file under: dream of john coltrane day

walking down a semi-busy street in a little havana-ish or similar neighborhood (possibly in brooklyn/bronx), sunny out, shoeless and wearing shorts for some reason. it’s late afternoon, 4pm or so, and i’m coming back from some obligation. there is a lot of music coming from various sources: radios on streetcorners, apartment windows, passing cars. i turn up a particular street and walk past 2 older men playing jazz on a record player right next to the sidewalk. it’s very 60’s, flighty, atonal, freeform-like jazz, maybe a version of “take five” (a song which i actually kind of hate – in real life, N and i were listening to a reggae version of it on that recent trojan compilation that dj spooky did, so that's probably how it creeped into my subconscious).

anyway, everything sounds so good that i decide to walk into the middle of the street, where the music is louder/loudest. i start jumping up and twisting around in the air like a total spazz, getting totally caught up in the music and actually getting choked up with joy at SUCH SOUND within the dream, because it just sounded incredible. it’s hard to describe how great it felt, this really nice, ecstatic moment within the dream, tears running down my face and all.

i woke up at about 12:30pm, which is waaaaaaaaaaaay too early for me to be up during the week. it’s the weekend, though, so I need to start switching my sleep schedule around a bit anyway so that I’m not awake all night and asleep all day.

once up, i immediately put john coltrane’s expression on, because I knew it was close to what I heard in my dream (which i had, in the meantime, decided was a sign to think of this day as “unofficial john coltrane day”). hearing it was just what i was looking for.

i’m not even terribly knowledgeable of coltrane’s oeuvre – we have 3 or 4 of his more famous albums (giant steps, blue train, a love supreme, coltrane, basically the usual suspects) and only own expression because i read that it was the last thing he recorded before passing away. i wanted to know if you could hear any of that in his playing, if there was some kind of awareness of the end coming. it can be meditative at times for sure, like a lot of coltrane can be, but it’s also still full of such life and inquisitiveness, “even in the face of death”, i guess. it’s inspiring.