people used to put lots of effort into thinking and talking about actual records here, didn't they. well.
― tom west (thomp), Sunday, 11 June 2006 17:06 (seventeen years ago) link
― Dominique (dleone), Saturday, 9 September 2006 22:57 (seventeen years ago) link
http://www.kompaktkiste.de/cd/_artist/coltrane/254646.jpg
― Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Saturday, 9 September 2006 23:06 (seventeen years ago) link
Coltrane bassist r.i.p.
Art Davis, 73; known for mastery of the bass, also was a psychologist By Jocelyn Y. Stewart, LA Times Staff Writer August 4, 2007
Art Davis, the renowned double bassist who played with John Coltrane and other jazz greats, was blacklisted in the 1970s for speaking up about racism in the music industry, and then later in life earned a doctorate in clinical psychology and balanced performance dates with appointments to see patients, has died. He was 73.
Davis, a player whom jazz critic Nat Hentoff once described as "an astonishing player" and "beyond category," died of a heart attack Sunday at his home in Long Beach, said his son Kimaili Davis.
"He was adventurous with his approach to playing music," said pianist Nate Morgan, who played with the elder Davis intermittently over the last 10 years. "It takes a certain amount of integrity to step outside the box and say, 'I like it here and I'm going to hang here for a while.' "
Known for his stunning and complete mastery of the instrument, Davis was able to genre-hop comfortably. He played classical music with the New York Philharmonic, was a member of the NBC, Westinghouse and CBS orchestras, and played for Broadway shows.
The most intense and enriching experience of Davis' career was his collaboration with John Coltrane. Described by Hentoff as Coltrane's favorite bassist, Davis performed on the saxophonist's albums including "Ascension," Volumes 1 and 2 of "The Africa/Brass Sessions" and "Ole Coltrane." The two musicians met one night in the late 1950s at Small's Paradise, a jazz club in Harlem, where Davis was playing with drummer Max Roach. Coltrane invited Davis to play with him the following morning at one of his legendary grueling practice sessions.
A few years later, when Coltrane was building his quartet, he invited Davis to join. By then he had become averse to touring and so declined, although he periodically played with the group.
Davis viewed his instrument as "the backbone of the band," one that should "inspire the group by proposing harmonic information with a certain sound quality and rhythmic impulses," Davis said in an excerpt from So What magazine posted on his website. "You let the bass do the talking. A bassist cannot be satisfied with playing straight." By following his own advice, Davis' career flourished. He played with a long and varied list of artists: Thelonious Monk, Duke Ellington, Rahsaan Roland Kirk, Louis Armstrong, Judy Garland, John Denver, the trio Peter, Paul and Mary and Bob Dylan.
Pianist Ahmad Jamal once dubbed Davis the "forgotten genius" because the outspoken bassist had been blacklisted for many years. Davis' decision to take a stand against racism was born of his experiences in music.
Davis began studying piano at age 5 in Harrisburg, Pa., where he was born Dec. 5, 1933. By sixth grade Davis studied the tuba in school simply because it was the only instrument available, he said.
By 1951 he decided to make music his career but chose the double bass, believing it would allow more opportunities to make a living. At age 17 he studied with the principal double bassist at the Philadelphia Orchestra. But when he auditioned for his hometown's symphony, the audition committee was so unduly harsh and demanding that the conductor Edwin MacArthur questioned their objectivity.
"The answer was, 'Well, he's ['colored']' — and there was silence," Davis recalled in a 2002 article in Double Bassist magazine. "Finally MacArthur burst out, 'If you don't want him, then you don't want me.' So they quickly got together and accepted me." After high school, Davis studied classical music on scholarship at the Manhattan School of Music and the Juilliard School of Music. At night he played jazz in New York clubs.
"It all sounded good to me — and I felt I could do a number of different fields," he told Double Bassist. "I was of one the first to switch back and forth from jazz to classical."
