THROWBACK MONDAY - John Coltrane Quartet "Alabama"

Welcome to a new feature here at the Luna Blog. Recently, I was forced to change my writing schedule, and didn't like that there was more than a two day gap between weekly posts here, so I wanted to come up with something to fill the void, but something that was worthwhile on its own accord.

Often as a music writer your week is consumed with listening to the same couple of new releases over and over again to write a thorough and honest review. It's only on occasion that you get to take some time and chill with the records that populate your past and made you a professional music fan in the first place. That's okay though, I have always been a big believer in progression, and unlike a lot of older reviewers, I don't find any particular period of music better than any other. I think that new bands are releasing as good of records today as others were back in the 60s, 70s, 80s and 90s. So I get pretty thrilled when I hear what labels like Mexican Summer, Woodsist and Olde English Spelling Bee are cooking up, and pretty bummed with mid-age music reviews refuse to acknowledge any good music past Wilco's "Yankee Hotel Foxtrot."

At the same time, I encounter a lot of younger indie rock fans who don't even know Pavement's entire catalog, which I kind of thought was a pre-requisite to even be considered an entry-level alt. But that's cool. In everyone's life there is that first time in learning something new. There was certainly a time when I didn't know who Can was, and a first time that I heard their music. Now that I have, I find that I sometimes take music's past for granted while I seek out the newest and freshest sounds available. Also, having been as serious a fan of music as I have been throughout my waking life, I also take for granted that 'sure everyone knows who Can is, right?' so let's talk about this new limited 7" on Not Not Fun that sounds like Can, when, of course, they don't know who Can is.

Personally I find the progression of the popular music's history fascinating. I think it's interesting to watch as music evolves and mutates, and I think it adds to our appreciation to understand music's history and a particular artist's place in that history. Music doesn't exist in a vacuum, there are points of reference and context for everything we listen to, and I hazard to say that to gain a full understanding of whatever it is that you choose to listen to, you must understand its context.

So I thought, what if I feature a song every Monday as a way to give props to our past, and, who knows, maybe even turn some people on to sounds they missed in their personal development as a music fan. Further, I realized that most blogs are worried about staying one foot ahead of everyone else by exclusively focusing on the newest and latest sounds, rather than looking backwards. That is just the nature of the beast now and I am certainly just as guilty of that as everyone else. But, what if we take just one little post, one little day to shine the light on something old, which may turn out to be something new for the uninitiated? What could be the harm in that? At worse, maybe it will remind us of something we have long neglected in our record collection.

I'm going to shut up now and get this Throwback Monday started. For our inaugural post I offer up someone that everyone is probably aware of - the John Coltrane Quartet. Their music has influenced artists as far and wide as the Beatles to Sunn 0))), and, I would argue, they are the single greatest musical group in the history of popular music, and yes I am saying they are better than the Beatles. You can flame me in the comment section for that statement, but while you are doing so check out this 1963 performance of "Alabama" performed by John Coltrane, Elvin Jones, McCoy Tyner and Jimmy Garrison. Enjoy...