Jazz saxophonist John Coltrane’s 100th birth anniversary occurred on Sept. 23, and I couldn’t let it pass without writing a brief tribute here in the Ink. The day should be a national holiday, but of course that’s not how this game plays out.

This offering focuses on the now-famous interview that author and critic Frank Kofsky did with Coltrane in John’s car at the railroad station near Dix Hills on Long Island, the town where Coltrane was living. Kofsky was working on his major opus, a Marxist polemic on jazz and politics called Black Nationalism and the Revolution in Music. The book has its good moments, but for the most part it’s pretty rough going. Suffice it to say that Kofsky was a product of the times and that his theories haven’t aged all that well.

When I was living in Connecticut back in the early 1980s, I got to know an extraordinary horn player named Tom Guralnick. He was studying at Wesleyan University in Middletown, and was busy exploring the limits of creative music.

One day he gave me a copy of a taped interview with John Coltrane – he knew I was a jazz collector and thought I’d find it interesting. It was something he’d gotten it from his brother, author Peter Guralnick. I was intrigued to learn the interviewer was Frank Kofsky because I had Kofsky’s book and had even tried to read it. The interview with Coltrane was a central part of it.

The actual taped interview turned out to be a testament to Coltrane’s gentle spirit, the clarity of his vision and the purity of his intent. Poor Kofsky goes to great lengths to get Coltrane to condemn one group or another, to endorse Kofsky’s radical vision of race and politics. But John steadfastly refuses to take the bait and speaks not out of malice or spite but from the heart with real wisdom and generosity. Inspirational!

This historic recording is available in several places on the web, and here’s one on YouTube. This version clocks in at about 60 minutes, and it may be more complete than others out there.

So, happy birthday, John Coltrane! If you have any interest in this great artist, I think you’ll find the interview to be the revelation it truly is.