Written and directed by John Scheinfeld, who also helmed the music docs The U.S. vs. John Lennon and Who Is Harry Nilsson (And Why Is Everybody Talkin' About Him?), Chasing Trane's approach is to treat Coltrane's life as a straight narrative. This makes for a good linear viewing experiencing but doesn't quite do him justice. Through interviews with his family and friends, fans and biographers, and in his own words, which are read aloud by the actor Denzel Washington, we learn about his personal beginnings, his formative musical steps, and the spiritual and artistic triumphs that would take him across the world, making music that was global in its influence and appeal.

John Coltrane grew up an only child in rural North Carolina during the "Jim Crow" era, which "proceeded from slavery," in the words of Coltrane fan and famed intellectual Cornell West. The yolk of racial oppression gave Coltrane's music it's emotional gravity, as it did so much African-American music, however, his background in the church showed him a means to transcend its social limitations. Both of his grandfathers were ministers and the church was also where he was first exposed to the joys of music. In the early '40s he and his mother moved to Philadelphia where he began to study the saxophone, and a 1945 performance by jazz great Charlie Parker set in stone his desire to become a professional musician.

Parker inspired Coltrane's progressive melodicisms but he also inspired him to pick up the hypodermic needle. He began abusing heroin and alcohol, and earned a reputation for being unreliable. He secured a gig in Dizzy Gillespie's band, but was fired after the bandleader caught him shooting up between sets and later joined the Miles Davis Quintet, who also sacked him due to his drug use. In 1957 he quit heroin cold turkey, emerging from the painful withdrawals spiritually and artistically renewed. As we hear him say via one of Washington's voiceovers, "I could play better. I could think better. Everything."

Hitting vinyl in 1957, Coltrane began making a name for himself as one of jazz's most inspired and adventurous musicians. In-between increasingly excellent albums under his own name, he sat in with the genre's foremost talents, including a reconstituted Miles Davis Quintet, who in 1959 issued Kind of Blue, regarded by many as the greatest jazz album of all time. In both his playing and compositions, Coltrane exhibited a fearless searching quality, which reflected his omnivorous listening habits and Universalist spiritual beliefs. His work increasingly began looking skyward, to a non-denominational God, whom he celebrated through music, with which to "make others happy." 1965's A Love Supreme, which was recorded 53 years ago this December 9th, is the culmination and ultimate synthesis of his musical and spiritual pursuits, the four-part suite being a personal thank you note from the artist to God.