How has spiritual depth been perceived by the figures of John Coltrane and Sun Ra to create

a vision of utopia.

Musical Symmetry

Coltrane’s search for ‘spiritual wholeness’ was broadly understood by critics as offering an
artistic response to black oppression and the possibility of self-reinvention (Scott 2003:
225).

As Coltrane explained in the album's liner notes, this song expresses “that feeling you have
when you finally do reach an awareness, an understanding which you have earned through
struggle. It is a welcome feeling of peace.” (in reference to: “Welcome” – 1967)

[Link] :

This culminated in John Coltrane's masterpiece A Love Supreme, which opened the gates for
other jazz players seeking the transcendent, using everything from "the sacred sound of the
Southern Baptist church in all its ecstatic shouts and yells" to "enlightenment from
Southeastern Asian esoteric practices like transcendental meditation and yoga."
It goes without saying that you can't talk about spiritual jazz without talking about John
Coltrane. Nor can you ignore the distinctive music and theology of Herman Poole Blount,
better known as Sun Ra, composer, bandleader, music therapist, Afrofuturist, and teacher of
a course called "The Black Man in the Cosmos." NTS' expansive mix offers work from both of
them and other familiar artists like Alice Coltrane, Earth, Wind & Fire, Herbie Hancock, Gil
Scott-Heron, Ornette Coleman, and many more (including players from as far away from the
birthplace of jazz as Japan) who, whether or not you've heard of them before, can take you
to places you've never been before. Start listening with the embedded first part of the
playlist above; continue on to parts two, three, and four, and maybe — just maybe — you'll
come out of it wanting to found a church of your own.

Pursuit in spirituality – art reflects and reinforces a common state of mind – jazz = vehicle
for self-determination and self-recognition

The consciousness of social re-evaluation and rise, a social spiritualism.

Coltrane:

Identity formation Spiritual depth as the centre of aesthetic performances of John Coltrane
and Sun Ra.

The vision of utopia

[Link] :
This new music, or "New Black Music" as Baraka branded it, became the soundtrack to a
developing black nationalism in literature. The Black Arts Movement looked to black musical
expression as a site of authentic artistic "blackness."
Within this environment, “black music” took on heterotopic meanings; rather than a rigid,
collectivized notion of “black identity” in music, the Black Arts Movement and the jazz
avant-garde were marked by multiple, sometimes competing, conceptions of artistic
identity. In most cases, the musicians stridently resisted any single narrative of racial and
socio-aesthetic identity.2

Spiritual Jazz is a style of Avant-Garde Jazz music which emerged in the 1960s. It is closely
associated with the musical and spiritual philosophy developed by John Coltrane in the mid-
1960s (manifested as early as his seminal A Love Supreme album) which was passed on to
his collaborators Alice Coltrane and Pharoah Sanders.

Stylistically, spiritual jazz is marked by a mixture of jazz with approximations of ethnic music
styles (often a blend of styles evocative of African, Indian, and East Asian musical traditions),
religious music of non-Christian traditions, and the ecstatic, transcendental aspects of Free
Jazz. This radical style was closely linked to various African-American political and spiritual
movements, such as the Nation of Islam and Afro-Centrism, the introduction of Zen
philosophy and yoga in America, a resurgence of Egyptology, as well as the Civil Rights and
Black Power movements.

18.10.17

Spiritual Jazz
 Jazz mixed with ethnic music styles
o Coltrane

 Religious music of non-Christian traditions
o
 Closely linked to spiritual movements
o Afro-centrism
 Resurgence of Egyptology

Coltrane and Sun Ra hold out the possibility of a utopian communal wholeness and
redemptive individual freedom.

Coltrane:
In the case of Coltrane, reflections on harmony and symmetry did not lead satisfaction
with a structural understanding of music as the ultimate goal. Rather, each one found in
music a pathway to religious and spiritual experience and, with it, utopian imaginings of
a better world.

