My Favorite Things

Jazz legend John Coltrane rarely granted interviews to journalists, believing that words could not adequately express the emotion and feelings his music conveyed. On those few occasions when he did sit down with interviewers, however, as in these conversations with jazz critic Michel Delorme carried out in 1962 and 1963, Coltrane revealed a modest, intensely calm nature belied by the force and determination of his music. The interviews—as well as a letter Coltrane sent to Downbeat magazine editor Don DeMichael in 1962—offer a rare glimpse into the inner world of a man whose contributions marked him as a musical great for the ages.

Michel Delorme is a jazz critic and journalist. Isabel Núñez is a translator, literary critic, writer, and professor of translation at the University of Pompeu Fabra. She is a frequent contributor to Spanish newspapers and magazines, such as Letras Libres and La Vanguardia, and she translated They Would Never Hurt a Fly.