Chasing Trane - The John Coltrane Documentary [DVD] [2017]

This is not a comprehensive overview of John Coltrane’s life, career or musical development, but it does highlight some of the pivotal moments and give some personal accounts and insights.Whilst I understand that Wynton Marsalis possesses great technical ability and had a very good understanding of some areas of (almost exclusively American) jazz, he does not really bring much of this to bear on the subject of John Coltrane here. Carlos Santana is even more opaque; he speaks in quasi “mystical” riddles: “John Coltrane changes molecular structures. When people hear that they say What?” Whilst it is nice to hear the importance of Coltrane’s music to Santana he doesn’t offer any real insights into his music.The are some great contributions from Jimmy Heath, Benny Golson and Sonny Rollins among others. There is also, just enough insight into his personal life to give background to his musical development but not at the expense of highlighting the music. The breakdown of his first marriage was referred to in an an interview with Naima’s daughter. S talks about hearing an argument getting louder and louder, then “..hearing every word...” before he left. Saeeda clearly has a much greater insight into what went wrong with that relationship but she is not pressed on this and I am very grateful that this is left alone.This may leave a lot of the great man unexplored but what you get is largely excellent and I recommend it to any Coltrane fan.

I have had a life-long love affair with everything Coltrane. There has always been a bit of an information vacuum around his life so this film was a delight to watch and now own.As a small time jazz bassist and former of bands, in my youth and salad days, when most of my mates were feasting on "pop", I often thought I was ploughing a bit of a lonely furrow following " modern" jazz. Yet all these years on 'Trane's gift to the world is as vibrant and scintillating as ever unlike most of what the pop world was then offering.J.C's life was far too short, like many a genius, and the context of this biopic encapsulates the crucible nature of the development and crescendo of someone in a hurry to say something really important. Parker, Harriet, Hayes...were examples of this too but for me 'Trane was, is and will always be the master of musical symbiosis and we are still breathlessly chasing to catch him up.

Brilliant - some nice historical footage and well filmed

What an inspirational story ! There were some nice historical archives and great filmed. If you are into Jazz and music, then this is for you.

Happy with purchase and seller

Essential a masterpiece

Chasing Trane is a documentary on John Coltrane’s life and music by Scheinfield who had made several documentaries in the past on John Lennon and Harry Nilsson. This is in the form of a spiritual autobiography. His first incarnation was in Miles Davis’s quartet where he established himself in the best combo of the time. However he fell foul of Davis through unreliability because of taking heroin and drink. That was such a loss to Coltrane that it drove him to recover and go through cold turkey. This idea ofself improvement became a spiritual quest, he vowed if the Lord gave him back his gift he would become a ‘preacher on my horn’. Denzel Washington mouths his words from written statements.From a poor, southern Methodist background in North Carolina. He suffered lots of sadness when he lost two grandfathers and an uncle at the age of 12. All his relatives, and his father , had been preachers. Coltrane had joined a navy band, where he was for two years, and later he joined Dizzy Gillespie, who also had to let him go because of drugs. He continuously practiced his saxophone. He later rejoined the famous quintet of Miles Davis a second time to make the most famous jazz record, Kind of Blue. His churning, many-noted solos were in striking contrast to the leader’s own elemental playing. When questioned by Davis why he had to play such long solos, his answer “it takes that long to get it all in”, was met by “take the mother------ out of your mouth.” There are some great home movies, showing his 2nd wife and children and step-children.Coltrane felt he couldn’t reach his full potential in Davis‘s band and he found his own famous quartet, where he showed he was a brilliant composer as well as a player. We get excerpts of Giant Steps. After playing modally on Kind of Blue he broke through to clarity of expression which sustained his monumental improvisations. He created the most powerful, devotional record in modern jazz: A Love Supreme, perhaps the most famous of jazz albums, driving through 40 minutes of music based on a 4 note motif. Coltrane popularized the neglected soprano saxophone with his reading of My Favorite Things. The word ‘spiritual’ is overused in the documentary, but the whole band was willing to sacrifice what they were doing to achieve a ‘higher goal’. Their mission to show the listener the way they perceive the world. His later free jazz was highly criticized. His early death left his quest unfulfilled.Another major recording was Alabama, based on the white supremacist bombing of the church in Alabama, where 4 black girls were killed. Coltrane improvised upon the speech Martin Luther King gave, Coltrane provides a requiem to bring healing: showing (as Cornel West says) jazz taking the harshest realities of life, but bringing out some kind of hope, that things will get better. There’s an attempt to make him into a spiritual leader, a manifestation of God, but he didn’t set out to be a theologian, but wanted to go deeper into the meaning, to bring a new sense of spiritual purpose to jazz. His family orientation, being a father and husband, is testified to here in several interviews. The film shows his lofty goals to open up the world of music to others and to live a life that influenced/inspired other people. There are great interviews with Pharaoh Sanders, Wayne Shorter, Sonny Rollins and Benny Goulson. His life was cut short by liver cancer at age 40 but his endless virtuosity inspired countless musicians

Some mildly interesting home movies, which confirm that Coltrane had a private life. Some embarrassing pseudo-mystical guff from Santana, and a few vacuous comments by the ubiquitous Winton Marsalis. (Why is he deemed worthy of inclusion?) Some snatches of music, enough to send you scurrying back to your record collection. Almost no discussion of the roots of his music - what he got from other players. Nothing about his obsessive practicing and why he was that way. I've long thought that it could have been his way of trying to deal with bereavement - several family members died before he was out of his teens.Some truly appalling visual effects, designed to reinforce the many references to the cosmic quality of his playing. I love his music - always have - but this hackneyed biopic tells me nothing I didn't know. Maybe film is not the best medium for discussing music; but some attempt should have been made to avoid cliché and piety. Sorry to be so negative; but time wasted on this farrago could better be spent on just listening.

Bom demais!

Sehr lohnend für alle die mehr über den Gigant des Jazz erfahren wollen.

A must for jazz fans, jazz historians, musicologists and anyone who likes a good story.

Excellent !

証言映像が多いのが残念もう少し当時の状況、現場などの写真、映像があればもっとよかったコルトレーンのパパぶりの映像貴重です。1962年のＬｉｖｅ映像”I Want to talk about you"の映像鮮明でＦＵＬＬで収録してほしい。Live in Japanの状況をもう少しほりさげてほしかった。