This universalistic aspiration of black nationalist thought – in its various instantiations

from revolutionary nationalism to cultural nationalism gave it ambitions beyond creating
a utopian social order for people of African descent alone. This new social order would
 also be crucial in saving the soul of whites, who had degraded themselves by the brutal
acts they had committed in the course of practicing slavery, colonization, and racism.

Sonic Explorations
Avant-garde music – sonic explorations longed to give musical expression to these
ideals. very musical parameter—melody, rhythm, timbre, instrumentation, harmony,
counterpoint—was opened to exploration. Many musicians wanted to move beyond
traditional chromatic harmony and the chorus structures they articulated as the
principal means of organizing improvisation.

The experimentalists seemed to equate a break with tonality with revolution. In the
context of the civil rights movement and black nationalism, the abstract cries and shrieks
of the New Thing were often taken as anger rather than as the spiritual exploration they
were to many of its practitioners, such as John Coltrane, Sun Ra, and Albert Ayler.

How has spirituality manifested in the music of John Coltrane and Sun Ra

 John Coltrane and Sun Ra

 Aesthetics in portraying a sense of spirituality in the avant-garde period.
 Contribution to 'Spiritual' jazz in different manners
 More literal in Coltrane's music
 More as an aesthetic/philosophy direction for Sun Ra.

My question seems a little basic: "How has spiritual depth been perceived by the figures of
John Coltrane and Sun Ra to create a vision of Utopia?".

Coltrane:
 A Love Supreme (1965)
 Ascension (1966)
 Om (1966)

Stylistically, spiritual jazz is marked by a mixture of jazz with approximations of ethnic music
styles (often a blend of styles evocative of African, Indian, and East Asian musical traditions),
religious music of non-Christian traditions, and the ecstatic, transcendental aspects of Free
Jazz. This radical style was closely linked to various African-American political and spiritual
movements, such as the Nation of Islam and Afro-Centrism, the introduction of Zen
philosophy and yoga in America, a resurgence of Egyptology, as well as the Civil Rights and
Black Power movements.

Spiritual Jazz
 Jazz mixed with ethnic music styles
o African, Indian, East Asian
 Religious music of non-Christian traditions, ecstatics, transcendental aspects of free
jazz
 Closely linked to African-Amerian political and spiritual movements
 o Nation of Islam
o Afro-Centrism
o Introduction of Zen philosophy and Yoga
 Resurgence of Egyptology
 Civil Tights and Black Power movements

Steven Wayne Gehring (page 5)

My final case study examines A Love Supreme (1964) by American jazz musician, John
Coltrane. Following his 1957 conversion, Coltrane became increasingly focused on creating
music both evocative of his changing spiritual beliefs and reflective of his constant search
inward for truth. In returning to his religious roots and outward towards an eclectic mix of
different Western and Eastern religious traditions, Coltrane represents a universalized
spirituality.

Coltrane:
Coltrane became increasingly focused on creating music that not only revealed his constant
search inward for truth but also honoured God.
 Music
o Religiously evocative titles
o Plaintive melodies
o Sense of suspended time
o Incorporation of non-Western elements
 Especially from India, the Middle East and North Africa
o Concept of musical freedom for the metaphor of spiritual freedom

Religious zeal
 Coltrane:
o Constant search inward for the truth
o Honouring god
o Music:
 Religiously evocative titles
 Plaintive melodies
 Sense of suspended time
 Sun Ra:
o Touches upon Ancient Egyptology and Afro-futurism

20/10/17

Spiritual Jazz
 Jazz mixed with ethnic music styles
o Coltrane

 Religious music of non-Christian traditions
o
 Closely linked to spiritual movements
 o Afro-centrism
 Resurgence of Egyptology

Coltrane and Sun Ra hold out the possibility of a utopian communal wholeness and
redemptive individual freedom.

