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John Coltrane's soprano saxophone solo on this 1966 live version of "My Favorite Things" is the first of two solos, followed by Pharoah Sanders on tenor. By this point in his career, the Rodgers and Hammerstein waltz had become a sprawling vehicle for collective free improvisation, dramatically evolved from the famous 1960 studio recording. Coltrane's playing is more abstract and harmonically unmoored than his earlier modal explorations, employing overblowing, split tones, and cascading sheets of sound that transform the familiar melody into something ecstatic and almost unrecognizable. The rhythm section of Rashied Ali on drums, Alice Coltrane on piano, and Jimmy Garrison on bass creates a churning, free-floating foundation that abandons conventional timekeeping in favor of collective energy.
John Coltrane was 39 to 40 years old at the time.
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