But the switch was not always an easy one. Davis encountered situations where race was more important than performance. In the 1970s, his fortunes waned after he filed an unsuccessful discrimination lawsuit against the New York Philharmonic. Like other black musicians who challenged job hiring practices, he lost work and important industry connections.
"As a person, he had enormous integrity," Hentoff said in an interview this week. "He wouldn't bend to accommodate bias or the ignorance of some of the people in the music business."
With less work coming his way, Davis returned to school and in 1981 earned a doctorate in clinical psychology from New York University. Davis was for many years a practicing psychologist while also working as a musician.
"I went up against the big power people and lost 10 years of my life. I feel vindicated [through his court case], and I wouldn't be a Dr. Art Davis if it hadn't happened," he told Double Bassist.
As a result of his lawsuit and protest, Davis played a key role in the increased use of the so-called blind audition, in which musicians are heard but not seen by those evaluating them, Hentoff said.
The accomplished musician also pioneered a fingering technique for the bass and wrote "The Arthur Davis System for Double Bass."
Davis also wore the hat of university professor; for two years he taught at UC Irvine. Most recently Davis was a part-time music instructor at Orange Coast College in Costa Mesa. He could be regularly heard on Sundays at the Ritz-Carlton in Laguna Niguel. Among musicians, Davis was highly respected for his work and his role in the Coltrane legacy.
"And he always had a great attitude, no matter what kind of music we were playing or how difficult the circumstances were," said Jan Jordan, the pianist who played with Davis at the Ritz.
"He always reached out to people in the audience."
― curmudgeon, Saturday, 4 August 2007 23:17 (sixteen years ago) link
:(
rip
― BIG HOOS aka the steendriver, Saturday, 4 August 2007 23:39 (sixteen years ago) link
RIP, a remarkable man.
Phil's explanation of "playing the changes" on this thread is so clear and to the point -- it sheds a lot of light in three short paragraphs.
― Brad C., Monday, 6 August 2007 00:06 (sixteen years ago) link
As close to a God to me as anything I hold dear. Sincerely. God schmod.
RIP indeed...
http://s3.amazonaws.com/findagrave/photos/2001/222/coltranejohn2.jpg
― Saxby D. Elder, Monday, 6 August 2007 00:16 (sixteen years ago) link
Looks like the AP and NY Times just found out about Art Davis.
― James Redd and the Blecchs, Friday, 24 August 2007 06:03 (sixteen years ago) link
for the "far out free jazz" type stuff, just look for anything from 1964 to 1967 (the year he died)
my favorites are a love supreme, one down one up (recently released live recording with a long insane title track solo), interstellar space, stellar regions (this one was unreleased until the 90s or something, it's awesome), and live in japan (4 cd set with intense long ass songs).
― bstep, Friday, 24 August 2007 18:37 (sixteen years ago) link
hate when ppl say blue train is 'boring'
― deej, Friday, 24 August 2007 18:39 (sixteen years ago) link
yeah the solo on blue train is awesome
― bstep, Friday, 24 August 2007 18:41 (sixteen years ago) link
more like BLUE LAME
― Jordan, Friday, 24 August 2007 18:48 (sixteen years ago) link
j/k
I did get that "Live In Japan" box -- quite an interesting, disjointed group that came up with some pretty corrosive passages. xp
― xyzzzz__, Friday, 24 August 2007 18:51 (sixteen years ago) link
Is there somebody speaking in tongues during Tyner's solo on "My Favorite Things" from New Thing at Newport??
― BIG HOOS aka the steendriver, Monday, 3 March 2008 05:29 (sixteen years ago) link
What the hell is that? Thought it was bowed bass, but you can hear pizz clearly. Is it maybe Trane just puttering? I really can't tell.
― BIG HOOS aka the steendriver, Monday, 3 March 2008 05:30 (sixteen years ago) link
Yeah, that is 'Trane doing his basso profundo incantating.
― Dingbod Kesterson, Monday, 3 March 2008 08:58 (sixteen years ago) link
heheh "Search And Destroy John Coltrane" sounds like the heading to a Philip Larkin jazz review!
