coltrane's mind at large

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Coltrane's Mind at Large

by: Drew Scott

What prompts artists to evolve even after they find a system that has brought them success? Why not stay with what obviously works? The fact is, what works on a commercial level is not always what works on a personal level in the heart of the artist. At times it is this initial commercial popularity that furnishes them with the necessary poetic freedom to choose a route closer tothe heart. Jazz saxophone legend John Coltrane sought continual evolution in his musical style much as The Beatles redefined rock from album to album. Yet the distance they traveled from two-chord simplicity to Sergeant Pepper-era psychedelia seems short in comparison to Coltrane's journey from hard-bop saxist to non-standard improviser to dying prophet. It was his change in religious faith that prompted him to increasingly drift from traditional jazz saxophone playing. Conversely, it was also this change in playing style that helped propel the development of his religious beliefs. Coltrane's initiative to break traditional boundaries fueled his desire to give the listener and performer alike the experience of the sacred.

In examining the nature of Coltrane's musical change, one must examine the nature of the human mind itself. Eminent Cambridge philosopher, Dr. C. D. Broad proposed that "the function of the brain and nervous system and sense organs are in the main eliminative and not productive. Each person is at each moment capable of remembering all that has ever happened to him and of perceiving everything that is happening everywhere in the universe" (Huxley, Doors of Perception 22). As Coltrane decided, "As I look upon the world, I feel all men know the truth and each man has to find it for himself." Esteemed British author Aldous Huxley elaborated on this theory stating:

according to such a theory, each one of us is potentially Mind at Large [ref erring to the ability to perceive all input simultaneously] To make biological survival possible, Mind at Large has to be funneled through the reducing valve of the brain and nervous system. What comes out the other end is a measly trickle of the kind of consciousness which will help us to stay alive (Doors of Perception, 23).

Huxley feels that, while Broad's idea to perceive "everything that is happening in the universe" is a bit exaggerated, the elements of the "Mind at Large" do include the various "other worlds" with which human beings erratically make contact. Such beings can make contact through "temporary by-passes [of the reducing valve] acquired either spontaneously, or as the result of deliberate 'spiritual exercises,' or through hypnosis or by means of drugs" (Doors of Perception 24). Huxley continuously states that the "other worlds" mentioned often include "the world of Visionary Experience"(Heaven and Hell 85). As Coltrane's music transmogrified he was enabled to diminish the efficiency of his "reducing valve." Coltrane's unwitting aid to visionary experience was the buildup of carbon dioxide in his body while playing. In his novel Heaven and Hell, Huxley describes how "carbon dioxide transports the subject to the Other World of his everyday consciousness, and he enjoys very briefly visionary experiences entirely unconnected with his own personal history" (143). Huxley went on to explain:

whenever someone breathes out more than he breathes in the concentration of carbon dioxide in the alveolar air and the blood is increased and, the efficiency of the cerebral reducing valve being lowered, visionary or mystical experience becomes possible. Hence the interminable 'vain repetitions'of magic and religion. The chanting of the curandero, the medicine man, the shaman; the endless psalm singing and sutra intoning of Christian and Buddhist monks; the shouting and howling, hour after hour, of revivalists - under all the diversities of theological belief and aesthetic convention, the psychochemico- physiological intention remains constant. To increase the concentration of CO2 in the lungs and blood and so to lower the efficiency of the cerebral reducing valve, until it admits biologically useless material from the Mind at Large (144-145).

Coltrane's doorway to religious experience, his chanting or intoning, arrives through CO2 buildup caused by his saxophone playing.

So why don't all saxophonists experience similar religious awakenings? Coltrane's employment of such surpassingly physically rigorous methods in his performances is the source. Coltrane's signature became based on extremely complex phrases which have been described as "preternaturally long." This style combined with Coltrane's increased use of overblowing techniques (in which air is blown so forcefully that the saxophone shrieks) facilitated the buildup of CO2 in his body allowing for the release of Huxley's visionary "Mind at Large". Trane also insisted on playing longer, tripling the typical jazz set to frequently more than three hours. Bill Cole, author of John Coltrane, remembers seeing Trane "play one piece, soloing for as long as two hours, only to come down from the stage to practice by himself before starting up again" (171). Cole also reflected on a conversation between himself and Coltrane's pianist McCoy Tyner in which he was told that "in San Francisco Trane once played so long and so intensely that he burst a blood vessel in his nose and didn't even notice until Tyner pointed it out to him" (171).