Freedom Sounds: Civil Rights Call Out to Jazz and Africa - Monson
Sun Ra’s musical explorations were both composerly and deeply informed by a broad
spectrum of spiritual and Afrocentric thought
 Baptist Church
 Gurdjieff
 Ancient Egypt
 Outer space
Spiritual interests and utopian vision of blackness have been significantly documented
 John Szwed
 Graham
Sonic experimentation that Sun Ra’s vision of the Arkestra as a spiritual community
produced.
 Sun Ra’s views – musical techniques de developed were not from human sources
 Saw himself as a spiritual agent of God
o Whose mission was to make art for the sake of the creator
Expression of music as the medium to serve religiously/spirituality.
 Sun Ra’s theatrical/magical/musical universe was a form of “black science fiction”
o That was saturated with themes of freedom, apocalypse and survival
 Sun Ra viewed himself as a spiritual leader chosen by the Creator
o And consequently expected the members of his Arkestra to respect his
absolute authority
o Like an authoritarian patriarch than a radical egalitarian

Blackness
Sun Ra took great pride in the fact that his music had been created without the sponsorship
of any white person.

Spiritual in the context of the black arts movement was often a code word for blackness.
 It was something that white people were not and people of African descent were
 It was a quality that could be used to draw a boundary around African American
cultural space at a time when the cultivation of self-help and self-love was essential
in creating a sense of black pride and autonomy

Self-determination
In the end, the metaphor of self-determination—and music as a path to its realization—was
an idea many non–African Americans could transpose to their own social and personal
circumstances
Religion and Spirituality in Late 20th Century Music: Arvo Pärt,
Jonathan Harvey, and John Coltrane – Gehring
Coltrane became increasingly focused on creating music that not only revealed his constant
search inward for truth but also honored God.

Formal and expressive features in his music function as spiritual

 These features include:
o religiously evocative titles; plaintive melodies; a sense of suspended time; the
incorporation of non-Western elements –– especially from India, the Middle-
East, and North Africa; and the concept of musical freedom as a metaphor for
spiritual freedom.

Coltrane and Sun Ra generate a spirituality that is universal and is more of a movement of
self-expression and embodies a seeking of freedom.

American music and African-American culture as well as symbolises passion, exploration,

and self-expression; for many, Coltrane embodies the freedom sought for by the civil rights
movement.

Coltrane’s conversion experience reflected a desire, in part, to recapture the religious

traditions that dominated his early life.

His spiritual exploration anticipated the rise of an eclectic spirituality of the 1960s that
rejected traditional modes of belief in favor of a wide range of syncretistic beliefs.

Coltrane’s music suggests a broader, more eclectic spirituality that resonated with many
who sought a path away from the perceived staleness of mainline American Christianity.

Coltrane and Sun Ra refer to spirituality beyond religious evocation. Ties to the ‘other’ is
made explicit to draw on an aura of spirituality (eclecticism)
 Astrology
 Cosmetology

How has spirituality manifested in the music of John Coltrane and Sun Ra?
 How has the idea of spirituality encompassed the music of John Coltrane and Sun
Ra?
 What is the role of spirituality in their music?

- Spirituality takes on a role of commodifying the artistic process of self-discovery

o The path of spirituality is also an inner journey

The problem with labelling a genre ‘spiritual’ is that in commodifying a process of artistic
self-discovery we limit its scope for growth outside the pre-determined definitions of the
onlooker. External signifiers become emphasised and marketed to the fan who develops a
sense that the artist has quantifiable attributes which we feel are necessary or admirable in
our time. These attributes, which feed into preconceived ideas of spirituality, become more
important than the inner journey embarked upon by the artist who wears this label. In this
context an artist’s clothing, song titles, associated imagery, musical scale choices and choice
of instrumentation all bolster the sense that his/her music can be adequately marketed as
‘spiritual’. The journey becomes reduced to the symbolism.

Spirituality asserts itself as a vehicle for black expression.

 Sun Ra
o Exploration of Egyptology
o Afro-centrism

Spirituality

20.10.17

In her book Parable of the Talents, Octavia Butler describes the genesis of a new religion
born from the crumbling of social, economic and religious structures which have defined the
20th century. This religion sees ‘God’ as change. God is inherent in the forces and processes
that dictate how all life we encounter grows. Learning about how all life forms on earth can
live in an integrated fashion and how we can train ourselves to develop abilities to facilitate
change is then regarded as worship. This aesthetic is one that resonates with me greatly at
this time so I choose to highlight jazz albums under the banner of ‘spiritual’ as those which
inspire sentiments in me which reinforce Butler’s positioning.

