Search & Destroy: John Coltrane

Adam is really smart. I took some lessons from him for a little while a few years ago and loved talking to him.

Poor Tommy Flanagan. I thought they should have mentioned that he played Giant Steps on every gig he could after that, just so people would know he got it together (or at least I remember hearing that anecdotally).

Great video otherwise.

Feel like “most” “serious” fans have gotten beyond that, but maybe that is just wishful thinking. By the time I was seeing him I don’t recall him playing “Giant Steps” and don’t really remember too many people bringing it up in conversation.

This new 1963 box set Impulse is putting out seems like kind of a ripoff to me - it's the tracks from that "lost album" they just released, with John Coltrane and Johnny Hartman, Live at Birdland, and I think some other previously released stuff tacked on.

Ah, good to know, James.

I’ve been geeking out to his solo on But Not for Me from My Favorite Things lately. He does stuff in there that already sounds like “late” Coltrane

Urrr, brainfart, I meant Summertime, not But Not For Me

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NEftw9o1joo

semi kicking myself for not picking up whichever European tour was £15 in FOPP.
Did get Village Vanguard though just realising that I probably had most of it since i still have most of teh box set somewhere.
Want to pick up most of his Impulse lps and probably a few of teh Atlantic ones.

Also should have grabbed Pharoah Sanders' Elevation when I saw it in Honest Johns.

Do love Afro Blue Impressions since chancing on it on vinyl in Belfast 28 years ago & I assume the European tour material is going to be pretty similar.

& I assume the European tour material is going to be pretty similar.

It mostly is, but the first disc-and-a-half is with Eric Dolphy. I haven't checked, but I wouldn't be surprised if you could find just the Coltrane/Dolphy live European stuff as a standalone disc.

(sorry, to clarify: the first disc-and-a-half of the Live Trane: The European Tours box)

Man, Interstellar Space is really peak music

listening to that prestige '58 box .. it's often quite familiar stuff, but still so good.

Kenny Burrell, Donald Byrd, Paul Chambers, Jimm Cobb, Tommy Flanagan, Red Garland, Louis Hayes, Freddie Hubbard - literally fucking top notch '58 combos!

Coltrane w Kenny Burrell was one of my first jazz records and I love it so much

It's sort of interesting in jazz how since these guys all did so many sessions in short periods of time, it can be sort of arbitrary which one you wind up starting with and that one often becomes a favorite.

uh hi dere

Now comes word of another new album by the classic John Coltrane Quartet, with McCoy Tyner on piano, Jimmy Garrison on bass and Elvin Jones on drums. Blue World will be released on Impulse!/UMe on Sept. 27, and like Both Directions it offers an unexpected view on a pivotal period in the band's evolution. It was recorded at Van Gelder Studios on June 24, 1964 — a few weeks after the quartet put a finishing touch on the album Crescent — as the soundtrack to a Canadian art film. Because the date had gone unnoted in session recording logs, this music has occupied a blind spot for Trane-ologists, archivists and historians.

https://www.npr.org/2019/08/16/751516859/a-lost-album-from-john-coltrane-is-found-with-thanks-to-a-french-canadian-direct

fuuuuck

nice

anything in the vicinity of Crescent already has my full attention

otm

The new song is really good, and the idea of the 1964 quartet re-recording "Naima," "Village Blues," "Like Sonny" and "Traneing In" is very interesting to me. I am fully on board for this.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5m24Q78QeHA

oh yeah that's fabulous, thanks

this is very good and exciting

Really want to listen to this on cd, from a black & orange digipack, on a boombox for full effect.

that new track is indeed wonderful. just what i needed on a sunday evening.

Listening to the whole album now. It's two versions of "Naima," three versions of "Village Blues," one each of "Like Sonny" and "Traneing In," and the one brand-new track. About 37 minutes of music in all. No bad performances, and the sound — it's in mono — has real punch. I love it. Gonna be listening to this one a lot more than Both Directions At Once, for sure.

oh you didn't like Both Directions? I really loved it. if this is better I'm really excited

I liked it (bought the 2CD version), but I didn't love it. This one hits my personal sweet spot better, both because of the mono sound and because all the tunes are basically blues riffs.

I WOULD VERY MUCH LIKE TO HEAR THIS

I'm confused, isn't "Blue World" just a slower take of Out of this World?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uTTNL-RHEMs

Barry Harris!

"bakai" (1957)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ckwFw7YEzHg

this is some badass shit. from his first session as a leader. because of whatever reasons, he doesn't even take the first solo! also sahib shihab on baritone!

John Coltrane With Eric Dolphy - Evenings At The Village Gate

^^^

this newish dug up from the Impulse archives release is really good, it's a rough single mic recording but the music really cuts through and features some amazing playing from Dolphy.

I picked up one of the European tour box sets from FOPP a few years ago. Presumably same line up though not sure about bassist.
Cost I think £15 back then and there was a 2nd volume from the next year, or was it previous. It's 61 and 62 anyway.
Haven't looked at it in a while but I think it was pretty great.
The box set of Village Vanguard sets was quite good too

the star lineup on this one also includes McCoy Tyner/Elvin Jones/Jimmy Garrison/Art Davis.

I think he only had 2 steady lineups under his own name so it would either be Tyner/Jones plus Workman or Garrison and possibly Davis and depending on time some of the time either Dolphy or Sanders and then Sanders/Alice/Ali/Garrison plus possible augmentation.

This is the first time I've ever seen anyone describe A Love Supreme as boring.

nevertheless

Not the first time I've seen it described as boring tbh.

Dolphy's clarineting on my favorite things is some wonderful playing, then comes Trane ... it's great stuff

on this new live one I mean

It's a great Elvin record, what a gift

this dolphy recording is really excellent for a single mic recording. I saw notes that it was drum-heavy and maybe, slightly, but nothing inexcusable. that said with the advent of the technology peter jackson is using for demixing for the Beatles, I'd be really into seeing that same technology used in older jazz recordings like this.

I wrongly posted it was from the Impulse archives, I've since read it was accidentally discovered in NY public library.

It is a killer recording.

Looked at the track listing and was kinda bowled over that they perform "Africa" (!)

it's so good

beware of the vinyl copies btw, terrible pressing according to Discogs reviews

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?

i'm looking forward to checking this out!

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.