Coltrane first identified a leak in his mind's "reducing valve" when he was able to stretch out and employ extreme techniques under Thelonious Monk. In the liner notes to Coltrane's breakthrough spiritual A Love Supreme Trane refers to this era indicating that "during the year 1957, I experience, by the Grace of God, a spiritual reawakening which was to lead me to a richer, fuller, more productive life." By 1964 when A Love Supreme was released, Coltrane's visionary attitude about performances grew. In the liner notes Coltrane states how "now and again through the unerr ing and merciful hand of God, I do perceive and have been duly re-informed of His omnipotence."

So what was the effect of Coltrane's mystical experiences? In his own words: "To be a force for real good. In other words, I know that there are bad forces, forces put here that bring suffering to others and misery to the world, but I want to be the force which is truly good" (Cole 158). More and more towards the end of his life, Coltrane came to feel increasingly responsible "for creating nothing less than a music of theophany," music not only conveying experiences of the sacred, but embodying such an experience in itself. (Michael Bruce McDonald, African American Review 275) Coltrane's music was an outlet for his emotions during any and all visionary experiences. It was his goal to share the experience with the audience via their listening to his playing.

And it worked. One of the most overwhelming signs of the effect of Coltrane's music on a spiritual level can be found inside a simple store front at 351 Divisadero in San Francisco. Here one will find Saint John's African Orthodox Church "which celebrates the search for Truth through the words and music of 'John Will-I-am Coltrane'." For three hours every Sunday an entire church congregation finds spiritual enlightenment under the healing force, bringing mind, body, and soul into harmony with God found in John Coltrane's compositions. There is also a plethora of cases on an individual level. Gerald McKeever, ex-con and eventual Coltrane confidant, upon seeing Coltrane for the first time, ran up to him saying, "Mr. Coltrane, you are my God."

Compassionately and softly Coltrane replied, "Please don't call me that."

Eventually, through Trane's influence, McKeever would go through many changes, learning to lessen his hostility against society and to love more people than he thought possible (Thomas, Chasm' the Trane 126).

Describing the embodiment of the sacred at a John Coltrane concert, wife Alice Coltrane explained, "Call it Universal Consciousness, Supreme Being, Nature, God. Call this force by any name you like, but it was there, and its presence was so powerfully felt by most people that it was almost palpable" (Thomas 172). This presence of divinity was felt by guitar legend Carlos Santana as well: "I haven't heard anything higher than 'The Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost' from the Meditations album. I would often play it at four in the morning, the traditional time for meditation. I could hear God's mind in that music, influencing John Coltrane. I heard the Supreme One playing music through John Coltrane's mind" (Thomas 276).

The question of whether or not Coltrane's music embodies the influence of a truly sacred revela tion is often debated. The question is posed by those whose philosophy is, as termed by Aldous Huxley in Heaven and Hell, "unduly 'spiritual"' (155). Huxley explains:

God, they will insist, is a spirit and is to be worshiped in spirit. Therefore an experience which is chemically conditioned cannot be an experience of the divine. But, in one way or another, all our experiences are chemically conditioned, and if we imagine that some of them are purely 'spiritual,' purely 'intellectual,' purely 'aesthetic,' it is merely because we have never troubled to investigate the internal chemical environment at the moment of their occurrence. Furthermore, it is a matter of historical record that most contemplatives worked systematically to modify their body chemistry, with a view to creating the internal conditions favorable to spiritual insight (155).

Debate or not, the music of John Coltrane is sacred. Whether or not the music was bestowed directly by God does not matter. It is the fact thai his songs have inspired so many and touched so profoundly that deems Coltrane's music sacred. The divine is found within us, not necessarily in a book or sermon. From whatever well we draw enlightenment, it is the enlightenment itself that is godly. The source is merely the sacred instrument of our soul.