Customer Reviews

Africa / Brass (Reis) (Rstr) (Dig)

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

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.

"Africa" is perhaps the best Coltrane song which isn't on his "classic" albums. It's based on a steady, simple, bass and piano line, giving it a hypnotic, modal feel. The melody lines make the song stand out. "Greensleeves" has a catchy melody. It's very good, though Coltrane seems to be revisiting "My Favorite Things". "Blues Minor" doesn't have the greatest title, and its melody isn't particularily catchy. However, John Coltrane is playing saxophone, and McCoy Tyner plays a great piano solo.

I don't know how this short, original version of the album compares to the longer, more expensive, complete version. It's a very interesting John Coltrane CD, the only "big band" album he led. I recommend it for all Coltrane fans.

This is a classic album by John Coltrane. It's his first for the Impulse! record label; he would become readily associated with the label, recording all of his great mature albums for it. Due to Coltrane's prominence in the jazz world, Impulse! would also become an important jazz label during the 1960s and a major documenter of the avant garde.

This was also Coltrane's first project with a large ensemble: here he is the featured soloist in a big band conducted and arranged by Eric Dolphy (with wonderful thick, dissonant brass textures that perfectly complement the driving sound that the Coltrane quartet was then perfecting).

So, for fans of Coltrane, of the avant garde, and of the Impulse! label, this album can be safely called a "must-have."

That said, I can NOT recommend this particular reissue. In the past few years, Universal Music Group has been reissuing classic jazz from the Verve and Impulse! labels in inferior versions: sloppy remastering, and packaging that is much less solid that the great Impulse! reissues from the mid- to late-90s (under "GRP" auspices). The most heinous crime in the case of Africa/Brass is that it was already reissued (back in the 1990s) in a spectacular TWO-DISC version that provided fascinating (and musically successful) alternate takes. Now UMG reissues it AGAIN, but with none of the great extra material already recovered?

This reissue is typical of UMG recent's jazz reissue program - it's a lazy, sloppy, and disrespectful series of reissues. Most of the classic material was reissued before in MUCH better versions.

I cannot stress it enough: stay away from this reissue of Africa/Brass, and say away from the "Originals" series on Verve and Impulse! !

AFRICA/BRASS was John Coltrane's first album for Impulse! and features a somewhat different lineup than the "classic quartet" triumphs he was soon to record for the label. His working band at the time was five-piece, with eventual mainstays Elvin Jones on drums and McCoy Tyner on piano, but two bassists in Reggie Workman and Art Davis. But the most unusual feature of this ensemble, which gives the album its title, is a 15-piece brass band in the background.

The opening "Africa" is a fine display of Coltrane's technical chops, such as rapid-fire notes and a strong main theme. At 16 minutes, it's one of Coltrane's longest tracks, and Tyner and Jones get more room to solo than they often did. When I listened to this album for the first time, I expected some kind of brass extravanganza throughout, but the use of the brass brand is surprisingly restrained. They mainly play some otherworldly glissandi during the opening and conclusion. It's a fun track and quite catchy.

Unfortunately, the following "Greensleeves" comes as something of a disappointment. Coltrane loved the old tune and performed it often, but here it seems to lack the burning intensity, the white-hot passion that Coltrane usually displayed, and instead it strikes me a by-the-numbers affair. The third track, "Blues Minor" features explosive playing by the core band, but I can't help feel like the brass ensemble is intruding during Coltrane's solo here, obscuring a fiery line that is as wild as anything on MEDITATIONS.

So, AFRICA/BRASS isn't at the top of Coltrane's output for the Impulse! label, and it's probably best heard after A LOVE SUPREME, MEDITATIONS and KULU SE MAMA. Still, even lesser Coltrane has spectacular performances and plenty of entertaining moments.

AFRICA/BRASS traditionally has only these three cuts, but the complete sessions have been issued with alternative takes and some tunes that were left out completely. In building a classic jazz collection, I'm concentrating on the albums as originally issued, so I can't comment on the extras in the reissues.

I don't know what it is but when this guy got inspired (which was very often apparently) it was as if someone else was speaking his sax. And of course that's exactly what happens on "Africa".Of course we all know this band by heart-Reggie Workman slapping the bass and McCoy Tyner tickling the ivories but on this tune it's between the possed playing style of 'Trane and Elvin Jones's terrific drum solo that get and keep your attention. Also Eric Dolphy also arranges a large orchestra for this occassion but it's sure worlds about from Gil Evans;this orchestra has to keep up with not only this quartet but with 'Trane's often surreal touches. This album does succomb to one quality I find with a lot of Coltranes recordings outside the magnificant A Love Supreme and Giant Steps-that they all tend to have one or two songs that are so.....well forgive this big word but TRANSCENDANT that they wipe everything else on the album away. And that is no exception on this one. What "Greensleeves" does as another reviewer put it is rework a tradional melody much the same as "My Favorite Things" did.It's really pleasant but totally blown away by the first cut. And both of the first two cuts outdo the good but typical and unmemorable "Blues Minor";it's the great chemistry of this quartet that makes the weaker final song worth it though. But this set is more then worth it alone for the great "Africa" and it's the longest thing here.

