John Coltrane - OM

[AfricaBrass]

The second jazz album I ever bought was John Coltrane's OM.

What a shock it was to me!

I was just curious if anybody here knew the story behind this album. I've read that Coltrane recorded an album while on LSD. Is this true? If that is the case, is this that album (It sounds like it to me)? What about the spirituality of John Coltrane?

He's always been on another level to me.

[Pete C]

Very possibly my least favorite Trane album.

[AfricaBrass]

Very possibly my least favorite Trane album.

I feel the same way about it, but it's such a curiosity to me.

At this point, my favorite late period Coltrane is STELLER REGIONS. I just love the tremelo effect of his playing.

[jazzbo]

This album I've struggled with over a few decades. . . I can't say that I like it, I can say I'm beginning to "feel it". . . .

I don't actually believe that this album was executed under the influence of LSD. I believe it is just a part of his exploration, his search, and the added musicians I think moved him into this zone at this time. . . .

Has some great moments! I now have a K2digital Japanese cd of this that sounds better than the domestic version I had, which helps a little. Sometimes having better sound gets you a step closer to the music. . . .

[J.A.W.]

Sometimes having better sound gets you a step closer to the music. . . .

Very true.

[Simon Weil]

I'm still listening to this and don't really know it that well - but, in terms of spirituality, I think it's likely he was getting it out of Paramahansa Yogananda's _Autobiography of a Yoga_. Coltrane had this book, and PY's name often comes up in anectdotes about JC. The description of Om in the sleevenotes is kind of a fusion of Christian ideas about The Word Of God at the beginning of Creation and Om, the Indian conception of the primal sound - which is basically what PY does in his book. The actual recited text on the track is from the Bhaghavad Gita (translated by Prabhavananda/Isherwood).

Coltrane seems to have been on an Indian kick earlier in 1965, naming his newly born son Ravi after Ravi Shankar.

There's a haunting flute passage in Om, which seems strangely anticlimatic after the burn-out stuff at the beginning - but I'm wondering if this might be some attempt to evoke:

"Krishna, an incarantion of Vishnu [who] is shown in Hindu art with a flute; on it he plays the enraptured song that recalls to their true home the human sould wandering in maya-delusion."

Autobiography of a Yoga/Paramahansa Yogananda p182

There's quite a lot of stuff in Coltrane's spirituality that looks like it might have been affected by Indian conceptions - and he did have quite an interest in Indian music.

But it's quite hard pin down exactly.

Simon Weil

[AfricaBrass]

Thanks for your input, Simon.

I read Yogananda's books as a teenager and really loved them. Maybe that's why I felt the draw to Coltrane's music. I understood the word "Om" to represent "the oneness" of life. His music did seem to represent many aspects at the same time.

Maybe I'll re-read "Autobiography of a Yogi".

[Soulstation1]

after buying "live in seattle" i am freakin' scared of all later trane

[Simon Weil]

Thanks for your input, Simon.

I read Yogananda's books as a teenager and really loved them. Maybe that's why I felt the draw to Coltrane's music. I understood the word "Om" to represent "the oneness" of life. His music did seem to represent many aspects at the same time.

Maybe I'll re-read "Autobiography of a Yogi".

See, I'm only looking at Yogananda from a researcher's point of view, AB. You probably have a closer, more spiritual, "insider's" view. Anyway, there are a quite a few quotes in "Autobiography of a Yogi" that basically say that Om (=Aum) underlies "the oneness of life"

Thus:

“...The creative voice of God I heard resounding as Aum[note see below], the vibration of the Cosmic Motor.”

p167-8

[Note p167-8] “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the

Word was God” John 1:1 “...the threefold nature of God as Father, Son, Holy Ghost (Sat, Tat, Aum in the Hindu scriptures). God the Father is the Absolute, Unmanifested, existing beyond vibratory creation. God the Son is the Christ Consciousness (Brahma or Kutastha Chaitanya) existing within vibratory creation; this Christ Consciousness is the “only begotten” or sole reflection of the Uncreated Infinite. The outward manifestation of the omnipresent Christ Consciousness, its “witness” (Revelation 3:14), is Aum, the Word or Holy Ghost; invisible divine power, the only doer, the sole causative and activating force that upholds all creation through vibration. Aum the blissful Comforter is heard in meditation and reveals to the devotee the ultimate Truth, bringing “all things to...remembrance.”

