When David Crosby saw the great John Coltrane perform in a toilet
David Crosby has lived one hell of a life. Having played in the seminal blues-rock groups the Byrds and Crosby, Stills & Nash (and Young), Crosby would wake things to the limit with his drug use but, thankfully, was able to out on the other side, still able to tell the tale. One fascinating anecdote in the life of David Crosby is the moment he witnessed the great saxophonist John Coltrane play in a toilet.
Crosby said of the incident: “I was very high, and [Elvin Jones] drove me out of my chair. Elvin Jones is a very intense motherfucker. He started getting real intense and drove me out of my chair. Up against the back wall of the club, I’m sat there thinking, ‘Ahhhh, I can’t, oh golly’. It got to be too much for me, so I went to the men’s room”.
He added, “I got my head against this puke green tile; I can still remember the colour of the tile. And I think, ‘okay, it’s gonna be alright, just get it together now, it’s gonna be okay, you’re in Indianapolis’. BAM! Somebody kicks the door open. BAM! It’s Coltrane. He’s kicked the door open because he’s [sax screech and then some]. Playing at the most intense level you could ever imagine in your life”.
It must be terrifying for someone on an intense high, seeking a bit of solace in the cool refines of the men’s bathroom, to be greeted by one of the most intense jazz musicians of all time. All Crosby wanted was to calm down and get his head together, but things were made all the worse.
Crosby continued, “He never stopped soloing. He’s still soloing. And he’s like burning in this bathroom. He doesn’t even know I’m there. He never even saw me. I’m thinking, ‘I’m gonna slide right down this tile’. I’m thinking, ‘my nose is gonna open, and my brain is gonna rush out onto the floor’. It was so intense. I never heard anyone be more intense with music than that in my life”.
One of Crosby’s best-known songs, ‘Déjà Vu’, also features many jazz influences. Crosby said of the song, “That really odd 6/8 beginning, with a kind of a 4 feel to it, that probably came directly out of jazz. The chord structures came out of the tuning, which came out of jazz. So I think it’s legit”.
He added, “The influences were going in both directions back then. Miles [Davis] was listening to singer-songwriter music and pulling it into the jazz idiom. You hear us listening to John Coltrane, and we pull his horn style into a rock-and-roll song. It happened a lot. That’s how new music happens. You take two extremes, and you synthesise a new one out of those”.
