Chasing Trane -the John Coltrane Documentary

Additional Information

Los Angeles, CA – September 1, 2016 – Chasing Trane, a new authorized documentary based on the extraordinary life of revolutionary artist John Coltrane, has announced it will make its world premiere at the Telluride Film Festival September 2-5 and international premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival September 9-15 (screening schedules below). Chasing Trane was written and directed by critically acclaimed documentary filmmaker John Scheinfeld (The U.S. vs. John Lennon and Who Is Harry Nilsson, and Why Is Everybody Talkin’ About Him?).

Although John Coltrane never did any television interviews and only a handful for radio, recordings that have ultimately been rendered unusable over time, he will have an active and vibrant presence in the film through remarkable performance clips and excerpts from print interviews that he gave during his career, his words spokeny Academy Award-winner Denzel Washington.

“In all of his roles Denzel radiates an exceptional quiet strength,” says writer-director John Scheinfeld. “Coltrane, many of his friends told me, embodied a similar strength. That’s why Denzel was my first choice to speak his words and I’m thrilled he made the time to participate in our film.”

Featuring never-before-seen Coltrane family home movies, footage of John Coltrane and band in the studio (discovered in a California garage during production of this film), along with hundreds of never-before-seen photographs and rare television appearances from around the world, Coltrane’s incredible story will be told by the musicians that worked with him (Sonny Rollins, McCoy Tyner, Benny Golson, Jimmy Heath, Reggie Workman), musicians that have been inspired by his fearless artistry and creative vision (Common, John Densmore, Wynton Marsalis, Carlos Santana, Wayne Shorter, Kamasi Washington), Coltrane’s children and biographers, and by well-known admirers such as President Bill Clinton and philosopher Dr. Cornel West.

Chasing Trane reveals the critical events, passions, experiences and challenges that shaped the life of John Coltrane and his revolutionary sounds. It is a story of demons and darkness, of persistence and redemption. Above all else, it is the incredible spiritual journey of a man who found himself and, in the process, created an extraordinary body of work that transcends all barriers of geography, race, religion and age.

The film, produced by Spencer Proffer, Scott Pascucci, John Beug and Dave Harding, was made with the support of the Coltrane Estate and the record labels responsible for most of the Coltrane catalogue.

As a result, Chasing Trane is scored in its entirety with the music of John Coltrane. The creative team was granted unprecedented access to his entire catalogue of recordings on Prestige, Blue Note, Atlantic, Pablo and Impulse. The beauty, poignancy, energy, pain, and joy heard in nearly 50 Coltrane recordings from throughout his career bring alive the artist and the times in which he lived. Each composition used was carefully selected to support the emotional and uplifting content of nearly every scene in the film.

Born September 23rd, 1926 in Hamlet, North Carolina, John Coltrane’s first introduction to music came through his musician father. Growing up, Coltrane was obsessed with the records of Count Basie and Lester Young. At the age of 13, he picked up the saxophone and tried to imitate the sounds of his then idols Charlie Parker and Johnny Hodges. Thus began the career of one of the Twentieth Century’s most important and influential artists. Coltrane’s dramatic life story was cinematic in its scope¾from his early musical life playing alongside giants such as Dizzy Gillespie, to breakout performances with the Miles Davis Quintet on their classic recordings ‘Round About Midnight and Kind of Blue, to a historic association with Thelonious Monk and then finally to his astonishing solo career that gave the world such masterworks as Giant Steps, My Favorite Things, Impressions, Live at Birdland and 1965’s seminal A Love Supreme.

“Trane” died in 1967 at the age of 40, an enigmatic, dominant figure whose massive influence on generations of artists has grown even stronger in the decades since.