― Dingbod Kesterson, Monday, 3 March 2008 08:59 (sixteen years ago) link
any AWESOME books I should read about Coltrane?
― rizzx, Thursday, 10 April 2008 12:52 (fifteen years ago) link
Not yet read it myself, but this is meant to be v. gd and is likely the easiest to find:
Coltrane
― Ward Fowler, Thursday, 10 April 2008 13:02 (fifteen years ago) link
Africa/Brass (shite Greensleeves is on it, but...
omar u crazy! it's a beautiful start to A/B, if a weird choice.
― andrew m., Thursday, 10 April 2008 14:33 (fifteen years ago) link
...he tells omar 6 years later
I've found that usually muttering that sounds like "speaking in tongues" on live jazz recordings is the sound of the pianist or drummer vocalizing as they play, and the close proximity of the mics picking it up. Not having heard that piece in a while, I suspect that it's Tyner. You can hear Bud Powell, and countless other pianists doing the same thing. I'd posit that there's nothing particularly spiritual or mystical about it.
― Usual Channels, Thursday, 10 April 2008 14:40 (fifteen years ago) link
i always thought the muttering was elvin jones, though now that you mention it, i'm not sure why i assumed that ... but uhhh yeah, that Coltrane book by Ratliff is pretty solid. Not the same ol same ol Coltrane is God kinda stuff, but a fresh ears approach.
― tylerw, Thursday, 10 April 2008 15:14 (fifteen years ago) link
I haven't heard the recording in question, but as someone who was forced to go to Pentecostal church for 17 years, does it sound like "SHA la la la la la Fie sha lala, sha lie COM la la la la la, fie sha la la com lie"? Because that's what speaking in tongues sounds like.
― Z S, Thursday, 10 April 2008 17:21 (fifteen years ago) link
meditations WOW! nothing else to say, just have the feeling this is becoming my favorite album
― sonderangerbot, Friday, 5 March 2010 19:51 (fourteen years ago) link
yeah, Meditations. I put it on one Sunday morning, knowing little about Coltrane; halfway through the first song I was screaming and in tears (in an awesome way, if that makes any sense)---was happy no one else was around.
― begs the question, when is enough enough (Euler), Friday, 5 March 2010 19:53 (fourteen years ago) link
lol that makes perfect sense actually and would probably be a compliment to all of these guys except elvin jones who i understand didn't care for this thing at all. luckily you can't tell
― sonderangerbot, Friday, 5 March 2010 20:41 (fourteen years ago) link
whenever this thread opens and I see "Blue Train...boring as fuck" I'm like whaaaaa? I understand that it has a weird, maybe slightly overrated status being Coltrane's only Blue Note record, but uhhh, that record is not boring!
― tylerw, Friday, 5 March 2010 20:47 (fourteen years ago) link
but, i can see how someone whose fave bands are Beefheart and the Stooges maybe not being a fan. i think it's one of the best "late-night" listens i own
― If you can believe your eyes and ears (outdoor_miner), Friday, 5 March 2010 22:45 (fourteen years ago) link
The "Crescent" on disk 2 of Live In Japan, from 1966, is incredible! Alice's piano interlude achieves liftoff without losing the groove.
― Euler, Friday, 9 July 2010 08:57 (thirteen years ago) link
Can't believe no-one has mentioned Olé in this thread
― bham, Friday, 9 July 2010 09:30 (thirteen years ago) link
I can't imagine any Beefheart fan not appreciating Coltrane. Beefheart certainly did, though he was quoted most referring to Coleman and Ayler.
