Tonight’s post will need to be quicker, but it is also partly a continuation from last night’s. ‘The Last Giant’ is a 2-CD Coltrane retrospective (another box-set choice, courtesy of Mira) that I bought before I knew much of anything about jazz. ‘Blue Train’ was the first jazz album I ever bought, and I had loaned it out before a road trip from Roseville, CA down to SF. But the title song was stuck in my head and I couldn’t get the disc back in time for the ride. So I bought ‘The Last Giant’ which had ‘Blue Train’ on it, and tons of stuff I had never heard.

So – I was 19 years old, and meeting family in SF for dinner, then I was driving back to Berkeley to spend the weekend with Tamiko at her new apartment on Arch St. just north of UC Berkeley. I finished dinner and hopped into my ’78 Corolla and started trying to find my way to the Bay Bridge. I could see it, but I had never driven to it myself and had to figure out how to get there. I was the end of May, and you could tell the Bay Area summer was around the corner. Fog was rolling in, and it was almost cold enough to roll up my windows. But I wanted to play the music loudly with the windows down while driving across the bridge. ‘Russian Lullaby’ came on… crashing piano chords from Red Garland, then the song takes off with an amazingly tight ride cymbal pushing the whole thing along at a break neck pace. Then the sax starts in on the melody. The notes feel incredibly long compared to the tempo of everything else. Between the drums, the bass, the piano and the tune, everything is locked in rhythm, but it feels like four different tempos. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. I repeated it again across the bridge… on to ‘Blue Train’ then ‘Giant Steps’. The smell of the bay and fog came in through the windows, and I was off to see my girlfriend for the weekend. I can still feel that excitement.

Three months later I would move to Berkeley.