Sunday 8 May 2011

Now is the time!

I recently finished some piece of work after quite a while and I found the following Coltrane Quartet performance of “Vigil”, aka “Modal Excursion” (live in Comblain-La-Tour, Belgium, 1 August 1965), such an inspirational company during the period. Bassist Garrison appears to have just walked onto the bandstand, steadying and steadying that instrument of his that he plays with deftness and assiduousness as Coltrane, on tenor, begins the timely conversation with Jones on drums. Coltrane soars and soars in this continuously creative polytonal torrent of sound that is unmistakeably his signature. His commentary on the crucial challenges of his day is profoundly honest, insistent, multilayered and optimistic, a mood shared equally by the exhilarating inventiveness of Jones’s drumming. Note the resultant sweating and sheer exhaustion of the duo even before Coltrane’s brief break! As Tyner, on piano, joins the conversation, he takes 20-30 seconds of dizzying phrasing to restate the cardinal theme of the excursion and then essays his own contribution along a serene plateau of disarming contemplation, punctuated by Garrison’s impeccable percussive engagement and Jones’s continuing testament. Coltrane finally returns for the quartet to studiously sum up the goal for the vigil by declaring firmly and unreservedly: “Now is the time!” Today, we are most honoured and privileged to have inherited the priceless legacy of these selfless geniuses.

John Coltrane - Untitled (Vigil)



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