Paragraph 2

Also in the sixties, and the area upon which this paper focuses, a wave of jazz musicians
turned to the Classical music traditions of North and South India from which to draw
inspiration, including John Coltrane, Miles Davis and Yusuf Lateef.

Later records such as ‘Ascension’, ‘Meditations’ and ‘Om’ reveal Coltrane’s fascination with
Eastern spirituality, with the sleeve notes of ‘Om’ showing a profound influence from Hindu
and Buddhist philosophical thought –

‘Om means the first vibration – that sound, that spirit that sets everything else into being. It
is the Word from which all men and everything else comes, including all possible sounds
that man can make vocally. It is the first syllable, the primal word, the word of power.’
(Sleeve notes from ‘Om’, 1965).

Although Coltrane attempted to incorporate certain Indian musical features such as raga[3]
and drone notes[4] as well as Eastern philosophy, his growing interest in free jazz seemed at
odds with his interest in Indian music – the approach which differs greatly from the idea of
free jazz improvisation, as I will discuss later.
21.10.17

But what of the actual music that Sun Ra made during this period? Much of his 1950s output
represents an adherence to certain tropes inherited from his time in big bands, but
pebbledashes them with obtuse flecks and idiosyncratic impulses. The deceptive swing,
broken up by sheets of alto voodoo and piano triangulation, that constitute 'Super Sonic
Jazz' and 'Sound of Joy' (both 1956) are key early period recordings. They employ electric
keyboards and double baritone horns that often yield to unconventional tympani solos, a
consistent feature throughout most of the Arkestra's distinct stylistic shifts. The gentle
Hammond ooze and mischievous junkyard wurlitzer of records such as The Nubians of
Plantonia (1958) and Jazz In Sillhouette (1959) are illustrative of Ra's proud embracing of
technological innovation. Jazz In Sillhouette is a particularly appropriate title for an album
that is at once respectful of tradition and at the same time completely removed from any
sense of linear jazz history. These records, while not quite emerging as fully signposted
statements of intent, nonetheless established a template for what would morph into a truly
ravishing improv unit. Many people are surprised by how catchy, simple, even, these pieces
sound on first hearing. Blues scales and chord changes borrowed from pre-bebop exponents
of heady, kinetic swing are evident, melded with pure bop solo excursions that might seem
standard issue today, but would have jarred purists at the time. Nubians of Plantonia ramps
up the controlled dissonance even more. Heartily percussive, it can be viewed as the
moment the Arkestra configured their collective take on rhythm, incorporating the
magnificent tectonic drum solos of the criminally underrated Robert Barry.

During the tumultuous 1960s, there was a religious revolution to accompany the grand
societal, sexual, racial, and cultural shifts already afoot. To correspond to this societal
evolution, music was embarking its own musical movement and gave birth to a new free
flowing identity of avant-garde jazz. In the 1960s, John Coltrane led a musical movement
that saw artists striking out beyond jazz’s constraints and striving toward spiritual
transcendence amidst great cultural change. Concurrently, the era’s primary African-
American art form reflected such upheaval in its music, too: Jazz began to push against all
constraints, be it chord changes, predetermined tempos, or melodies, so as to best reflect
the pursuit of freedom in all of its forms. Rather than the Tin Pan Alley standards, modal
explorations, and cool poses that previously defined the genre, there was now chaos, noise,
and tumult to be found. And amid the disorder out on the street and on the bandstand was
also a quest for a spiritual center, a search for communion with the divine. This musical
exploration was epitomised by the figures of John Coltrane and Sun Ra. Through their
musical musings, spirituality was developed and honed

Musical changes against the backdrop of…

 Music wasn’t a result of these changes
 Charging against boundaries, unsettling the status quo

John Coltrane
 Experiemental spaces
 Draws on free jazz
 Transitionary stylistically
 More based on static harmony – pitch centre – pedal point
 Modal jazz
o Free playing