Customer Reviews

Coltrane Jazz

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Overshadowed by the critical buzz generatd by "Giant Steps" and "My Favorite Things," lacking the exoticism of "Ole" or the big-name partnerships of "Bags and Trane," or "The Avant-Garde," this album is one of the least-discussed of the saxophonist's Atlantic recordings. And I did find it easy to overlook it when I first heard it many years ago.

On first listening it seemed, for some reason, to lack the usual emotion of a Coltrane recording. On repeated listenings over the years, I've come to appreciate the album much more and now consider it a very solid midlevel entry in his discography (which makes it a pretty darn good album).

True, the playing on some of the tracks (Little Old Lady"; "My Shining Hour") is not as compelling as we expect from Trane; they're certainly worth listening to, but they feel more like some of his more ordinary material from the Prestige years. And unlike the nearly perfectly crafted "Giant Steps" and "My Favorite Things," the album doesn't have that "spot-on" sound that makes you feel like he could not have produced an album that could sound better.

Still, it's a Coltrane album, so satisfying listening moments are not lacking. For the power that only a really good Trane solo can offer, there's "Harmonique," with its memorable tag in which he plays more than one note simultaneously. "Fifth House" effectively displays his interest in Eastern sounds; "Like Sonny" has a very attractive Latin-tinged line with some exciting, fluid soloing; "I'll Wait and Pray" is a typically effective ballad; and "Some Other Blues" shows once again his mastery of that form.

"Coltrane Jazz," recorded in 1959, featured Wynton Kelly (piano), Paul Chambers (bass) and Jimmy Cobb (drums), the next-to-the-last time that Coltrane would record with a group that did not include McCoy Tyner and Elvin Jones. While those two obviously became Trane's closest collaborators over the next seven years, this rhythm section shines in its own right. Coltrane and Chambers have their usual excellent rapport, Kelly contributes a bright and swinging sound, and Jimmy Cobb, for my money, was simply one of the best drummers of the time and doesn't disappoint here.

All in all, "Coltrane Jazz" may not grab you immediately, but the patient listener will find it delivers many pleasurable moments.

This record is overshadowed by the one preceding it, namely the technically superb Giant Steps which blew up Bebop from inside out, and the one that came after it, the nice but tame sounding My Favourite Things with the commercial hit of the same name. But it is more experimental than the accomplished complex Giant Steps, and though the blowing there had a razorsharp edge, here the playing of Coltrane is richer, even if it has sometimes an unsure feel to it and doesn't hit as hard and fast, due probably to the unknown territory he was beginnning to explore once more. Strange harmonical effects are tried out and melodically a more exotic and diverse atmosphere is reached. Coltrane Jazz also has something wild about it that Favourite things lacks. More than once you'll find yourself exclaiming this is crazy. And beautifull... It is the first sign of the great things to come in the Impulse period.

Despite coming after the revolutionary "Giant Steps" (Coltrane's most important, musically influential album, in my estimation), this recording, also on Atlantic, features a more conservative, melodically-minded Coltrane than the previous outing (with a few harmonically adventurous exceptions such as "Fifth House" and "Harmonique"). There are three rhythm sections, with Wynton Kelly the pianist on 6 of the 12 tracks comprising my copy (a 2004 release in the Atlantic Masters series). McCoy Tyner and Cedar Walton occupy the piano chair on the other tracks, but the proceedings are especially grooving, the solos unfailingly melodic and inventive on the tracks with the always infectious, felicitous Kelly piano (Paul Chambers also deserves much of the credit). To anyone who knows the American Songbook, the performance of Harold Arlen-Johnny Mercer's "My Shining Hour" (taken up-tempo) is bound to be a highlight. And Coltrane leaves his soprano in its case, which is just fine by me. This is close to being essential Coltrane--similar to the vibe of "Blue Train" but better--if only because, with only one instead of three horns, Trane gets three times the playing time.

[Even a negative vote beats the apathy normally received by Coltrane and the music itself. Whatever one thinks of this reviewer's humble attempt to represent this music accurately, don't let that be an obstacle to experiencing this music first-hand.]

This was one of Coltrane's transitional LPs, released between two of his best-known albums (Giant Steps and My Favorite Things). In fact, the original album draws from sessions that made up both albums -- one track ("Village Blues") from the My Favorite Things/Coltrane Plays the Blues/Coltrane's Sound sessions (October 1960), and the other 7 from the sessions that also produced one classic tune for Giant Steps ("Naima", December 1959).

As you would expect, the album has a transitional feel, fitting in between its better known neighbors. While most of the performances are very good, few of them have the bracing impact of the best Coltrane Atlantics and I wouldn't put this one in the first tier. (My personal favorites are Coltrane's Sound, Coltrane Plays the Blues, and Giant Steps.) "Village Blues" was most listeners' first taste of the McCoy Tyner and Elvin Jones rhythm section, and sounds similar to another minor blues recorded around the same date ("Equinox", on Coltrane's Sound).

