doing when
performing and playing an instrument” and that he has often “levitated above the
bandstand and observed himself and other musicians performing” (Such, D 1993
p69).
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JJ Wheeler – Spirituality In Jazz And The Coltrane Effect
www.jjwheeler.co.uk
It is plain to see the way Jazz and spirituality are often one, whether through the
beginnings of Jazz, the exploration of sound or the exploration of spirituality through
music and meditation in music. Jazz and worship share many of the same principles –
searching, community, feeling, rhythmic intensity, communication, meditation,
improvisation and counterbalances (such as tension and resolution or freedom and
restraint). We have seen how many musicians become enlightened spiritually through
the music they play or in their search for new musical heights and how others find
new ways of playing through their own spirituality. Arguably, the biggest
breakthrough in linking spirituality to Jazz and creating spiritually involved music
came through John Coltrane’s work, and his legacy lives on in thousands, if not
millions of Jazz musicians around the world today.
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