The previous part is here. Let’s continue with the open letter that Alain Corneau and Daniel Berger published when Coltrane, through his manager and lawyer Harold Lovett, did not agree to making a documentary. Please remember, this is a detailed summary, not a translation
I think you’re right about about these two Frenchmen being too philosophical. I also think they convey an aggressive approach, at least in this last letter, that could put anyone off. Maybe they just wanted to get their frustration out without caring for an answer at all.
Another possibility is that Coltrane had other things burdening his mind and needed privacy and peace. A third option could be a plain culture clash between two high-strung intellectuals and the seemingly easygoing Lovett.
It was a nice touch though to send him cigars. I remember him constantly smoking big cigars, even between solos, during the week long gig I visited at Birdland in ’62.
Thanks for these comments. Yes, I am sure that they had already given up before publishing this letter. That's amazing that you saw him smoking cigars! If that was February 62, you saw him with Dolphy in the group too? THANK YOU BERTIL!
No, it was in late May - early June. Dolhpy was gone by then. Trane and the group (especially Elvin) kept the boiler cooking by themselves. I'ts unbelievable, supernatural, that at my unplanned stopover in NYC I was able to see my hero since 4 years (and ever since) 5 night running. And even talk to him. How's that happening to a little kid from Scandinavia?
Don’t overstress ”talk to”, he was as reserved as to our two French guys this is about. In a McCoy solo he had come down to one of the serving tables to lit up a cigar. That’s where I approached him asking for his autograph on the Africa/Brass album i had brought along. I was taking a big risk there, being underage and instructed by the door guard to ”sit silent and as long back as possible!”. ”Mr Coltrane, I am a great fan of your music. Would you please sign this record?” I said, with no response. But he pulled out a chair for me and then kept on smoking looking blindly ahead. After some time he asked ”What’s your name?” and I told him and informed him that I had come over from Sweden. Finally he looked at me and said ”We’re going there later this year”, then he wrote ”Thank you +very best wishes” with his name.
That’s it. It wasn’t an easy conversation and as a trembling teen on a risk mission I had to cope. Anyway, I still have the album, my most valued treasure.
I've no doubt much was lost in translation but they're French, a people with a reputation for verbosity and when it comes to the Arts, an approach with equal measures of pomposity and faux intellectualism,laced with a smidgeon of plain arrogance. Coltrane must have wanted to avoid them ( and in fairness,many others in the cultural media of the period who were desperate to critique and compartmentalize the new creative world, particularly jazz ) like the plague.
Ha ha—we've got some lovely subscribers from France, so let's be careful, but I think it's fair to say that they were a certain type of French intellectual. And that Coltrane did not appreciate that approach to his music or his person. THANKS
I can´t help feeling a bit sorry for these guys, and some compassion for their effort to wheedle out acceptance by Trane, while trying to show respect and admiration. I fully subscribe the "culture-clash" idea. Their convoluted style is pretty typical of french academia, and I wonder if JC bothered to read through the whole letter. I would've liked to see the film if it had ever been made.
Yes, the film is a lost opportunity, regardless of how they wanted to approach it. I believe that Trane never even saw the letter, since it was only published here and not mailed to him. And being in French he would have had to get someone to translate it anyway. THANKS
This open letter is written from Paris in 1965 (pre-student revolt), at a time when Les Cahiers du cinéma was the intellectual and cultural reference (thanks to Sartre as a maître à penser) and it is published in a “sister” publication about jazz as cerebral as Les Cahiers. We are right in the middle of The Nouvelle Vague.
Today this letter reads as pretentious, condescending and arrogant. But the authors were young. Alain Corneau must have been 22.
They knew it was hopeless but they wanted to frame their afterthoughts in a direct letter to Coltrane to prove him that they are smart enough in case he didn’t get it (or his manager) when they first approach them about the documentary.
It’s almost that they can’t fathom that the genius of Coltrane fails to meet them anywhere. Imagine that!
Hello Thierry, You're quite right of course that this was a "sister" to the Cinema publication. I had added that to the first part of this essay, with thanks to you. Yes, the authors do appear to feel "entitled," that is, they can't believe Coltrane would say no to them! THANK YOU
I think you’re right about about these two Frenchmen being too philosophical. I also think they convey an aggressive approach, at least in this last letter, that could put anyone off. Maybe they just wanted to get their frustration out without caring for an answer at all.
