Miles Davis vs. John Coltrane

[Fonz]

The thing is, Coltrane is responsible for most of what I love about Miles.

A lot of folk are talking about the breadth of Davis' accomplishment, and giving him the nod on the back of that. He recorded for half a century. Coltrane only got from 55-67, but you want to talk about breadth? You get Elvin Jones dropping his bombs and insane shit all over the place, Coltrane laying down sheets of that heavy metal, with McCoy Tyner comping his fucking arse off and Chambers doing what he can to hold it all down with thick, thick ropes of melody and feeling, and that's one sort of Coltrane that I love - the out-there moments; the almost untrammelled, the ecstatic - and then there's this:



His ballads are the purest form of my idea of jazz.

Pedantic, I know, but I’m sure you mean Garrison, or maybe even Workman...or on that one Davis

[mission]

"and that's one sort of Coltrane that I love - the out-there moments; the almost untrammelled, the ecstatic - and then there's this"

I was naming the classic quartet as being those responsible for the flights of ecstasy and comparing them to the softer work like Central Park West.

That said, my favourite stuff was with Garrison and not Chambers.

Fundamentally, though, it's all about Trane and Jones to me. I see video of Elvin just laying into his ride like it was an avatar of the monstrous, and I am in awe.

[mission]

I want one of these



(In a manly sort of cut and size, of course. I would scare the horses in exactly one of those.)

[Fonz]

I am a knob.

I'd forgotten that Mr PC was on some of those earlier albums.

Please forgive me

[bobzilla77]

This is all rather shocking and depressing.
McCoy Tyners chords are enough for me to vote for John Coltrane!

I try not to make too much of what other people think, but I will admit I find it surprising. Maybe even that. Miles Davis is pretty impactful and has wide appeal! I wouldn;t say anything bad about him

But I'll stand up on the Coltrane side.

I brought one of my drummer pals into my room the other night to listen to this after it popped up on my music player. It's the first Coltrane thing I really listened to at length, taped from a copy in my college record library, and pondered endlessly when I was 18. It's got Elvin, McCoy and Jimmy playing in incredibly fluid time. Very Elvinish. Just try finding the one and hanging onto it for the first twenty seconds or so until the horn kicks in.



The more I understand about jazz history and evolution the more respect I have for Miles Davis. But Coltrane is part of the reason I became interested in knowing things about jazz in the first place. It hit me viscerally and all at once,

[bobzilla77]

.

[driftin]

Coltrane just for Ascension.