Felix Buxton of Basement Jaxx talks to us about his favourite record by American saxophonist and composer John ‘Trane’ Coltrane
What’s your favourite album or song?
My Favourite Things, by John Coltrane.
What associations does it hold for you?
I’m not sure when I first discovered this, but I’ve been listening to it for about 20 years (so probably at least a thousand listens) and it still works for me. I discovered Pharoah Sanders and the cosmic jazz of John Coltrane’s wife Alice Coltrane — check out the lush strings and sitars of her Journey to Satchinananda — before I got any deeper into Coltrane’s music. Alice apparently created overdubs on My Favourite Things.
The song puzzled me at first — why would someone from the world of jazz born out of the struggles of Black African America record a version of a song sung by Julie Andrews from The Sound of Music? I was young, naive and small-minded in what I attempted to label as cool, and had completely overlooked the honesty, simplicity, beauty and sincerity of both the original song and this life-affirming interpretation.
Listen to My Favourite Things on Last.FM here.
Felix is one half of award-winning British dance act Basement Jaxx
