thursday, january 11, 2007

I thought since there were so many of you interested in John Coltrane (happily to my surprise of course) I thought I would share with you a picture of his childhood home in High Point, North Carolina. I first learned of Coltrane’s home when I visited the High Point Museum and saw the John Coltrane display. After seeing the address of the house I could not believe it was only a few minutes away and a few minutes from where I was born? I immediately raced over to the address as fast as my car could carry me. I thought my heart was going to beat out of my chest!! Imagine not knowing that Coltrane’s childhood home was so close. As I pulled up to the house I was somewhat surprised by the condition that I found it in. The house was a bit rundown and there was a dog sleeping peacefully and undisturbed by my presence. As I set in my car, and studied the house I was somewhat hurt that it could be in this condition. And then I started thinking about the memories in this house and wondered if the current occupants even knew of the great musicians that once lived there. I even wondered if sometimes late at night when the house was still and quiet if they could hear the faint sounds of his mother’s piano keys or the soft sound of  Coltrane's father playing the violin. I wonder have they ever heard Coltrane’s sax resonating through the walls. Or the sounds of all the people that came in out of Coltrane's home as friends, visitors and boarders. Did they know how many times his grandfather must have set in that very parlor at night and wrote out his Sunday morning sermons or what community or civil rights cause he would take on next. Surely, the house that we grow up in most preserve some memories of us even when we move on. I think I sat there for a good 30 minutes before I decided to get out of the car and take some pictures. I was really hoping that someone would come out of the house and talk to me about Coltrane. No one did. Not that time.

The house has recently been purchased by the city of High Point and they have plans to renovate and preserve it. It will take a lot of work and a lot of volunteers but I for one will be there. I want to touch the walls that Coltrane touched. I want to sit on the stairs where he sat and played the sax. I want to listen and hear the sounds of a young man and his family making music together. I think if I listened hard enough, I could hear Coltrane tap a tune with his fingers as he lay silently in his bed at night wishing that sleep didn’t have to come between him and his music.