As a college freshman, one of my roommates was a sax player from Atlantic City. He couldn’t swim (hard to figure), but he was well versed in jazz and understood its tradition and etiquette. We called him Charlie the Tuna, and often we had seemingly endless debates about who was the greatest sax player. He would tell me about John Coltrane and I would tell him about Georgie Young. I knew nothing then of the reverence bestowed on Trane and his significance in the jazz world. There was much to learn…
One night, on Charlie’s birthday, a bunch of us decided to take him into Philly. As we drove around we passed a place called The Showboat, a major jazz club there. Shown on the marquee was The John Coltrane Quartet! Of course, Charlie went nuts. We were all underage, but we managed to put together enough phony ID cards to get into the club. With Trane that night were McCoy Tyner (piano), Elvin Jones (drums), and Jimmy Garrison (bass), all jazz giants in their own special ways.
The club was in the basement with a hotel overhead. When we walked in, Trane was alone onstage in the midst of one of his solo frenzies. Sometimes the rest ofhis group would leave the stage, respectful of Trane’s need for these solo moments. Sometimes they were quite long, but nobody complained. I didn’t understand what he was playing, but his intensity was overwhelming. I began to understand Charlie’s worship…
On their break, Trane went upstairs to the hotel lobby, maybe, I guess, to relax, refocus, and regroup. I grabbed Charlie’s arm and said, “Cmon, lets go talk to Coltrane!” Ignoring Charlie’s protests and unaware of my lack of proper sophistication, I dragged Charlie upstairs…
Trane was busy talking with others, so I waited for an opening. Charlie was trying to hide somewhere when I extended my hand and said, “Hi, I’m Paul”. Charlie tried to tell me that you just don’t go and talk with Trane…
Trane was 6 ft. 3 in., a bit taller than me. The first thing I noticed was his graciousness and humility. I asked about saxophone stuff like horns, reeds, and mouthpieces (imagine that!). He was so patient with me. Finally, I asked, “What do you think of Georgie Young?”…He looked down at me in his gentle way and said, “Georgie who?”…
Charlie almost wet himself with laughter…OK, I was still learning (sic), but happy in retrospect that I actually had conversation with Trane…Very cool)))…