I admire this more than I like it

good foil for Vin Diesel

i know i have a way to go here

― ZESTY O'PRIDE (imago), Thursday, January 28, 2016 6:44 AM (5 hours ago)

are you aspiring to a doctorate in musicology or something? It's okay to not like things.

troubadoursmetal haha

otoh based on your aesthetic preferences in other genres, you might go in for John Zorn stuff -- Naked City, Painkiller, his game pieces maybe, esp. Cricket.

wait imago isn't already a zornian zorny for zorn. color me shocked. must be some third level contrariness math going on.

or hipster fave Alice Coltrane

articulate ensemble of chicago

i don't remember ever having listened to john zorn. i must have though. naked city is on deezer. it sounds interesting. it has got enough complexity without being too tuneless.

that was a recommendation for imago tbh

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y2EsZpobWJs

xp i know i know. thanks anyway.

I find A Love Supreme totally accessible, but something like Carly Rae Jepsen ... don't like it, don't admire it ... it can exist as a cultural artifact without my approval and I feel totally good about it

A Love Supreme seems like a token name-drop album for people who've never really listened to any other John Coltrane albums.

I think I love everything about Scott Walker since the 80s apart from some of his tastes (no interest in the films he curated)

Crescent is a much better gateway album for Coltrane than ALS anyway.

For me, Giant Steps was a way easier way to get into than anything after. Really, if the only things Coltrane had done were his 1964-and-after records, I'd have added him to my list.

I kind of worked backwards with Coltrane. My gateway was "Live" At The Village Vanguard. Next was the just-released 2CD The Major Works of John Coltrane (with Ascension, Om, and several other pieces), which was what I was looking for -- I'd seen a concert by Milford Graves, Charles Gayle, Hugh Glover, and William Parker that changed me forever, and I was on the hunt for more of that music. Ballads and Coltrane Plays The Blues didn't cut it for me (though I grew to love those, and the rest of his work, years later), but Interstellar Space and Live In Japan were perfect.

the best way to get into Scott Walker is to watch 30th Century Man.

I like loads of jazz but Coltrane has always been hard apart from Love Supreme. Even Giant Steps I have difficulty enjoying very much.

but it would be nice if there was a reasoning behind. it is a serious question

My serious answer is that as a musician, I know how hard it is to make music that isn't immediately "likeable", and still keep with it. And not only keep with it, but reach out further and further, even though it makes life way harder than just going along with the program and producing easily likable music. As I get older, I find it much easier to admire musicians (and other artists), even if their art doesn't necessarily push all my personal aesthetic buttons. If I can recognize truth in their art, and see that they're dedicated to that more than anything else, I find it hard *not* to admire them. Furthermore, today I find it much more likely to actually *like* an artist that I first came to appreciate simply because I believed in their mission, and admired the choices they made not only in their art, but in their lives.

xp. I think of giant steps as a very accessible album. nice and upbeat with interesting changes. although perhaps at times it veers a little closely to Coltrane trying to blow his way through all the possible permutations on each chord.

naima is p much an all time jazz ballad imo.

Bach. I saw some of his work performed at the LA Phil recently, and it was nice enough but I could take it or leave it. He was obviously a genius and innovator but I don't really have a place for baroque music in my life.

Dominique said it better.

yes jim in glasgow. I think Coltrane's style is too busy overall. the tunes are definitely there, especially on Giant Steps but it's like he's scribbling all over it. I admire the wildness but I feel like even someone like Ornette is somehow more nuanced or something? Coltrane makes jazz into a sport. I love his vision and his vibe but for 'free' jazz, I find Giant Steps claustrophobic.

Bach just seemed like intellectual games (ala Godel Escher Bach) until it finally clicked while I was watching 32 Short Films about Glenn Gould. Yes, there are inversions, transpositions, recursions and other tricks up Johann's sleeve, but you can also just hum along with it. The foreground is really, tuneful and memorable, its only the instruments/parts often exchange places in the spotlight.

I'm trying to think of acts that fit this description without them falling into 'overrated' or 'idgi'. I'm sure there are lots. maybe Bjork? like, I feel as though I should love her and I certainly like a number of songs, but in rarely in the mood, that's the thing.

Portishead, Massive Attack, lots of slow 90s alterna-pop I guess. I know these are important acts who accomplished great things but their insidious vibes just don't sit right with me. I like dark music. I love dub and hip hop. but these acts just make me feel gloomy.

Joni Mitchell. Although I do genuinely enjoy a number of her songs, overall I feel like she impresses me more than she actually moves or entertains me.

alex in main - its xyzzzz__ not xyzzzz

i know i have a way to go here

― ZESTY O'PRIDE (imago), Thursday, January 28, 2016 6:44 AM (5 hours ago)

are you aspiring to a doctorate in musicology or something? It's okay to not like things.

― sarahell, Thursday, 28 January 2016 Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I thought musicologists only liked certain things that map to certain ideologies, in which case imago...isn't aiming for one.

He should totally try the Merzbox - its all on youtube now, no excuses.

dog latin, try 'coltrane' if you haven't already esp. 'out of this world'

Crescent is a much better gateway album for Coltrane than ALS anyway.

― the top man in the language department (誤訳侮辱), Thursday, January 28, 2016 12:43 PM (2 hours ago)

depends on from where that gate is coming from ...

my coltrane gateways were 'soultrane' and 'cattin with coltrane and quinichette'

A Love Supreme is amazing wtf guys

A Love Supreme seems like a token name-drop album for people who've never really listened to any other John Coltrane albums.

You seem like a guy who makes a lot of assumptions

http://nerdreactor.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/Frederik-Pohl_1976_Gateway.jpg?15016e

That long version of Africa Brass with all the extra shit is beautiful, just saying in the name of Trane-repping like and nothing to do with the premise of this thread. Song Of The Underground Railroad absolutely bangs.

a love supreme and kind of blue are probably the two major LPs that non-jazz fans might think of getting to bolster their jazz bonafides but that also doesn't mean they're not worthy of every single accolade.

you forget Bitches Brew

great thread. need to work this out imminently.

i'm not sure about bitches brew but maybe you're right, but i do think KoB is a little more easily digestible (not a criticism) for entry level jazzheads.

xp

weirdly enough kind of blue took me a long time when i was 18 while mingus was just like *pow*

*kabluie*

more like 'kind of blew' at first then

D'Angelo best answer so far.

dj sprinkles is a good answer imho. like i greatly admire a marxist genderqueer who escaped the midwest and djed sex worker bars in manhattan pre-giuliani then moved to tokyo and writes / has written great pieces and gives / has given great lectures / workshops about the culture industry and is a very nice and interesting person to boot. much more than i like his / her artfully constructed and occasionally gorgeous but kind of noodly and, here's the crucial bit for me, pretty unfunky deep house tracks.

i would still jump at the chance to see her dj.

A Love Supreme seems like a token name-drop album for people who've never really listened to any other John Coltrane albums.
You seem like a guy who makes a lot of assumptions

― reggae mike love (polyphonic)

fair enough. how do you rate ALS in comparison to other Coltrane-led albums?

Pussy Riot

good one

agree on dj sprinkles

Can