John Coltrane My Favorite Things

Growing up, I have always loved the musical The Sound of Music. In fact, when I was in high school, we played a few selections from The Sound of Music soundtrack in the orchestra my Junior year. I used to believe I knew everything about The Sound of Music: the plot, the characters, the music, etc. until last Tuesday when we listened to John Coltrane’s incredible jazz improvisation of “My Favorite Things” in the film “The World According to John Coltrane.” Sadly, it was the first time I watched Coltrane’s performance of “My Favorite Things.” I was stunned by his amazing version of my second to favorite song from The Sound of Music. Coltrane’s brilliant playing technique amazed me. When he played the saxophone, he gave off this feeling that he was truly passionate about what he was doing. His body movements, his facial expressions, his fingering, and even his breathing was very artistic. He engaged with the audience through music. In my opinion, John Coltrane was one of the brilliant musicians who had the ability to manipulate emotions within his music.

After the bombing in 1963, he wrote the song “Alabama” to honor the victims and express his emotions. When I listened “Alabama,” I could feel the sadness within the band. There was this gloomy feeling when the piano and the saxophone set off the low tone at the beginning of the song. In addition to this, the musicians made it more convincing with their facial