Both John Coltrane

John Coltrane Quartet - Ballads (1962) {Impulse!–Verve Originals rel 2007}
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© 1962, 2007 Impulse! / Verve / UMG | Verve Originals Series | 0602517486201 | LP AS-32
Jazz / Post Bop / Saxophone

Throughout John Coltrane's discography there are a handful of decisive and controversial albums that split his listening camp into factions. Generally, these occur in his later-period works such as Om and Ascension, which push into some pretty heady blowing. As a contrast, Ballads is often criticized as too easy and as too much of a compromise between Coltrane and Impulse! (the two had just entered into the first year of label representation). Seen as an answer to critics who found his work complicated with too many notes and too thin a concept, Ballads has even been accused of being a record that Coltrane didn't want to make.

John Coltrane - Live Trane - The European Tours (2001) {7CD Pablo-Victor Japan VICJ-60831~7 20bit K2 Mastering rec 1961-1963}
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© 1961-63, 2001 Pablo Records / Fantasy / Victor Japan | VICJ-60831~7 | 20bit K2 Mastering
Jazz / Hard Bop / Modal Music / Saxophone

The seven-CD set Live Trane expands upon Pablo's earlier CDs of John Coltrane recorded during his European tours between 1961 and 1963, including all of The Paris Concert, Bye Bye Blackbird, The European Tour, and Afro Blue Impressions, and supplementing them with extra songs from most of these concerts. Of the 37 tracks, 19 have not previously appeared commercially (except on a number of European bootleg labels with sound ranging from barely acceptable to horrendous), and a 1961 Hamburg concert with Eric Dolphy makes its debut here. A number of titles are repeated throughout the set – six takes of "My Favorite Things" and five versions of both "Impressions" and "Mr. P.C.," along with four takes of "Naima" – but true Coltrane fans will marvel at the differences between them from one concert to the next.

This programme features the great jazz man John Coltrane in nine rare television performances, shot in the late 1950s and the early 1960s.
Coltrane appears in dazzling extended solos showcasing his trademark "sheets of sound" and demonstrates his mastery of tenor, alto and soprano sax and the unique artistry he brought to innovations in jazz and to music as a whole.

Although seemingly impossible to comprehend, this landmark jazz date made in 1960 was recorded in less than three days. All the more remarkable is that the same sessions which yielded My Favorite Things would also inform a majority of the albums Coltrane Plays the Blues, Coltrane's Sound, and Coltrane Legacy. It is easy to understand the appeal that these sides continue to hold. The unforced, practically casual soloing styles of the assembled quartet – which includes Coltrane (soprano/tenor sax), McCoy Tyner (piano), Steve Davis (bass), and Elvin Jones (drums) – allow for tastefully executed passages à la the Miles Davis Quintet, a trait Coltrane no doubt honed during his tenure in that band.

Lush Life is among John Coltrane's best endeavors on the Prestige label. One reason can easily be attributed to the interesting personnel and the subsequent lack of a keyboard player for the August 16, 1957 session that yielded the majority of the material. Coltrane (tenor sax) had to essentially lead the compact trio of himself, Earl May (bass), and Art Taylor (drums). The intimate setting is perfect for ballads such as the opener "Like Someone in Love." Coltrane doesn't have to supplement the frequent redundancy inherent in pianists, so he has plenty of room to express himself through simple and ornate passages…

Lush Life is among John Coltrane's best endeavors on the Prestige label. One reason can easily be attributed to the interesting personnel and the subsequent lack of a keyboard player for the August 16, 1957 session that yielded the majority of the material. Coltrane (tenor sax) had to essentially lead the compact trio of himself, Earl May (bass), and Art Taylor (drums). The intimate setting is perfect for ballads such as the opener "Like Someone in Love." Coltrane doesn't have to supplement the frequent redundancy inherent in pianists, so he has plenty of room to express himself through simple and ornate passages. Unifying the slippery syncopation and slightly Eastern feel of "I Love You" is the tenor's prevalent capacity for flawless, if not downright inspired on-the-spot "head" arrangements that emerge singular and clear, never sounding preconceived…

The seminal quartet recordings compiled on this collection were made during a transitional period in John Coltrane's musical career. He had first joined the Miles Davis Quintet in 1955 and would form his own celebrated quartet with McCoy Tyner, Jimmy Garrison and Elvin Jones in 1960. In the intervening years, he overcame his narcotics addiction and began to expand on his own musical ideas while experimenting with both the Thelonious Monk Quartet and the Miles Davis Sextet (featuring Bill Evans and Cannonball Adderley). Although Trane belonged to both the Miles Davis and Thelonious Monk groups, he also recorded studio sessions with other musicians and presented his own albums during this period. Among them were many quartet sides, all of them featuring Red Garland on piano and Paul Chambers on bass (both of whom he had known from the Miles Davis Quintet).

Thelonious Monk featuring John Coltrane - Live at the Five Spot: Discovery! (1957) {Blue Note D110906 rel 1993}
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© 1957, 1993 Blue Note / Capitol Records | D 110906
Jazz / Bop / Piano / Saxophone

The urban mythology surrounding this non-professional recording – suggesting that Naima Coltrane (aka Mrs. John Coltrane) was running tape during this particular set – is fortunately true. Fortunate, that is, for lovers of bop or anyone who ever wished in vain that they could be transported to a legendary night such as the one captured during this short disc. The raw nature of this audience tape more accurately reveals the reality of experiencing a performance during the Five Spot's halcyon days. What can also be found beyond the sporadic chatter and general hubbub of a New York City Harlem nightclub is arguably the strongest aural evidence of the unique working rapport these two jazz icons shared.

Packaged together in this five-disc box set from Verve/Hip-O-Select, these titles represent the albums Impulse issued following John Coltrane's death in 1967, and remain some of the most controversial in his catalog (numerous critics thought – and many still do – that dubious choices were made in assembling them).