John Coltrane

I can't play saxophone but I am fascinated by the music of John Coltrane. I was watching some footage of his 'Last Performance at Newport 1966' and apart from being mesmerised by the wall of sound he produced, which Hendrix managed to do as well, I was struck by how physical the whole performance was. He was a big strong man and he laid into that microphone like it was his last sacrifice to the Gods of Music. Sonny Rollins was the same. They're not pretending to be something else. That';s the way you have to play those instruments. It must be in the nature of saxophones, the way you hold them and point them away from you towards heaven or wherever. I've never managed to warm to playing guitar like that. You either end up gyrating around with an electric like a dodgy rock star or if it's an acoustic you end up rocking about with that orgasm face they put on to squeeze some kind of emotion out of the moment. Nah!