Major Works of John Coltrane

John Coltrane - Offering: Live At Temple University (2014) {2CD Set Impulse!-Resonance Records B0019632-02 rec 1966}
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© 1966, 2014 Impulse! / Resonance Records / Verve | B0019632-02
Jazz / Avant-Garde Jazz / Free Jazz / Post Bop

Recorded eight months before his death from liver cancer, the concert album Offering: Live at Temple University features legendary jazz saxophonist John Coltrane performing with his quintet in his hometown of Philadelphia on November 11, 1966. Although it's been available in various incomplete bootleg forms over the years, Resonance's Offering is the first official, complete, and fully mastered version to be released. Produced from a set of long-lost master tapes rediscovered by Coltrane's son, saxophonist Ravi Coltrane, Offering showcases the late jazz innovator's final ensemble featuring his wife, keyboardist Alice Coltrane, saxophonist Pharoah Sanders, bassist Sonny Johnson (sitting in for Jimmy Garrison), drummer Rashied Ali, and a coterie of local guest musicians.

From 1964, Archie Shepp's first date as a leader featured – as one would expect from the title – four tunes by John Coltrane, his mentor, his major influence, and his bandleader. The fact that this album holds up better than almost any of Shepp's records nearly 40 years after the fact has plenty to do with the band he chose for this session, and everything to do with the arranging skills of trombonist Roswell Rudd. The band here is Shepp on tenor, John Tchicai on alto, Rudd on trombone, Trane's bassist Reggie Workman, and Ornette Coleman's drummer Charles Moffett. Even in 1964, this was a powerhouse, beginning with a bluesed-out wailing version of "Syeeda's Song Flute." This version is ingenious, with Shepp allowing Rudd to arrange for solos for himself and Tchicai up front and Rudd punching in the blues and gospel in the middle, before giving way to double time by Workman and Moffett. The rawness of the whole thing is so down-home you're ready to tell someone to pass the butter beans when listening.

Joachim Kühn - Allegro Vivace: Piano Works I (2005). Just judged by its repertoire, this is certainly an impressive solo piano date. Joachim Kühn performs works by François Couperin (a mass from 1690), Bach, Mozart, John Coltrane, and Ornette Coleman in addition to three of his own originals. Although the mixture of classical and jazz pieces might seem illogical, Kühn's subtle improvising on the classical compositions and his ability to create melodies in his improvising on the jazz tunes give this date an evolution that somehow works. Kühn has always had impressive technique and a healthy musical curiosity. Both serve him well, along with his imagination, on this intriguing and successful outing…

Fred Ho & Quincy Saul - The Music of Cal Massey (2011) {Mutable Music-Big Red Media 004}
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© 2011 Mutable Music / Big Red Media | 004
Jazz / Avant-Garde Jazz / Experimental / Modern Creative / Modern Small Band

Calvin Massey (1928-1972) is virtually unknown with the exception of both highly knowledgeable jazz scholars and a small coterie of illustrious musicians who remain alive and were immensely indebted to Massey s musical influence and mentorship. Massey was a father figure and close friend to many of the greatest jazz musicians of the post-World War era until his early death in 1972. Massey was a trumpeter, but was most noted as a composer of magisterial works, of which his epic opus was The Black Liberation Movement Suite, an extended work of nine movements. Until now, the work had never been recorded in its entirety. Cal Massey ranked among the greatest jazz composers of the 20th century, included with Duke Ellington, Thelonious Monk and Sun Ra.

Nonesuch Records releases City Noir, comprising the title piece by composer John Adams and the debut recording of his Saxophone Concerto. Both pieces are performed by the St. Louis Symphony led by Music Director David Robertson. Saxophonist Timothy McAllister is featured on both pieces.