Paul Cutlan’s Coltrane Project Live At The Side On Café

Even before the first note is played, the apocrypha proclaiming this to be a non-professional recording - which finds Naima Coltrane (John Coltrane's wife) as "audio engineer" - is fortunately true. The raw nature of the contents accurately reveal the reality of experiencing a Five Spot gig during the venerable venue'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 jazz icons shared. While the relationship between Monk and Coltrane is the crux of these performances, Ahmed Abdul-Malik (bass) and the irrepressible Roy Haynes (drums) also contribute mightily by allowing enough context to support the soloist while pulling out occasional solos of their own. Haynes' interjections to "In Walked Bud" and "I Mean You" go beyond the simple progression of rhythm…

John Coltrane's "Live At The Half Note" on the Laserlight label is an excellent look at what is arguably jazz's greatest quartet - the "Classic Quartet" of Trane, McCoy Tyner, Jimmy Garrison and Elvin Jones - in an intimate club setting. It is during performances like these, where Coltrane had the ability to stretch out and play at length, improvising and creating on the spur of the moment, that he further developed his signature, searching style.

Heady work from Paul Butterfield's second great group – his mighty Better Days ensemble, heard here in a nicely unbridled live set from the early 70s! Paul himself is mighty great on vocals and harmonica - but the group's a very cohesive unit, too - with additional vocals and guitar from Amos Garrett and Geoff Muldaur, organ and piano from Ronnie Barron, and some mighty heavy drums from Billy Rich! The music seems to have even more punch than on some of Butterfield's studio sessions - blues rock, but with a little something extra, too.

The diminutive but mighty acoustic bassist Malachi Favors was a charter member of the Art Ensemble of Chicago and Kahil El'Zabar's Ritual Trio, and since his passing both groups have suffered. This recording for El'Zabar and his revamped trio including longtime member saxophonist Ari Brown and guest violinist Billy Bang is the first offering with bassist Yosef Ben Israel filling the chair of the late Favors…

A substantial (and official) supplement to the band's recorded legacy with Peter Green, this double CD features 36 songs broadcast between 1967 and 1971, in mostly superlative sound. The title, though, isn't 100 percent accurate; half a dozen tracks were recorded shortly after Green left the band, and since Green is still listed as part of the lineup for all but one of these in the liner notes, Castle Communications either has the dates or personnel wrong…

Previously unreleased and not known to exist soundboard recording of Alice Coltrane Sextet live in Berkeley, California in 1972.