This is a special encore episode of The Artistry Of… in celebration of John Coltrane’s Centennial.
If you’ve ever flown or been in an airplane, you know that feeling you get the instant the wheels of the craft leave the ground to be tucked away in the underside of the plane’s belly. That feeling of no longer being tethered or attached to the ground. Like the kick-push-glide of skateboarding you go from the rush of the acceleration to the hush of the suddenly up.
That instant of the separation feeling is Coltrane. It is controlled, like in the plane, you are not hurled into the air like some giant tossing a paper glider, you are instead very much like Coltrane. Coltrane is that instant of airborne. Like a pilot the lift off is controlled but the experience of those in the seats is the pure liberty of travel. It is that instant suspended until the tune comes to its end. While suspended Coltrane is as aerodynamic as he wants to be and he controls the air. Weaving and bobbing and then when it is time, touchdown; wheels back on the ground.
A moment to adjust and understand that you are now somewhere else, transplanted from where you were when the flight began.