Coltrane: The Origin of "Spiritual"

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I know that many of you are familiar with my research on Coltrane, published in John Coltrane: His Life and Music (1998, paperback 2000; also available in French, Italian, and Russian editions), and in the team effort, the John Coltrane Reference (2013; 2nd edition is scheduled to be out in 2024). Starting today, I’m going to start posting my Coltrane research here. Some of the posts will be things that are in my books, but that will make a lot of more sense when they are accompanied by visual and audio examples. Some of them will be expanded versions of what’s in the books. And some will be entirely new.

Let’s start our Coltrane journey with the origin of “Spiritual,” from “Live” at the Village Vanguard. Just to show you how my mind works, what got me started was a close reading, many years ago, of what Coltrane is quoted saying in the liner notes to the album:

Look at the bottom of the first column and the top of the second. Nat Hentoff reports, clearly from Coltrane, that the song is “based on an actual spiritual he had run across.” And Coltrane told Hentoff that he wanted to “get the original emotional essence of the spiritual.” Wait a second—“Actual?” “Original?” “The spiritual?” So, Coltrane was definitely working with a pre-existing song.

My next stop was Coltrane: A Biography by C.O. Simpkins, M.D. Dr. Simpkins (he’s a medical doctor) was friends with Coltrane’s former wife Naima, and she showed him Coltrane’s books, papers, LP library, and so on. So when Simpkins says, on page 137, that Coltrane owned a copy of Johnson’s classic book of spirituals, I know that he had a good source:

I don’t actually know of a book called 200 Negro Spirituals, and it was both brothers, author James Weldon and composer J. Rosamund Johnson, who collected and published 120 spirituals in two volumes, The Book of American Negro Spirituals (1925) and The Second Book of Negro Spirituals (1926). Since 1969, these have been combined into one volume. Each book begins with an extensive and engaging essay by James Weldon—a different essay for each volume.

The Johnson brothers are best known today, if they are remembered at all, as the composers of  “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” also known as the “Black national anthem.” But they were incredibly distinguished and outspoken contributors to the Harlem Renaissance, and they deserve to be studied and celebrated. You can get a very small idea of their accomplishments by reading the back of the Da Capo edition of the combined books of spirituals:

Well, Simpkins expressed a hunch, on that same page 137 that I just shared with you, that Coltrane’s source might be in the book of spirituals. He’s not a musician, so he couldn’t check, but he was absolutely correct! I had these books in my home library, and in just a few minutes, I found it on page 140 of Volume One (which is probably the one that Coltrane owned). It’s “Nobody Knows De Trouble I See” (the Johnsons write this and other songs in Black dialect, a choice that had its detractors even then). They specifically note that “This is a rare version,” because it’s different from the “familiar version,” which most of you probably know, that is found in Volume Two.

(Paying subscribers, look below for the “familiar version.”)

Let’s take a look at the “rare version,”and compare it with a listen to Coltrane’s “Spiritual”:

What the …?!! It is the same song—in the same key!! John, you couldn’t even change the key, or do something to make it less obvious?

We can understand now why Coltrane did not choose the “familiar”melody. He was well aware that most people wouldn’t know this one, so they wouldn’t question that he wrote it. (Of course, he also liked this version!) And if I’m right that he only had one of the spirituals volumes, as suggested in Simpkins, then he did not have the familiar one on hand.

Still, my question for you, dear reader, is, why is “Spiritual” credited everywhere as an original Coltrane composition? And I’ll ask you another one to ponder—why does everyone declare Miles to be an evil thief, stealing everyone’s tunes, but nobody ever says a word about Trane? (There are other examples of Coltrane, as I’ll show.) The answer to both questions must wait for another day.

In the meantime, All the Best to you and yours, friends!