Note 168-9

“... nature is an objectification of Aum, the Primal Sound or Vibratory Word....

p182

“...the ancient sage Patanjali, foremost exponent of yoga...speaks of God as the actual Cosmic Sound of Aum that is heard in meditation. Aum is the Creative Word. The whir of Vibratiory Motor, the witness [see note below] of Divine Presence.”

p277

The idea of a unifying spiritual force is important to Coltrane.

Simon Weil

Edited April 12, 2004 by Simon Weil

[dave9199]

My favorite part is during Sanders solo and he overblows a couple of notes & it sounds exactly like feedback from a guitar amp. I always listen to those notes over & over. The only time the album scared me was after eating my first pot brownie. I just kept saying, "Geez, this stuff is kinda scary."

Edited April 12, 2004 by dave9199

[AfricaBrass]

Anyway, there are a quite a few quotes in "Autobiography of a Yogi" that basically say that Om (=Aum) underlies "the oneness of life"

Thus:

“...The creative voice of God I heard resounding as Aum[note see below], the vibration of the Cosmic Motor.”

p167-8

[Note p167-8] “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the

Word was God” John 1:1 “...the threefold nature of God as Father, Son, Holy Ghost (Sat, Tat, Aum in the Hindu scriptures). God the Father is the Absolute, Unmanifested, existing beyond vibratory creation. God the Son is the Christ Consciousness (Brahma or Kutastha Chaitanya) existing within vibratory creation; this Christ Consciousness is the “only begotten” or sole reflection of the Uncreated Infinite. The outward manifestation of the omnipresent Christ Consciousness, its “witness” (Revelation 3:14), is Aum, the Word or Holy Ghost; invisible divine power, the only doer, the sole causative and activating force that upholds all creation through vibration. Aum the blissful Comforter is heard in meditation and reveals to the devotee the ultimate Truth, bringing “all things to...remembrance.”

Note 168-9

“... nature is an objectification of Aum, the Primal Sound or Vibratory Word....

p182

“...the ancient sage Patanjali, foremost exponent of yoga...speaks of God as the actual Cosmic Sound of Aum that is heard in meditation. Aum is the Creative Word. The whir of Vibratiory Motor, the witness [see note below] of Divine Presence.”

p277

The idea of a unifying spiritual force is important to Coltrane.

Simon Weil

I know this will probably sound crazy, but I sense an effort on Coltrane's part (in his later recordings) to bring different vibrations to his playing. His use of tremelo on some of his last recordings make me think that he was trying to change the vibrations into a sort of stillness.

Now, I know I've really lost it.

[AfricaBrass]

My favorite part is during Sanders solo and he overblows a couple of notes & it sounds exactly like feedback from a guitar amp. I always listen to those notes over & over. The only time the album scared me was after eating my first pot brownie. I just kept saying, "Geez, this stuff is kinda scary."

That last time I took psychedelic drugs (over 10 years ago, mushrooms), I made a point to listen to ASCENSION while peaking. The music was frightening at first, but soon it developed a multi-dimensional quality to me.

Music to me has always been linear, but in that experience, the music was a real thing, like a building, etc...

Example. When standing next to a river, it is there, yet at the same time, it's always moving.

[jazzbo]

I wouldn't say you've lost it. I think that Coltrane was very cognizant of the creation of sound with vibrations. I always wondered what his Variatone exploration sounded like! I want to hear some!

I think that Coltrane was so intensely devoted at this time to music which I think he saw as religion or the biggest baddest tool of religion that it the study penetrated his life as far as it could, and what he read and what he played and what he thought were probably interconnected in a more effortless way than is possible with many. He certainly was in a position from his study and his habits to be seriously intrigued by the "primal sound" and to be searching for a way to make a "universal sound" that would in its way be a harmony to the primal sound of creation. . . . I think a lot of the music that he produced in the final years sort of passed through him as a part of this study, accelerated perhaps by the sublimation I think he also did of his illness into his work. . . .

We're all whack, right?

[Simon Weil]

I know this will probably sound crazy, but I sense an effort on Coltrane's part (in his later recordings) to bring different vibrations to his playing. His use of tremelo on some of his last recordings make me think that he was trying to change the vibrations into a sort of stillness.

Now, I know I've really lost it.   

Gawd knows...I mean he was definitely trying to reach some other zones via sound. To me there is a kind of thing to do with Om as scary massive primal sound that pervades a lot of his later work. A thing to do with awe and massiveness, and, if you will, confronting the face of God. But there is a kind of stilllness in some of it(even in that flute passage in Om) which is at odds with all of the burn-out stuff.

May be (probably is) a spiritually based reason for it...

