Coltrane was in the moment, his music of it. He was current and the current ran through him and out his sax.  Take “Up ‘Gainst the Wall” from Impressions. It has no lyrics, but every black man knew the experience the music describes. A year later Coltrane recorded “Alabama,” shortly after the bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church by the KKK. According to McCoy Tyner: “It came from a speech. John said there was a Martin Luther King speech. It was in the newspaper–a printed medium. And so John took the rhythmic patterns of his speech and came up with Alabama.” Not a word was spoken by Coltrane, but nothing that mattered was left unsaid. More

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