John Coltrane The Impulse! Albums

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 - 8 Atlantic Album Collection (1959-62) [8CD] {2006 Japan Mini LP 24-bit Remaster}
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© 2006 Atlantic / Warner Music Japan | WPCR-25101~08
Jazz / Hard Bop / Post Bop / Avant-Garde Jazz / Saxophone

History will undoubtedly enshrine this disc as a watershed the likes of which may never truly be appreciated. Giant Steps bore the double-edged sword of furthering the cause of the music as well as delivering it to an increasingly mainstream audience. Although this was John Coltrane's debut for Atlantic, he was concurrently performing and recording with Miles Davis. Within the space of less than three weeks, Coltrane would complete his work with Davis and company on another genre-defining disc, Kind of Blue, before commencing his efforts on this one. Coltrane (tenor sax) is flanked by essentially two different trios.

The John Coltrane Quartet - Africa/Brass (1961) {Impulse!-Verve Originals 0602517486225 rel 2007}
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© 1961, 2007 Impulse! / Verve / UMG | Verve Originals Series | 0602517486225 | AS-6
Jazz / Hard Bop / Experimental Big Band / Post Bop / Modal Music / Saxophone

The album newly remastered from the original master tapes. John Coltrane assembles a 20-piece band for these three songs. There's McCoy Tyner, Reggie Workman, Elvin Jones, and 16 others. It's heavy on brass, per the title, there are five french horns, for example. There are notable players like Eric Dolphy, Booker Little, Freddie Hubbard, and Julian Priester in the band, but the solos are by Coltrane, Tyner, or Jones. The orchestration was done by Coltrane, Tyner, and Dolphy. The liner notes say Dolphy did a lot of it, later it came out Tyner did more (though Dolphy was no longer around to argue the point). It's not really a big band in the Duke Ellington style, but with all of the horns, it's certainly a big band.

John Coltrane - Selflessness featuring My Favorite Things (1969) {Impulse! Japan, 32XD-585, Early Press}
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© 1963, 1965, 1987 Impulse! / MCA Records / Warner-Pioneer Japan | 32XD-585
Jazz / Free Jazz / Post Bop / Modal Music / Saxophone

In the context of the decades since his passing and the legacy that's continued to grow, John Coltrane's Selflessness album bears an odd similarity to Bob Dylan's autobiographical book Chronicles. In Chronicles, Dylan tells the tale of his beginnings, jumping abruptly and confoundingly from his early years to life and work after his 1966 motorcycle accident, omitting any mention of his most popular and curious electric era. The contrast between these two eras becomes more vivid with the deletion of the years and events that bridged them. Released in 1965, Selflessness presents long-form pieces, likewise from two very distinct and separate eras of Coltrane's development.

John Coltrane - Live at The Village Vanguard Again! (1966) {Impulse! Japan, 32XD-598, Early Press}
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© 1966, 1987 Impulse! / MCA Records Japan | 32XD-598
Jazz / Avant-Garde Jazz / Saxophone

Live at the Village Vanguard Again! is one of the more hotly contested albums in John Coltrane's catalog. Released less than a year before his death, the original recording showcased his new quintet with Alice Coltrane, piano; Pharoah Sanders, tenor saxophone; Jimmy Garrison, bass; and Rashied Ali, drums. Additional percussion on the date was provided by Emanuel Rahim. The three selections here are what survive from a much longer tape. Coltrane's signature ballad "Naima" opens the album and goes on for over 15 minutes. One of the most iconic tunes in his repertoire, the treatment it is given here is radical. While the melody is referenced in the beginning, Coltrane moves it aside fairly quickly to concentrate on improvisation.

John Coltrane - A Love Supreme (1964) {Impulse!-Verve Originals 0602517649033 rel 2008}
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© 1964, 2008 Impulse! / Verve / UMG | Verve Originals Series | 0602517649033 | LP AS-77
Jazz / Modal Music / Avant-Garde Jazz / Free Jazz / Post Bop / Saxophone

One of the most important records ever made, John Coltrane's A Love Supreme was his pinnacle studio outing, that at once compiled all of the innovations from his past, spoke to the current of deep spirituality that liberated him from addictions to drugs and alcohol, and glimpsed at the future innovations of his final two and a half years. Recorded over two days in December 1964, Trane's classic quartet–Elvin Jones, McCoy Tyner, and Jimmy Garrison– stepped into the studio and created one of the most the most thought-provoking, concise, and technically pleasing albums of their bountiful relationship.

Interstellar Space was the one of the final studio albums recorded by the saxophonist John Coltrane before his death in 1967, originally-released posthumously by Impulse! Records on LP in 1974.

John Coltrane - Ascension (1965) {Impulse! Japan, 32XD-577, Early Press rel 1987}
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© 1965, 1987 Impulse! / MCA Japan | 32XD-577
Jazz / Avant-Garde Jazz / Free Jazz / Saxophone

Digitally remastered from the original stereo master tapes. This is the 1st take of the piece (Edition II). By accident Bob Thiele put out the wrong take. After he went through the initial press run, he switched the masters to the other take and inscribed Edition II on the inside of the runout circle. So there are really two versions of Ascension.

John Coltrane - A Love Supreme (1964) {Impulse! Japan, 32XD-595, Early Press}
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© 1964, 1987 Impulse! / MCA Records / Warner-Pioneer Japan | 32XD-595
Jazz / Free Jazz / Post Bop / Avant-Garde Jazz / Modal Music / Saxophone

Maybe one of the greatest jazz albums of all time – a real breakthrough moment for the legendary John Coltrane, and the blueprint for generations of jazz records to come! Trane was already breaking down plenty of boundaries before Love Supreme – but he knocked it out of the park for the album – which is a full-length suite of spiritual expression, one that gives even greater focus and message to Coltrane's long-spiralling style of soloing on the tenor sax!