After A Love Supreme:
My Favorite Things (Atlantic) 60Crescent (Impulse) 64Meditations (Impulse) 65 First Meditations (For Quartet) (Impulse) 65Transition (Impulse) 65 Giant Steps (Atlantic) 59The John Coltrane Quartet Plays (Impulse) 65Ole Coltrane (Atlantic) 61 Coltrane Plays The Blues (Atlantic) 60 Coltrane (Impulse) 62 Sun Ship (Impulse) 65 Ballads (Impulse) 61 Africa/Brass (Impulse) 61 John Coltrane With Johnny Hartman (Impulse) 63 Impressions (Impulse) 63 Coltrane Live At Birdland (Impulse) 63 Live At The Village Vanguard (Impulse) 61 Newport '63 (Impulse!) 63 The Avant-Garde (Atlantic) 60 Blue Train (Blue Note) 57 Coltrane's Sound (Atlantic) 60 Coltrane Jazz (Atlantic) 59 Soultrane (OJC/Prestige) 58 Black Pearls (OJC/Fantasy) 58 Duke Ellington and John Coltrane (Impulse) 62
Destroy: nothing
― Fastnbulbous, Friday, 9 July 2010 13:43 (thirteen years ago) link
― begs the question, when is enough enough (Euler), Friday, 5 March 2010 19:53 (4 months ago)
whoa
― surfer blood for oil (Hurting 2), Friday, 9 July 2010 13:52 (thirteen years ago) link
yeah, Meditations. I put it on one Sunday morning, knowing little about Coltrane; halfway through the first song I was screaming and in tears
Stubbed your toe on the way back from the CD player?
― Oracle Crackers (Tom D.), Friday, 9 July 2010 13:54 (thirteen years ago) link
i haven't made it to those later-period live recordings (like LIve in Japan) yet ... the recording quality is good? is it radio broadcasts or something?
― tylerw, Friday, 9 July 2010 14:55 (thirteen years ago) link
Live In Japan quality is v. good
― Oracle Crackers (Tom D.), Friday, 9 July 2010 14:56 (thirteen years ago) link
meditations is basically the best record ever made by humans on earth
― FRIDGED WAG MANPAIN syndrome (zorn_bond.mp3), Wednesday, 18 August 2010 09:17 (thirteen years ago) link
that said, the vastly underrated "stellar regions" is probably my favorite in the realm of ~coltrane records~ vs. whatever pantheonical land meditations inhabits
― FRIDGED WAG MANPAIN syndrome (zorn_bond.mp3), Wednesday, 18 August 2010 09:20 (thirteen years ago) link
was checking out a new collected Coltrane interviews thing in the bookstore this week. amazing how chill the guy was, considering some of the music he made. seems almost ridiculously down to earth.
― tylerw, Wednesday, 18 August 2010 14:32 (thirteen years ago) link
I like "First Meditations" a lot
― tom d: he did what he had to do now he is dead (Tom D.), Wednesday, 18 August 2010 14:33 (thirteen years ago) link
Recent favorites are Ole:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0hN5JpIG0B0https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zsIOgLp5rlU
and Alabama (this is live version but you get the point):https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8j_TDoOPnIA
― matt2, Wednesday, 18 August 2010 14:48 (thirteen years ago) link
Does anyone have the Prestige Box Sets - Fearless Leader, Interplay or Side Steps? Worth picking up?
― Jim, Sunday, 7 November 2010 00:26 (thirteen years ago) link
i have 'em. some great stuff, also some very so-so, under-rehearsed blowing session-type stuff. I'd say Fearless Leader is the best of the lot.
― tylerw, Sunday, 7 November 2010 01:15 (thirteen years ago) link
Yeah, I have all three, too. I agree that Fearless Leader is the best one, but each has plenty to recommend it. I find myself listening to '50s Coltrane more often than '60s Coltrane these days; sometimes you just want to hear a dude with incredible talent playing melodic, easily-understood and -enjoyed music rather than listening to that same incredibly talented dude Brillo-ing his soul in front of you.
― that's not funny. (unperson), Sunday, 7 November 2010 14:18 (thirteen years ago) link
yeah, true. one essential thing that's included on Interplay is the Kenny Burrell collab album. Great from start to finish.
― tylerw, Sunday, 7 November 2010 14:29 (thirteen years ago) link
Love the Coltrane/Burrell record. Otherwise I agree his Prestige work was inconsistent but has some great moments. A couple of tracks that come to mind are Good Bait and Goldsboro Express.
