“ Trane liked to ask all these motherfucking questions back then about what he should or shouldn ’ t play . Man , fuck that shit ; to me he was a professional musician and I have always wanted whoever played with me to find their own place in the Music . So my silence and evil looks probably turned him off .”
Here we can clearly see Miles ’ Socratic approach : applying pressure , putting someone on the spot , suggesting or challenging through metaphor or enigma , creating stimulating or destabilizing situations . And Coltrane responded by working and working : “ Being there , I just couldn ’ t be satisfied any longer with what I was doing . The standards were so high , and I felt I wasn ’ t really contributing like I should .” Saxophonist Bill Perkins recalled his impressions on hearing him at Hollywood ’ s Jazz City in January 1956 :
“ It felt like he was struggling . His phrases were short and chopped , whereas Miles was smooth and flowing , melodically . He was like an engine that was sputtering . But he would get some things off that were utterly remarkable . I spoke to him in the back room of the club that night . I was impressed with what a gentleman he was and how helpful he was to me about mouthpieces and reeds . He was studying out of Nicolas Slonimsky ’ s book , a thesaurus of scales . I looked at it and it didn ’ t mean anything to me . It ’ s strictly dry mathematics . John went through it and found scales he liked . He did a lot of study . He was a serious man . Slonimsky was on the Tonight Show a couple of years ago [ 6 May 1986 ], by the way , and said Coltrane had made him famous . People all over the world bought his book on the basis of Coltrane ’ s use of it .”
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