Simon Weil

Edited April 12, 2004 by Simon Weil

[ghost of miles]

The story I have heard (unverifiable in a scholarly sense) is that Coltrane and possibly other members of the band dropped acid the night before, when LIVE IN SEATTLE was recorded, and were still feeling the effects the next day when they laid down OM. (Based on, erm, my own experiences, they certainly would still be feeling the effects!) It's a rather salacious topic, however... whatever Coltrane's experimentation with LSD was, it was all part of his attempt in his last years to push the boundaries of his music out of this world.

[AfricaBrass]

I'll have to relisten to LIVE IN SEATTLE. It does make sense that OM would have been recorded post-trip makes sense.

Coltrane just fascinates me. I know this is a rather salacious topic (I'll admit, that I did have to look up what salacious meant ). You've probably figured by now that the AfricaBrass of old has left the building.

[Simon Weil]

Just to look at the stillness thing. There are, it now occurs to me, rather profound connections between Yoga and stillness - and Aum is a classic chant in Yoga. For example:

The Yoga of AUM

It might be said that the ultimate aim of Yoga is to enter this third dreamless realm while awake. Yoga means "yoke" or "join." Through yoga we "join" our waking consciousness to its "source" in the world of pure, qualitiless unconsciousness.

Which brings us to the fourth sound of AUM [after A, U and M], the primal "unstruck" sound within the silence at the end of the sacred syllable. In fact, the word "silence" itself can be understood only in reference to "sound." We hear this silence best when listening to sound, any sound at all, without interpreting or judging the sound. Listening fully, openly, without preconceptions or expectations. The sound of music, the sound of the city, the sound of the wind in the forest. All can give us the opportunity to follow the path of sound into the awareness of the sound behind the sound.

When one really "listens" to this silent sound, this unstruck vibration, one comes inevitably to stillness, to pure and open existence. The poet Gerhart Hauptmann says the aim of all poetry is "to let the Word be heard resounding behind words." The sound behind the sound. And, in making the sound of AUM, we hear this unstruck sound most clearly in the instant when the last humming vibrations of the "M" fade away. At that moment, that instant separating audible sound and silence, the veil is thinnest, and our listening awareness is most expansive.

At that moment of silence, to use William Blake's words, the "doors of perception" are cleansed, and "everything would appear to man as it is, infinite."

In terms of Om and Live In Seattle, one of those tracks has someone chanting Om right in the middle of it. In terms of on the record about LSD stuff, nobody knows. It does sound very much as though JC experimented with it at some point.

Seems like you're looking into alt versions of spirituality, AB.

Simon Weil

Edited April 12, 2004 by Simon Weil

[Eric]

I LOVE Coltrane, all periods.

Is it possible that this is just a piece of crap???

Eric

[AfricaBrass]

You caught me, Simon.

It's funny that you mention William Blake. We're related.

Eric, the piece of crap argument is always applicable.

[John L]

It some ways, I think that OM was the purest realization of a particular Coltrane concept. The musicians got together (maybe dropped acid), tried to form a collective spiritual bond, pulled out their instruments, and just blew continuously. The goal may have just been to try to create as much white heat as possible in a single spirtual direction and see what happens. Maybe it will open up a portal to the next dimension?

Unfortunately, it didn't.

[AfricaBrass]

It some ways, I think that OM was the purest realization of a particular Coltrane concept. The musicians got together (maybe dropped acid), tried to form a collective spiritual bond, pulled out their instruments, and just blew continuously. The goal may have just been to try to create as much white heat as possible in a single spirtual direction and see what happens. Maybe it will open up a portal to the next dimension?

Unfortunately, it didn't.

Who knows? Maybe it did.

[Guest ariceffron]

r u sure he was reqading that audiobio of a yogi cause thats what yes was reading when they did tales and Om doesnt sound anything like tales from topographic oceans

[AfricaBrass]

r u sure he was reqading that audiobio of a yogi cause thats what yes was reading when they did tales and Om doesnt sound anything like tales from topographic oceans

I didn't know that, Aric. I was just listening to TALES recently. I can see an eastern influence in the album.

[Shrdlu]

AB, I'm a huge Trane fan, but what you hear on "Om" is real evil spirits at work, sad to say. And the silly poem that they chant is a piece of eastern religious garbage related to hinduism etc. Yechh! I regret that Trane got involved with that, but, as the Lord said, the blind lead the blind and both fall into the ditch.

[JSngry]

Trane dropped acid "more than once" from what I hear. A LOT more...