"“But if you tried to explain that song to an average listener, you would lose them. [‘My Favorite Things’] is a definitive work that everyone knows, and anyone can listen to, and the fascinating story of its evolution is something everyone can share and enjoy.”"
"“Indeed, ‘My Favorite Things’ may be the perfect introduction to Coltrane’s experimentalism. After the dizzying chord changes of 1959’s ‘Giant Steps,’ this 14-minute, two-chord excursion patterned on the ragas of Ravi Shankar announced Coltrane’s move into the modal forms he refined until his death in 1967, as well as his embrace of the soprano saxophone and his new quartet.”"
"“It became ‘Coltrane’s most requested tune,’ says Ed Wheeler in The World According to John Coltrane, ‘and a bridge to a broad public audience.’ Coltrane’s take is also mesmerizing, trance-inducing, ‘often compared to a whirling dervish,’ notes the Polyphonic video above, a reference to the Sufi meditation technique of spinning in a circle.”"
“My Favorite Things” is a widely known, listenable, commercially successful reworking that also functions as an experimental masterpiece. The 14-minute composition uses a two-chord excursion pattern rooted in ragas associated with Ravi Shankar, following the rapid harmonic complexity of “Giant Steps.” The piece signals Coltrane’s move into modal forms that he refined until 1967, alongside his embrace of the soprano saxophone and the emergence of his new quartet. The tune became one of Coltrane’s most requested, serving as a bridge to a broad public audience. Its performance is described as trance-inducing, comparable to a whirling dervish, evoking Sufi spinning meditation.
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