Matt Silver

Gerry Mulligan’s autobiography, as told to KSDS GM Ken Poston, was published in November 2022 by Rowman & Littlefield.

Exciting news: Being Gerry Mulligan: My Life in Music, the late legendary baritone saxophonist's autobiography as told to KSDS General Manager Ken Poston, has been nominated for the Jazz Journalists Association's Book of the Year Award in the Best Biography/Autobiography category.

March is Women's History Month, and that’s special enough; it only comes once-a-year. But this year’s Women’s History Month is extraordinary — because it marks 100 years since the birth of one of jazz’s foundational artists, the one they called Sassy, the Divine One or, simply, “Sarah.” 

Alice in the basement recording studio of the Coltrane home. Dix Hills, NY. Sometime after the release of Cosmic Music, c. 1968–69.

By Matt Silver

In 1963, John Coltrane met a pianist from Detroit named Alice McLeod in New York City. At Birdland. She was playing vibes and piano in Terry Gibbs’s band, which was splitting a double-bill with Coltrane’s quartet, and they fell in love. 

Very few young saxophonists today possess the combination of charisma and facility that Lakecia Benjamin brings to the stage. Nominated for three Grammys for this past year’s “Phoenix,” one of Lakecia’s earliest and most enduring inspirations has been Alice Coltrane. Her 2020 album “Pursuance” was a tribute to the music of both Alice and John Coltrane.

By Matt Silver

Trained in jazz and forged in funk, alto saxophonist Lakecia Benjamin grew up hooked on Coltrane — Alice Coltrane. A friend introduced her to the music of John’s second wife, and she became enthralled. It wasn’t until some time later that Benjamin learned who John Coltrane was and that he could play a little, too.

Poster advertising The John Coltrane Quintet’s July 23, 1966 performance in Nagoya, Japan.

By Matt Silver

Through 1966 and the rest of his Earthly existence, Coltrane kept on in the direction of the cosmic music, the compelling but ultimately unknowable new thing. Trane and his new quintet toured the country and were once again, one last time, recorded live by Impulse at the Village Vanguard in May, then again, one last time, at Newport in July, where the new thing was now a year less new and, on this occasion, Archie Shepp-less. 

By Matt Silver

1965 was a year of upheaval and a year where things were happening on a grand scale in America. The space race was on, the heat was on in Saigon, and Martin Luther King led marchers demanding equal voting rights from Selma to Montgomery. Muhammad Ali stood like a conquering hero over Sonny Liston after knocking him out with a punch no one saw, least of all Liston; riots erupted in Watts and Malcolm X was assassinated — by whom exactly, we still don’t know. 

What we do know is 1965 was the end of the line for John Coltrane’s Classic Quartet.

On the final night of this leap-year-February, an exclusive KSDS membership event worthy of the all-too-rare February 29th. We’ll be at the beautiful outdoor patio at Lefty’s Chicago Pizzeria in Mission Hills and have a BEEFED UP “Jazz Across America: Chicago” listening party and concert. 

From 5 to 7 p.m., we’ll pipe in Neil Tesser’s weekly Chicago program featuring the best of Chicago jazz past and present. Then, from 7-9 p.m., Luther Hughes and his Quintet, aptly named The Cannonball-Coltrane Project, will be paying live musical tribute to a gem of the Coltrane discography, The Cannonball Adderley Quintet in Chicago. Hughes and his all star band will present this fun, high-octane, low stakes, late 1950s hard bop cutting session in a way that pays homage to the idea that combining contrasting styles like Ball and Trane can be a recipe for brilliance.

And speaking of recipes, Lefty’s has imported all the fan favorites from The Windy City. We’ll have a robust buffet of all the Chicago delicacies you can eat. In other words, the best Chicago dogs, Italian beef, and Chicago-style pizza this side of The Loop.

That’s a "Jazz Across America: Chicago" listening party, all-you-can-eat Taste of Chicago buffet from Lefty’s, and a live concert celebrating that historic collaboration between Cannonball and Coltrane…all for just $60/person. Capacity is not much larger than 50; this will sell out very quickly. So reserve your spot ASAP by going to jazz88.org or calling 619-388-3037.

”Le Chat Dans Le Sac” is a 1966 French Canadian film in the style of the French New Wave, in part about the disintegration of a young couple's relationship. With music by John Coltrane.

By Matt Silver

At just 37 minutes, and comprising eight takes of only five distinct tunes, it’s hard to categorize John Coltrane’s Blue World as an album, per se.

That doesn’t make it any less spectacular.

Issued by Impulse! Records in Sept. 2019, Blue World constitutes previously unreleased recordings from John Coltrane and his classic quartet at the very peak of the their powers and cohesiveness as a unit.

Coltrane smokes a pipe while taking a break from recording “A Love Supreme” at Van Gelder Studios, Dec. 1964. Photo by Chuck Stewart.

By Matt Silver

1963 chronicled a version of Coltrane’s Classic Quartet navigating between at least two worlds — the highwater mark of the group’s avant-garde experimentations, as heard on 1961’s "Live" at the Village Vanguard and Impressions, and 1962’s tidal recession to the more, shall we say, accessible repertoire of Ballads and the eponymously titled collaboration with Duke Ellington. It's a split-the-baby-in-two type scenario: you’ve got more adventurous sessions at Birdland as the year’s bookends — and, sandwiched between, the velvety lyrical decadence of Trane’s collaboration with Johnny Hartman AND six months of gigs with a substitute drummer, Roy Haynes, who filled in admirably for Elvin Jones, most memorably at 1963’s Newport Jazz Festival.

In 1964, there’s less vacillation, more incantation. Less compromise; more contemplation. Less soul searching; more satisfaction. More grounding and even more gratitude. 

And more happiness. In Coltrane’s career, but also in his life more generally. 

There are several ways to think about Coltrane’s experiments with dissonance and atonality and multiphonics and other concepts that may or may not have been instructive to CIA enhanced interrogation protocols. It’s fun to speculate about what exactly Coltrane was trying to do; what abstract truth he was trying to render more material by pushing his horn — and himself — to the absolute limits of expression.