John Coltrane New Thing

The classic John Coltrane Quartet made one of its final appearances at the Newport Jazz Festival in 1965. The tension among bandmembers is evident on the advanced versions of "One Down, One Up" and "My Favorite Things." Coltrane's performance is moving…yet weary. It's apparent the saxophonist wasn't getting the sound he wanted and by the end of the year he would take a different direction, hiring Pharoah Sanders and wife Alice Coltrane for the band. Tenor saxophonist Archie Shepp's earlier afternoon New Thing performance includes engaging versions of "Call Me by My Rightful Name" and "Gingerbread, Gingerbread Boy" (included as a bonus track on this package) with Bobby Hutcherson on vibes.

John Coltrane - Live At The Village Vanguard Again! (1966) {Impulse!-Verve Originals B0015827-2 rel 2011}
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© 1966, 2011 Impulse! / Verve / UMG | Verve Originals Series | B0015827-2 | LP AS-9124
Jazz / Avant-Garde Jazz / Free Jazz / Post Bop / Saxophone

John Coltrane returns to the Village Vanguard – but his sound here is a lot more far-reaching than a few years before! The album's a great counterpart to the first Vanguard session – as it takes all of the bold, soaring energy of that date, and balances it with the newly introspective sound of the later Coltrane years – plus some of the freedoms learned from the Love Supreme era. The group here showcases the new territory explored by Coltrane – with Trane himself on tenor, soprano, and a bit of bass clarinet (echoing earlier Dolphy), plus Pharoah Sanders on additional tenor, Alice Coltrane on piano, Jimmy Garrison on bass, and Rasheid Ali on drums. The album only features 2 long tracks – an incredibly soulful version of "Naima", and a very firey version of "My Favorite Things", but one that begins with a haunting bass solo by Garrison!

John Coltrane - Both Directions At Once (2018) {2CD Set Impulse! 00602567492993} (Complete Artwork - Gatefold with 16 pages)
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© 1963, 2018 Impulse! / Verve / Universal | 0060256749299
Jazz / Modal Music / Avant-Garde Jazz / Saxophone

Years of canonization have obscured how John Coltrane was at a bit of crossroads in the early '60s, playing increasingly adventurous music on-stage while acquiescing to Impulse!'s desire to record marketable albums. Whenever he could, producer Bob Thiele would capture Coltrane working out new music with pianist McCoy Tyner, drummer Elvin Jones, and bassist Jimmy Garrison. One of these sessions happened at Rudy Van Gelder's New Jersey studio on March 6, 1963, when Coltrane's quartet was in the thick of a residency at New York's Birdland and just before they were scheduled to cut an album with vocalist Johnny Hartman.

John Coltrane - The Prestige Recordings (1956-58) [16CD BoxSet] {1991 Prestige Remaster}
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© 1991 Prestige / Fantasy | 16PCD-4405-2
Jazz / Hard Bop / Modal Jazz / Saxophone

The two and a half years represented in this mammoth collection made up a period of great activity and development for young John Coltrane. It was a time in which he worked in the Miles Davis Quintet, then joined Thelonious Monk for his historic Five Spot engagement, and then took his place in the legendary 1958 Miles Davis Sextet. It was a time in which he grew from a somewhat promising tenor player to a supernova about to burst upon the jazz world. It was also a span during which Trane traveled with great regularity to the original New Jersey location of the Rudy Van Gelder Studio, taking part in no less than 25 lengthy Prestige recording sessions.

Miles Davis & John Coltrane - Live In New York (1957~63) {Bandstand Japan, 32JDB-133, Early Press}
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© 1957-63, 1987 Bandstand / Tokuma Japan | 32JDB-133
Jazz / Hard Bop / Modal Music / Trumpet / Saxophone

First the caveats (and I am providing them for historical accuracy, so please do not take them as complaints.) Coltrane is only on half of the tracks (Four, Walkin' and So What). One of the tracks, So What, while technically a live performance was actually a canned performance that was broadcast from CBS-TV Studio 61, New York City on April 2, 1959. This was from a recently discovered video of a broadcast for a series titled The Robert Herridge Theater.

All Tracks Previously Unissued. This release presents, for the first time on any format, the only three known 1956-57 Café Bohemia broadcasts by the Miles Davis Quintet featuring John Coltrane on tenor sax, Red Garland on piano, Paul Chambers on bass, and Philly Joe Jones on drums. Among the highlights are Miles’ only existing live versions of Girl in Calico, Stablemates and How Am I to Know?. Shortly after the third of these broadcasts, Coltrane would leave Miles to be replaced by Sonny Rollins. He would return in 1958, when Bill Evans replaced Garland on piano, as showed by our fourth, May 17, 1958 broadcast. As a bonus, an amazing and also never before released tour de force by Miles on A Night in Tunisia taped in Washington in 1953, as well as an all-star 1958 jam session on What Is This Thing Called Love?

What happens when an orchestra that is so determined to break the barriers of big band and what jazz should be, attempts to take on the greatest and holiest of Jazz works? Why, you’d get 1977’s grand masterpiece Toshiyuki Miyama & The New Herd’s Orchestrane: New Herd Plays John Coltrane. This has been one of my absolute favourite discoveries of 2020 and I’m surprised it’s not talked about more. Miyama and band are well known for their adventurous experiments with the big band sound and concept even reaching as far out as free jazz on occasion. However on Orchestrane, they pay respects to the source material by being more restrained yet injecting new life into these timeless classics. Far from derivative perhaps even a giant step for big bands and orchestras in the modern age.