Two Sides of Om by John Coltrane

John Coltrane is a giant of jazz whose tremendous influence is apparent in the playing style of nearly every tenor saxophonist who has come to prominence since Coltrane’s untimely death of liver cancer. Coltrane’s status is so firmly established that A Love Supreme is a staple in any music collection as much as Kind of Blue by Miles Davis, and it is obligatory listening for jazz aficionados. No one could question Coltrane’s contribution to jazz, but his true masterpiece, Om, has gone unappreciated, especially relative to A Love Supreme and Ascension.

John Coltrane’s musical spiritual awakening that began in earnest on A Love Supreme, with its inviting pop-like melodies which grew wilder and more playful on Ascension. Sonically, the scope of the album is expanded. Ascension twists and turns on multiple melodies and a broader dynamic range. It is free jazz, but the ambitious, upbeat nature of the album makes Ascension palatable for a wider audience. This experimentation with musical form was not invented by Coltrane, but it is accomplished to masterful effect on Om, the logical conclusion of this trilogy of albums made for Impulse.

Om is more than free jazz. Infact, it is almost a different type of fusion. Miles Davis’ version of fusion blended jazz instrumentation and bravura musicianship with rock n’ roll textures. Om combines jazz with the spirit of rock n’ roll, itself: the notion to express complicated, idiosyncratic ideas to an audience largely unwilling or unable to understand.

This is part of the reason for Om’s relative obscurity among Coltrane albums. Because of Coltrane’s broad appeal, genuine appreciation for his work is much rarer. This is often the case with musicians who have enormous fanbases. One wonders, for example, how many who will sing along with “imagine no possessions” with John Lennon appreciate the meaning and not just the melody. Perhaps Om’s reputation as a difficult album is too hastily applied by people hearing it as they have heard all other works it distinguishes itself from. Coltrane invents a new vocabulary and critics of this album have not met the challenge.

I don’t doubt that the myriad scholarly approaches to A Love Supreme are authentic. It is beyond my capability as a non-musician to hear it in a way that I could identify the specific chord changes and intervals or understand the scales from whence the solos come. Instead, my appreciation of these albums (and Om in particular) comes from the perspective of an artist.

Om is high art music. It is the first concept album. One year after Om, the Mothers of Invention released Freak Out! A year after that, Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band brought serious attention to the Beatles as artists instead of teen idols. Neither of these rock albums is especially conceptual. Freak Out! is a satire of American pop music aimed at young listeners. Sgt. Pepper purportedly tells the tale of a fictional band, but let’s face it, those two tracks don’t propel the album into any new territory.

Om is a syllable used in meditation to signify the oneness of all things. John Coltrane’s Om is a concept album about the oneness of all things in the universe, and its only conceptual shortcoming is the irony that Om has two sides dedicated to exploring the notion of such oneness. Given that Om addresses matters as divisive as religion and origins of existence, this is no small feat. Om unifies a religious and scientific look at the universe, which speaks to the power of its concept.

The album begins with the tinkling of bells, some distant clanking, crescendoing cymbal hits, and what sounds like a jack-in-the-box being cranked. This is like the beginning of the universe. John Coltrane is supplying incomprehensible materials that have always been. This is the texture of the album and everything will come from this short introduction. Next, two voices chant a prayer in unison and there is a ghostly sounding clarinet. As the prayer concludes, the voices intone, “I make all things clean. I am Om. Om. Om.”

This is the evolution of the chanting of the first track of A Love Supreme. The chanting gives way to saxophones and drums playing complicated, raspy solos. They sound somewhat out of time to my ear. This is a bit representing creation, perhaps. It’s very subtle, but Coltrane’s decision to precede the voice of the creator with noises opens Om up to multiple viewpoints. People who believe in biblical creation myths will likely dismiss the noises as being part of the divine creator. People who are more inclined to a scientific explanation can liken the same noises to the elements that eventually led to the Big Bang.

The next few minutes are cacophonous and chaotic enough to represent either the Big Bang or the notion of life originating from a creator. Individual parts are soothing at times, but they very rapidly turn dissonant. Like the actual universe, this is not something our minds are capable of truly understanding.

Around ten minutes in, voices return to the album. They moan, “Om” over each other without any discernible rhythm and with no clear emotion. These voices don’t seem aware of each other. Perhaps this moment is the creation of life as we know it. Elvin Jones’s cymbals begin to crash for emphasis. The wheezing and growling of Coltrane’s sax subsides. McCoy Tyner weaves intricate ascending melodies on the piano.

A single vocal “om” percolates up through the mix at 11:50, and everything brightens suddenly around it. Finally, the music is becoming familiar. There are repetitions and regular metrical patterns, outlined by the bass. The percussive elements are less forceful. The clanging that served to interrupt earlier gives way. By toning down the abrasive texture, the listener becomes more fully aware of the strictly musical elements. Coltrane has created meditation for the listener, and the piano is sublime. The music is beautiful and cohesive as side one comes to a close.

Side two has a howling clarinet and something like sheep noises over the deep bass. The bass crescendos and diminuendos rapidly. It feels like the waves of the ocean. The clarinet becomes more prominent with intense vibrato. Around five minutes into the second side, the saxophone returns. It gives structure to music that is gradually becoming more chaotic. Pharoah Sanders joins Coltrane and after a little bit of simultaneous soloing, the two saxophones merge into one voice. This is a clever rhyme with the opening of the album that features Coltrane and Sanders reciting a prayer in unison.

The music moves back into chaos. It becomes difficult to follow. It’s hard to imagine where each musician is in relationship to the other. This is the second most challenging passage on the album. The structure that was so carefully set-up on side one is threatening to dissolve. Side one creates the illusion of meditation for the audience, but on side two, it is up to the listener to hold onto the music in order to understand it as it is unraveling.

This continues until right around 12:00 when there are bells, an ominous clanking, a jack-in-the-box noise, and a howling clarinet. The music deteriorates to just these elements and the two voices in unison chanting the prayer from side one. This time, the prayer is recited slower and deeper. After the prayer, the remaining musical elements slow and diminish until they are one. After 29 minutes, Om closes with the unity that begins the album. That’s not to say that Om doesn’t go anywhere. By the end, an attentive listener understands the whole album and its rich, bookended structure.

I think of Om as a meditative, transcendental experience. Like trying to understand the universe as a whole, there is too much. It is too vast for the human mind to comprehend. We can understand by looking at smaller parts, so we recognize the Milky Way from NASA images. Within our galaxy, we are familiar with our solar system and its planets. Once on Earth, we can understand the world around us and appreciate its beauty. We see it as discrete wholes (a tree, a fish, a sunset), and it makes sense. This is in tandem with the most moving part of Om at the end of side one.

Then as we get closer, it becomes difficult to understand again. Cells, atoms, and sub-atomic particles don’t make sense to us in the same way. There are mysteries in the infinitesimal as well as the universal. We can only perceive the oneness of the universe through meditation. Om helps me to expand my consciousness in this way.