Africa/Brass is the first John Coltrane record I ever bought. It thoroughly perplexed me.

I was maybe 15 or 16 and way into the Grateful Dead. I read an interview with the band's bass player, Phil Lesh, where he spoke about how he turned his band mates onto Coltrane, specifically via Africa/Brass. I came to learn over the years that the band was incredibly impacted and influenced by Coltrane's early '60s work and that happenstance introduction started me on my exploration.

I was not entirely unfamiliar with or ignorant about jazz at the time, but I had a very, very superficial exposure. I can't even recall what I may have been aware of at the time but there was certainly nothing like Africa/Brass in my consciousness.

What I initially picked up was a cassette tape. This was the mid-80s and if I recall correctly, none of the Impulse! stuff was in print any longer, certainly not on CD. If it was available I wasn't stumbling across it...anyway, I purchased said used cassette and was eager to see what mind-boggling music could have possibly so motivated my musical heroes.

I wish I could say that I was immediately drawn in and absorbed by the music, but that was not the case. The music was incredibly dense to my ears, not at all what I thought "jazzy" should be. Even "Blues Minor", the most bop-like track on the record, was left-of-center for me. Quite frankly, I was confused. Not put off, but thoroughly confused.

I kept that cassette tape for years. As my interest in and knowledge of music grew I would revisit Africa/Brass. I wish I could recall when I finally "got it" but it probably did not take as long as my memory implies. By the early 90s Coltrane was already a familiar reference point to me and had prepared me for some of my favorite records, such as Sonny Sharrock's Ask The Ages and McCoy Tyner's Fly With The Wind.

Those endless hours of Frank Zappa, the Grateful Dead and various heavy prog rock records did a great job of teaching me how to listen to and appreciate this other world of music, though. I love it all.

Africa/Brass was Coltrane's first recording for the fledgeling Impulse label, and sets the tone for the rest. The music is beautifully recorded, courtesy of Rudy Van Gelder; while RVG's engineering is not without its flaws, it does justice to Coltrane's music far better than the thin, distant sound of the Atlantic years. There's also a much darker presence to the music, though that may have as much to do with the cover art Impulse usually put on Trane's albums.

Stylistically, this album has a lot in common with the final Atlantic album (Ole) as well as the live Village Vanguard recordings. Coltrane was experimenting with large ensembles - in this case, a brass-heavy big band with arrangements from McCoy Tyner and Eric Dolphy. Despite an impressive ensemble, the only soloists here are from Coltrane's quartet - the leader himself, McCoy Tyner, Reggie Workman (in conjunction with the second bassist, Art Davis), and Elvin Jones.

The meat of this album, as on Ole, comes from the lengthiest track, "Africa". This one is a MONSTER - it's intense, it grooves, it pushes the envelope without scaring off too many listeners. Those whoopings from the brass in the background are just great. The other tracks are nice, but they are anticlimactic once you hear "Africa". "Greensleeves" seems to be popular - it's another one of Trane's soprano waltzes, trying to create a hit - but it doesn't come off nearly as good as "My Favorite Things".

I would generally encourage most people to purchase the 2-disc version of "Africa/Brass" instead of this one. Unlike the deluxe versions of "Ballads" and "Coltrane", there aren't an incessant number of repeat takes - at least a few of the tunes are new. The one tune that gets a triple treatment - "Africa" - is performed differently enough each time to justify having them all. The only person who would probably prefer having just the original album is a casual fan who only needs a little Trane - but in that case, I'd get other Coltrane albums rather than this one.

This recording from 1961 features a 20 piece band that is barely noticeable, Eric Dolphy's arrangements are so subtle, and Coltrane's playing is progressive but very easy to listen to, at least for me. One is definitely more aware of the band in the third and final track,Blues Minor,where Coltrane does some real fine work. I think all concerned were having a good day that day so I encourage you to experience it. I have 30 recordings of Coltrane but I am not one of those people to finger a specific piece as his all out greatest work. I don't seperate the music. I believe he did five recordings the week he recorded A Love Supreme. They are all parts of the whole.

If you like jazz and you don't own this then your a mug. Coltrane plays like a nutcase on this record. Coltrane is undoubtedly the scariest pair of lungs to ever touch a Sax. The whole album drags every emotion from your soul and creates something which will either make musicians hesitant to pick up their instruments or forever play with an unimaginable, inexplicable love for this insane thing called music. Believe