232. John Coltrane, "Giant Steps"

 


Once again, my complete lack of knowledge or interest in jazz has tripped me up, as I am informed that this is one of the most influential jazz albums of all time, but to me it was just kind of like eh, whatever.

There's this poem I remember reading in college that was obviously written by a poet/college professor about what has come to be known as impostor syndrome and one of the lines was something about no one knows I've never read Tristram Shandy.  I think about that line a lot (and if you have a line on the poem, please share, I'd love to read it again but I've tried Googling all kinds of things and all I get is reader guides to Tristram Shandy in case you don't want to read it) but instead of trying to BS my way through this post and pretend I'm some kind of musical sophisticate when I'm not I'm just going to trash the artifice and say I don't know shit about jazz and found this album intensely boring.

The one moment of enjoyment I obtained from this album was when I was driving and it was raining and I was listening to this and I got a "cab driver in the naked city" vibe for a minute but even that didn't work out because it was daylight and to really capture that feeling I think you need the neon lights of the seedy underbelly of the city reflecting off the raindrops on your water-streaked windshield and I didn't even get that.  Remember when cab drivers used to play jazz?  They were so good at setting the mood.  Now instead of feeling like you're a detective in the 50s riding around you get Avicii or some shit like that.  

Anyway, if you like jazz I guess this album is a huge fucking deal but I don't get it.

Does this album deserve to be in the Top 500? If you say so.

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