― Kinect: The Body Is Good Business™ (Hurting 2), Sunday, 7 November 2010 17:25 (thirteen years ago) link
Wow. How did I never hear Olé before? It's brilliant.
― Veðrafjǫrðr heimamaður (ecuador_with_a_c), Sunday, 7 November 2010 22:33 (thirteen years ago) link
All the Atlantic stuff is top notch. Used to own the Complete Prestige set but sold it because it was never getting played. It wasn't bad, just nothing compared to the Atlantic and Impulse stuff.
― EZ Snappin, Monday, 8 November 2010 00:51 (thirteen years ago) link
I know, right?
― Lostandfound, Monday, 8 November 2010 01:25 (thirteen years ago) link
I bought this on CD today and now I want every note that was recorded for these dates, this appears to be a selection from two nights?
― out-of-print LaserDisc edition (sleeve), Tuesday, 15 August 2023 03:59 (seven months ago) link
i'm looking forward to checking this out!
― budo jeru, Tuesday, 15 August 2023 04:55 (seven months ago) link
I love this new set, and was pleasantly surprised by the recording, after the disappointment of A Love Supreme: Live In Seattle release, where you nearly had to strain to hear Coltrane and the other horns. This recording also isn’t professional, but Coltrane and Dolphy are front-and-center, and it’s all completely thrilling. And I don’t know if Dolphy had already settled on his arrangement of “Africa,” recorded two months later, but he’s doing that piece’s French horn leaps on bass clarinet here, which is amazing to hear.
― Montgomery Burns' Jazz (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Tuesday, 15 August 2023 08:13 (seven months ago) link
it's so good
beware of the vinyl copies btw, terrible pressing according to Discogs reviews
― out-of-print LaserDisc edition (sleeve), Monday, 14 August 2023 21:18 (yesterday) link
My copy isn't fucked but there is a weird little hiccup at the start of side three where if I don't get the needle in the exact right spot it's a all scratchy for a few seconds, it is weird and yeah it seems like generally the pressing is shoddy at best.
The set is pretty amazing, esp as a kind of bonus to the Complete 1961 Village Vanguard box
― chr1sb3singer, Tuesday, 15 August 2023 14:05 (seven months ago) link
I am obsessed rn
am I correct that the only place I can get the studio take of "One Down, One Up" is on this posthumous compilation?
https://www.discogs.com/master/1068522-John-Coltrane-The-Mastery-Of-John-Coltrane-Vol-II-To-The-Beat-Of-A-Different-Drum
― out-of-print LaserDisc edition (sleeve), Saturday, 18 November 2023 17:09 (four months ago) link
the 15 minute version is also on a 90s comp called "dear old stockholm" and there are a couple of takes on the more recent "both directions at once" comp. I'm not aware of it being on any official studio album unless it's a bonus track on some CD version of something
I fell in love with the track when I heard it on the coltrane/shepp newport live album - it's pleasingly tart and astringent - coming to the studio versions later they sound a little tame in comparison
― Left, Saturday, 18 November 2023 17:27 (four months ago) link
that's very helpful, thank you!
― out-of-print LaserDisc edition (sleeve), Saturday, 18 November 2023 17:30 (four months ago) link
I recently wrote short reviews of 10 live Coltrane albums from 1963-67.
― Tahuti Watches L&O:SVU Reruns Without His Ape (unperson), Saturday, 18 November 2023 20:40 (four months ago) link
I saw those! That's what got me on this latest kick tbh
― out-of-print LaserDisc edition (sleeve), Saturday, 18 November 2023 22:08 (four months ago) link
You’re being modest Unperson. You did live recording from 61 to 67. And if you like the Coltrane/Dolphy stuff sleeve, there are some pretty high quality bootlegs from their European tour in 61.
― bbq, Saturday, 18 November 2023 22:21 (four months ago) link
ooh yeah dime has a bunch, thx
― out-of-print LaserDisc edition (sleeve), Saturday, 18 November 2023 22:36 (four months ago) link