An Interview with John Coltrane / interviewed by Frank Kofsky

[mjzee]

PRA Archive #: 

BC1266

Description: 

The Jazz musician discusses his art, the meaning of music in the human experience, and his particular spiritual approach.|AN INTERVIEW WITH JOHN COLTRANE / interviewed by Frank Kofsky. - The Jazz musician, John Coltrane, discusses his art, the meaning of music in human experience, and his particular spiritual approach. This rare interview was done less than a year before his death. - RECORDED: November 1966. BROADCAST: KPFK, 1 Jan. 1973.

58 minutes.  $17.95.  See: https://www.pacificaradioarchives.org/recording/bc1266

Noticed this while I was surfing the Web.  Haven't heard it.

[JSngry]

Have you read it? It's famous/infamous. Kofsky kept trying to push Coltrane into a pretty narrow/specific "political" box, and Trane just wasn't going for it, at least not like that.

By many accounts, Kofsky was a bit or more "off". But his book Black Nationalism and the Revolution In Music is an essential read, imo, just because that's where things were then.

[paul secor]

Kofsky was an idiot/ideologue who tried to force musicians into his range of politics. I read the interview when it was published, and Trane didn't play his game.

[catesta]

I remember Chris Albertson had nothing positive to say about Kofsky.

[Rooster_Ties]

 Politics how? Can anyone be more specific?

[Guy Berger]

That said, the interview is highly recommended reading.  Most of us are sufficiently sophisticated to filter out Kofsky and focus on Trane.

[Brad]

I’d like to hear it but taking into account some of the comments here and that you have to pay $18 to hear it, I will pass. 

[Simon Weil]

Kofsky was arrogant and tendentious - and blatant. I always wish he'd been more receptive - because he would have missed so much by trying to push Coltrane in one direction. There is at least some stuff, however, that is not to be found elsewhere.

[JSngry]

20 minutes ago, Rooster_Ties said:

 Politics how? Can anyone be more specific?

Kofsky was one of those ideologues who make everything political. Redundantly, joylessly, tirelessly political at the expense of whatever shared joyful humanity may be available. They come in all flavors, his was Marxist. He tried to get Trane to align himslef with the Black Power movement and the rad-lib anti-war movement, and of course Trane was sympathetic to all that, how could he not be, but Kofksy was just such a clodding sod that without realizing it, he was asking Trane questions that if answered as asked, would be contractive, and Trane was all about expansive.

In spite of all that, his book is essential reading, because yes - you don't have much American Black Jazz of the last 60 or so years without there being Malcolm X and John Coltrane in there, you just don't. And I've yet to see anybody rebut his opening chapter dealing with the open, thuggish repression of club economics, "playing ball" with the critics to keep your career going, record company politics, etcetcetc. If anything, time has only affirmed these realities.

Just because he was an obsessive asshole doesn't mean that he was wrong about everything. It just means that he was an obsessive asshole.

 

[jlhoots]

I have & have read the book.

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

I read it too, but got it out of the library. Didn't like it, but the general background was VERY informative. No music exists outside society, but much music exists outside one's own society.

MG

[bichos]

here you can hear it :

and here you have all the other ones:

 http://preparedguitar.blogspot.com/2016/01/john-coltrane-interviews.html

 

Keep boppin´

marcel

[JSngry]

On ‎9‎/‎18‎/‎2018 at 3:11 AM, The Magnificent Goldberg said:

 No music exists outside society, but much music exists outside one's own society.

And quite frequently we use the word "subculture", because very seldom does music exist entirely outside its "own" culture/society...whatever that is these days.

[AllenLowe]

actually all good music exists outside of society. That’s what makes it good.

Edited September 20, 2018 by AllenLowe

[sgcim]

Was this interview included in the collection of interviews that was published as "Coltrane on Coltrane"?

I came out of that book with the impression that JC was a saint.

Any interview on a Pacifica radio station is going to be heavily slanted towards the Left. I think they blew up the Pacifica station in Texas!

[JSngry]

9 minutes ago, sgcim said:

 I think they blew up the Pacifica station in Texas!

https://www.houstonpress.com/music/the-day-the-kkk-bombed-kpft-6497751

If by "they" you mean the KKK, you are indeed correct!

[erwbol]

36 minutes ago, sgcim said:

Was this interview included in the collection of interviews that was published as "Coltrane on Coltrane"?

Yes, page 281.