Articles by Bertil Holmgren
The Indefinite Version (of My Favorite Things)
by Bertil Holmgren
'How 'gainst this rage shall beauty hold a plea, Whose action is no stronger than a flower?' W. ShakespeareIn connection to the newly released album The John Coltrane Quartet plays The Sound Of Music (Impulse!), this article describes the evolution of the song “My Favorite Things" up until the last entry in the “Olatunji Concert" of 1967, where Coltrane gives a performance that is today evident to stand the test of time much further ...
Continue ReadingEncounters with Elvin
by Bertil Holmgren
As I mentioned in Coltrane's Music, in 1962, I had the good fortune to see and hear the classic John Coltrane Quartet in live performance five nights running, at Birdland in New York City. After Trane, Elvin Jones was the most exciting member of the group. For me then, however, Coltrane was enough, he would do. Elvin, McCoy and Jimmy Garrison were secondary for me. It wasn't until later, when deepening perception or maturity, enabled me to look beyond Coltrane ...
Continue ReadingColtrane's Music
by Bertil Holmgren
After listening often to his recordings, I first heard John Coltrane live at Birdland in June 1962. My interest had developed earlier in my young life in my home country of Sweden, considering that broadcast jazz there at the time was restricted to a half-hour broadcast on the national radio each week. It was also possible to tune in on the fading Voice of America radio-transmitter in Tangiers, Africa on the short wave band Sunday nights at ten o'clock (always ...
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