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Photo by Roberto Polillo
THE JOHN COLTRANE QUARTET
I am going to wrap up this discussion of place with a final analogy that speaks to (or plays to) the dialectical method. Place can be likened to one of John Coltrane's classic quartets from the 1960s, four instrumentalists who produced some of the most richly textured jazz ever recorded.
Let's get into my DeLorean Time Machine and travel back to the band's glory days at the Half Note Club in the Village. Bring a couple of your friends, and don't worry, the tab is on me. When we get there, the club is packed and seating is first-come-first-served. Our party has to split up. You end up seated a few inches from Coltrane on sax, your friend is alongside Elvin Jones on drums, your other friend is practically sitting in the lap of keyboardist McCoy Tyner, I am squeezed up against Jimmy Garrison on bass.
Afterwards, we go out for a drink and compare notes. It soon becomes clear that each of us has heard something different. You think Coltrane killed it, your two friends lobby for Jones and Tyner, I'm ready to anoint Garrison the new king of jazz. In retrospect, we realize that while one and the same music filled the room, what each of us actually heard was dominated by the sound of the instrument and instrumentalist closest to us. We should have played musical chairs, changing seats after each set rather than sticking to one place. That way, each of us would have had a total listening experience.
As multiple listening points are required if we are to grasp the organic wholeness of a Coltrane performance, so multiple viewing points are required if we are to grasp the organic wholeness of place.
Indulge me one last riff on this analogy. Every jazz quartet needs someone like Coltrane to provide overall guidance so that the band members can weave their individual virtuosity into a unified piece of music. The same is true for our place quartet. The formation of place implies the active presence of some orchestrating force or coordinating mechanism that is able to keep the moments in sync. Who or what drives the arrows, turns the kaleidoscope, puts the environments of place in motion? Who or what is the Trane of place?
Click on the "Capitalism" tab to find out.