Denys Baptiste: Making the Late Trane Accessible

EVEN THE MOST avowed John Coltrane disciples among us would admit to grappling with some of the albums he released in the couple of years before his death – the likes of Ascension, Sun Ship and Om. And we weren't alone. His long-time drummer, Elvin Jones, told Downbeat magazine, "At times I couldn't hear what I was doing – matter of fact, I couldn't hear what anybody was doing. All I could hear was a lot of noise."