John Coltrane
Tenor Sax Solo on
Naima

About

John Coltrane's tenor saxophone solo on this 1966 live version of "Naima" is the first of two solos, followed by Pharoah Sanders. He takes one chorus of the 20-bar AABA form at a ballad tempo, his playing by this late period having absorbed the harmonic and timbral extremes of his free jazz explorations. Where the serene 1959 studio original featured gentle, long-toned phrasing over pedal-point harmony, this interpretation brings overblown textures and impassioned cries to the composition Coltrane dedicated to his first wife. The juxtaposition of the tune's inherent beauty and the ferocious intensity of the improvisation creates a powerful tension that defines this later version.

John Coltrane was 39 to 40 years old at the time.