Another possibility is that Coltrane had other things burdening his mind and needed privacy and peace. A third option could be a plain culture clash between two high-strung intellectuals and the seemingly easygoing Lovett.
It was a nice touch though to send him cigars. I remember him constantly smoking big cigars, even between solos, during the week long gig I visited at Birdland in ’62.
Thanks for these comments. Yes, I am sure that they had already given up before publishing this letter. That's amazing that you saw him smoking cigars! If that was February 62, you saw him with Dolphy in the group too? THANK YOU BERTIL!
No, it was in late May - early June. Dolhpy was gone by then. Trane and the group (especially Elvin) kept the boiler cooking by themselves. I'ts unbelievable, supernatural, that at my unplanned stopover in NYC I was able to see my hero since 4 years (and ever since) 5 night running. And even talk to him. How's that happening to a little kid from Scandinavia?
That’s amazing!! What was it like talking with him?
Don’t overstress ”talk to”, he was as reserved as to our two French guys this is about. In a McCoy solo he had come down to one of the serving tables to lit up a cigar. That’s where I approached him asking for his autograph on the Africa/Brass album i had brought along. I was taking a big risk there, being underage and instructed by the door guard to ”sit silent and as long back as possible!”. ”Mr Coltrane, I am a great fan of your music. Would you please sign this record?” I said, with no response. But he pulled out a chair for me and then kept on smoking looking blindly ahead. After some time he asked ”What’s your name?” and I told him and informed him that I had come over from Sweden. Finally he looked at me and said ”We’re going there later this year”, then he wrote ”Thank you +very best wishes” with his name.
That’s it. It wasn’t an easy conversation and as a trembling teen on a risk mission I had to cope. Anyway, I still have the album, my most valued treasure.
Nevertheless, it's a great story. THANK YOU for sharing it.
Man, these guys would've been a DELIGHT on social media, I imagine...
Ha ha--don't get into an argument with them, that's for sure. THANKS SETH
I've no doubt much was lost in translation but they're French, a people with a reputation for verbosity and when it comes to the Arts, an approach with equal measures of pomposity and faux intellectualism,laced with a smidgeon of plain arrogance. Coltrane must have wanted to avoid them ( and in fairness,many others in the cultural media of the period who were desperate to critique and compartmentalize the new creative world, particularly jazz ) like the plague.
Ha ha—we've got some lovely subscribers from France, so let's be careful, but I think it's fair to say that they were a certain type of French intellectual. And that Coltrane did not appreciate that approach to his music or his person. THANKS
I can´t help feeling a bit sorry for these guys, and some compassion for their effort to wheedle out acceptance by Trane, while trying to show respect and admiration. I fully subscribe the "culture-clash" idea. Their convoluted style is pretty typical of french academia, and I wonder if JC bothered to read through the whole letter. I would've liked to see the film if it had ever been made.
Yes, the film is a lost opportunity, regardless of how they wanted to approach it. I believe that Trane never even saw the letter, since it was only published here and not mailed to him. And being in French he would have had to get someone to translate it anyway. THANKS
This open letter is written from Paris in 1965 (pre-student revolt), at a time when Les Cahiers du cinéma was the intellectual and cultural reference (thanks to Sartre as a maître à penser) and it is published in a “sister” publication about jazz as cerebral as Les Cahiers. We are right in the middle of The Nouvelle Vague.
Today this letter reads as pretentious, condescending and arrogant. But the authors were young. Alain Corneau must have been 22.
They knew it was hopeless but they wanted to frame their afterthoughts in a direct letter to Coltrane to prove him that they are smart enough in case he didn’t get it (or his manager) when they first approach them about the documentary.
It’s almost that they can’t fathom that the genius of Coltrane fails to meet them anywhere. Imagine that!
Hello Thierry, You're quite right of course that this was a "sister" to the Cinema publication. I had added that to the first part of this essay, with thanks to you. Yes, the authors do appear to feel "entitled," that is, they can't believe Coltrane would say no to them! THANK YOU