Alabama

Here’s a beautiful version of John Coltranes’ tune, Alabama. It’s so simple and so moving. It is the quartets reaction to the 1963 bombing of the 16th street Baptist Church in Birmingham Alabama. The KKK planted dynamite in the basement of the church attempting to instill fear in the civil rights movement. Four young girls died (one of which was a child hood friend of Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice), and 22 were injured. This track also appears on the album, Live at Birdland, 1963. It’s one of my favorite Trane albums of all time, between the tenderness of the track, Alabama and the fire and brimstone intensity of Afro Blue, it is a very moving album.

Check out this video… its quite moving.