Practicing with Coltrane and Bird
This is the weekly online journal for the Institute for Creative Music (IfCM) by Chris Teal (and sometimes guests). Each issue will focus on one or two topics in detail; please relax and enjoy! The IfCM provides free and low-cost jazz and creative music education and performances through the support of people like you. If you already donate: THANK YOU. Check out the newsletter archive here.
There is a story about when John Coltrane was on the band stand with Miles Davis that get shared a lot around jazz jam sessions. Coltrane had just finished presenting an epic novel of a solo and shared after the fact with Miles that he didn't know how to stop the flow of ideas that tumbled out of his saxophone. Miles lets a beat pass...and states, "take the horn out of your mouth."
This is an entertaining anecdote that I do not relate to AT ALL. I am amazed at the force, passion, and continuity I hear from Trane and other musical titans but I have rarely visited the whirlpool in improvisation where I don't see an exit (and this is on drum set, an instrument I've been working on for 20+ years). This type of mythologic characterization of a jazz superhero can be great for selling records, but is not a great jumping off point to play great jazz (like Trane).
How do we start? How can we get to the point where we're so filled with ideas that we can't "take the horn out of our mouth?"
Anne Lamott has a more useful anecdote to "get started" that serves as the title of the guide to writing (and life) pictured above. When they were kids, Anne's brother had put off writing a school report on (I would imagine) so many different birds. He was distraught and went to their father for help. Their father advised that he needed to go "bird by bird", start learning about one, write about it, and move on to the next.
This is exactly what John Coltrane (and all the jazz superheroes) actually did. Every day he went one step at a time; opening his instrument case (just like the rest of us), learning and reviewing songs (just like the rest of us), and challenging himself by learning new ways to improvise and strengthen his sound, style, and freedom on his instrument (just like the rest of us). Get started now, don't worry about how you're going to finish.
We'll work more on practicing next week. Go listen to John Coltrane on 'Round Midnight and Anne Lamott's conversation with Tim Ferriss (and pick up the album 'Round Midnight and the book "Bird by Bird" to go deeper).
Next week we'll work more on practicing with Zadie Smith and Kierkegaard’s dog kennel.