Rachel Barron

This non-fiction does a very articulate job of running through the life of John Coltrane but unfortunately it is not done in an overly stimulating way. We get lots of facts and information from integral points in his life such as childhood or finding his place with Miles Davis and Thelonious Monk or when his soul search pushed his style too far for much of the pubic but there is little insight on Coltrane as a person and particularly as a person dealing with being at the fore front of African American culture during a time of such racial tension and transition. I was definitely surprised how matter of fact the book was about heroin addiction and alcohol use but it is similarly pale in description of what it actually meant. I think the author may have been trying to be 'age appropriate' but there are ways to talk about difficult or awkward things without completely diluting them. Lots of information here but not evocatively proposed.… (més)