Customer Reviews

Bethlehem Years

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

 

 

it's kind of misleading to present this music under john coltrane's name. these are actually a couple of recording dates from 1957 that john coltrane plays on, but does not lead. one of the sessions is an art blakey big band session (fine by me), and the other main session has donald byrd, oscar pettiford, and philly joe jones as members. all good, very likable stuff; but not really a coltrane set. if you are a jazz fan, i still recommend this music. it is fun stuff. people just might want to know its true nature before picking up a copy.

The low score is for the nature of this ill-conceived and dishonest release, not the artist. Coltrane himself plays rather well here, but as the above reviewer also noted, he is far from the featured artist. Despite the cd title, there were never any Bethlehem "years" at all. Coltrane simply sat in as a backup horn during a few sessions in the late fall of 1957 for other recording artists. He takes solos, but only a few. This is simply a good example of how record companies repackage older and forgotten material in a manner more likely to be scooped up by completists. The music in here is ok, but it's not Coltrane, and it's not worth the money.

While it is true that Coltrane does not solo much on these 2 CDs he is still as they say "In the House" and the effect can be heard in all the players even though Trane is not the leader. "IT" was there by 1957.