The House That Trane Built: The Story of Impulse Records is a four-disc set, compiled and annotated by author Ashley Kahn who wrote the book of the same name being published concurrently with its release. Impulse's great run was between 1961 and 1976 – a period of 15 years that ushered in more changes in jazz than at any other point in the music's history. Impulse began recording in the last weeks of 1960, with Ray Charles, Kai Windig /J.J. Johnson, and Gil Evans. While Impulse experimented with 45s 33 1/3 EPs, cassettes, and reel to reel tapes later in its existence, it was–and this set focuses on– it was the music on its LPs (with distinct orange and black packaging in gatefold sleeves containing copious notes) that helped to set them apart.
The House That Trane Built: The Story of Impulse Records is a four-disc set, compiled and annotated by author Ashley Kahn who wrote the book of the same name being published concurrently with its release. Impulse's great run was between 1961 and 1976 – a period of 15 years that ushered in more changes in jazz than at any other point in the music's history. Impulse began recording in the last weeks of 1960, with Ray Charles, Kai Windig /J.J. Johnson, and Gil Evans. While Impulse experimented with 45s 33 1/3 EPs, cassettes, and reel to reel tapes later in its existence, it was–and this set focuses on– it was the music on its LPs (with distinct orange and black packaging in gatefold sleeves containing copious notes) that helped to set them apart.
This 4-CD set marks the 45th anniversary of Impulse Records. John Coltrane was the first major artist to sign with ABC-Paramount's fledgling subsidiary in 1961 and it was an inspired choice, his rising prominence and adventurous spirit immediately identifying Impulse with a dynamic shift in jazz. With its gatefold album covers and black and orange graphics, Impulse also added some visual panache to the revolution. While Coltrane–represented here by tracks such as "Greensleeves," "Impressions" and a segment from his signature A Love Supreme–was clearly the label's inspiration, Bob Thiele was one of the great jazz record producers, bent on documenting the best veteran musicians as well as the avant-garde. You hear it in superb tracks here from Earl Hines, Count Basie and Coleman Hawkins, as well as stellar performances by major figures of modern jazz like Art Blakey, Sonny Rollins and Charles Mingus. There are also plenty of appearances by Coltrane’s associates, like McCoy Tyner and Alice Coltrane, as well as the revolutionaries that Coltrane and Thiele nurtured, among them Archie Shepp, Albert Ayler and Pharoah Sanders. It all contributes to a survey of what was most vital in jazz in the 1960s and early '70s that no other single label could manage
Gato Barbieri may be one of those saxophonists whose sound is so closely associated with smooth jazz – and has been since the late '70s – that it's hard to imagine he was once the progenitor of a singular kind of jazz fusion: and that's world fusion, not jazz-rock fusion. Barbieri recorded four albums for Impulse! between 1973 and 1975 that should have changed jazz forever, in that he provided an entirely new direction when it was desperately needed. That it didn't catch certainly isn't his fault, but spoke more to the dearth of new ideas that followed after the discoveries of John Coltrane, Ornette Coleman, and Miles Davis. Barbieri, a Coltrane disciple, hailed from Argentina and sought to bring the music of Latin America, most specifically its folk forms, into the jazz arena.
Albert Ayler was a lightning rod for criticism both from within the music community and from without. His free-thinking approach made him a bane for jazz traditionalists, and his incorporation of popular American musical styles like soul, R&B, and even rock made him a sellout to the free jazz crowd. His volume in The Impulse Story series – one of ten individual artist titles to accompany both the book The House That Trane Built: The Impulse Story by Ashley Kahn and the four-CD label history set of the same name from Universal, is in many ways the very evidence of both points on the scale. ~ AllMusic