John Coltrane
Photo by Herb Snitzer
Coltrane stripped his musical ideas to the bone with his final great album, Interstellar Space. A series of duets with the free drummer Rashied Ali, the record would become the sacred text for all other sax-drums pairings. Nothing resembling melody or rhythm exists here just pure sound and thoughts, free of structure and constraints. Pure emotion, pure energy, pure reactions. For the open-minded, a song song? like Mars can be an enlightening experience. When hes not honking away, Coltrane blows circular, repetitive phrases while Ali strikes skins and cymbals with little regard for their intended uses a ride cymbal becomes a snare drum, a snare becomes a hi-hat. What was going through Coltranes mind when he came up with this? Well never know.