John Coltrane and Black America's Quest for Freedom
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Edited by prominent musician and scholar Leonard Brown, John Coltrane and Black America's Quest for Freedom: Spirituality and the Music is a timely exploration of Coltrane's sound and its spiritual qualities that are rooted in Black American music-culture and aspirations for freedom. A wide-ranging collection of essays and interviews featuring many of the most eminent figures in Black American music and jazz studies and performance --Tommy Lee Lott, Anthony Brown, Herman Gray, Emmett G. Price III, Tammy Kernodle, Salim Washington, Eric Jackson, TJ Anderson ,Yusef Lateef, Billy Taylor, Olly Wilson, George Russell, and a never before published interview with Elvin Jones -- the book examines the full spectrum of Coltrane's legacy. Each work approaches this theme from a different angle, in both historical and contemporary contexts, focusing on how Coltrane became a quintessential example of the universal and enduring qualities of Black American culture.Features
- Contributions from important and well-known Black media personalities, musicians, and scholars
- First collection to focus on Coltrane's roots in Black American culture
- Original insights into the relationship of Coltrane's sound and music to Black music traditions, spirituality, and Black America's quest for freedom
Reviews
"Coltrane's significance in the black community goes far beyond the notes he played. He stands for integrity, humility, spirituality, and more. For me, this book is a chance to read what my esteemed friends and colleagues have to say about this twentieth-century icon. For everyone, it's an opportunity to learn about Coltrane - the man and his music - from some new points of view." --Dr. Lewis Porter, Rutgers University-Newark
"If John Coltrane was 'invited' into the community of jazz musicians to be a custodian, innovator, and disseminator of Black American culture, Brown himself has invited a first-rate group of Black American contributors-scholars, musicians, media personalities, and educators-to provide an insightful and provocative view of the continuing relevance of Coltrane's music to the development of Black American spirituality, liberation, and non-Western ways of music-making." --Reebee Garofalo, University of Massachusetts, Boston
"The collection reads like a lively townhouse meeting in which the impassioned citizens of 'Tranes-ville' stake out their intellectual territories, each arguing for the importance of Coltrane's music and the deep sense of spirituality we sense in his singular brand of cultural nationalism. Come to the meeting and be inspired as well by this musician's exacting execution and uncompromising truth." --Guthrie P. Ramsey, Jr., author of Race Music: Black Cultures from Bebop to Hip-Hop
"John Coltrane and Black America's Quest for Freedom is a thorough investigation of John Coltrane's music via the artist, and the artist via his culture, not in an effort to solidify notions of black identity or enshrine a cultural legacy, but rather to show that the Black American experience itself is complex, improvised, defiant, and irreducible." --BlackGrooves.org
"An insightful collection." --wirenh.com
"A useful collection for those serious about the culture of jazz in general and Coltrane in particular. Recommended." --Choice
About the Author(s)
Leonard Brown is a professional saxophonist, composer and arranger, and Associate Professor of African American Studies and Music at Northeastern University. A Ford Fellow, he served as senior consulting historian and principal ethnomusicologist for the American Jazz Museum in Kansas City, and is co-author of Kansas City - And All That's Jazz. Brown is co-founder and producer of the John Coltrane Memorial Concert.