The 1959 tunes are divided between more traditional, conservative tunes and more radical experimentation, all with the great Wynton Kelly/Paul Chambers/Jimmy Cobb rhythm section as backup. The best of the experimental tracks is "Fifth House", based on Tad Dameron's "Hot House". Like "My Favorite Things", "Ole" and many other noteworthy performances, Coltrane spends much of his time improvising intensely on one vamp. "Harmonique" is another interesting tune -- Coltrane incorporates saxophone multiphonics (playing more than one note at a time) into the song's melody, providing an exotic sound. I feel the song is hamstrung a bit by the more traditional rhythm section, which sounds a little too tight. Out of the more straightforward tracks, "Some Other Blues" is a very nice preview of the Coltrane Plays the Blues album (even if it doesn't quite match the heights of that album); "Like Sonny" is a very catchy tune that combines Latin and straight-ahead rhythms; "I'll Wait and Pray" is a beautiful if not quite top-of-the-line Trane ballad performance; and "Little Old Lady" and "My Shining Hour" are two nice bouncy performances.

As far as the bonus tracks, the most interesting are two takes of "Like Sonny" from the March 1959 (pre-Giant Steps) session. Lex Humphries and Cedar Walton (I think) replace Cobb and Kelly, making the rhythm section a little more beboppish.

If you like Giant Steps, Coltrane's Sound, and My Favorite Things, Coltrane Jazz is definitely worth picking it up, though it probably isn't the most essential of the Coltrane Atlantics.

Many of the songs on this extraordinary album were recorded during the "Giant Steps" sessions, a landmark CD that often unfairly overshadows this record. It's innocuous title, "Coltrane Jazz," causes many to overlook it, but don't fall into the same trap. I've been listening constantly to this CD for the past three or four months and I cannot take it off my playlist. It is phenomenally beautiful music. It lasts and lasts and lasts!

There's interesting stuff on this CD but it doesn't grab me that much. The best cuts are Village Blues (with his mainstay quartet), Fifth House, Harmonique (uses a lot of harmonics on this one, hence the name), and Like Sonny. I think the first track Little Old Lady was just a bad track to open this CD with, it's weirdly conservative for Coltrane, even when compared to his Prestige material. I can't give it 5 stars because it is not as intriguing as some of his other Atlantic stuff like Giant Steps, Ole, Favorite Things, or even Bags and Trane. It's worth owning but it won't blow you away either. Maybe after a few more listens it will get to me?

This is a bit of a marking-time effort, with Trane scaling back his approach in some places, even covering a cutesy Hoagy Carmichael tune ("Little Old Lady") which is the only weak song in the batch - the other two covers, a heartfelt take on "My Shining Hour" that is justly one of Coltrane's most acclaimed performances; and "I'll Wait and Pray", almost a distant cousin to "Naima" - are much better; and the bebop "Some Other Blues", a good song that recalls elements of his tenure with Miles Davis; the classic "Like Sonny" has him refining his "sheets-of-sound" technique and allowing Paul Chambers to play a lengthy, memorable bass solo. Other songs show him pushing the envelope further, with him experimenting with Asian modes on "Fifth House", arguably the best track on the album; playing multiple notes at once on the European-sounding "Harmonique". I think "Village Blues" has a proto-free jazz sound, though to be honest I don't find that song all that memorable. This isn't as experimental or diverse as my favorites from the Atlantic years - Giant Steps, My Favorite Things and Coltrane's Sound - but it's a very heartfelt, accessible album.

This review is for the Rhino 180Gram Vinyl (June 21, 2010) Label: Atlantic (ASIN: B003AYBCDM). This vinyl re-issue is very quiet (as far as surface noise) and has very "warm" analog sound to it. Very nice addition to any audiophiles record collection. Very nice release from RHINO...looking forward to others in the John Coltrane series.

At this stage in his career, John Coltrane seemed to have a direct link between the emotion he clearly felt and the music through which he was so well able to express it. A glorious combination of fabulous technique and fine compositions developed of course through improvisation of a high order. The tunes have a very strong character and a distinct sound, quite apart from serving as the most fertile of ground for the improvisation through which he was able to develop the particular emotional impetus of each one. The balance between the three elements of composition, sound and improvisation is a clear quality in this extraordinary music, yet Coltrane still swings, avoiding the overt practiced professorialism I detect in some of his work, for example with Thelonius Monk a couple of years before. Whilst perhaps not coming over as a musical monument like that feat of terpsichorean architecture Giant Steps, which seems to me to exemplify for the first time the full logical and inevitable product of the artist's use of his ideas and technique, opening up a channel for the torrent of expression he needed so desperately to release, this record has great subtlety, variety and wit. I like it very much, and you'd go a long way to find a better, before or since.

While the posthumous Like Sonny is the first commercial release to include a Coltrane line-up with pianist McCoy Tyner, Coltrane Jazz is the first "official" release in the saxophonist's cannon to do so.

Recorded in '59 and '60, but released in 1961, Coltrane Jazz is Trane's second record under his Atlantic contract (which soon enough would morph into his epochal deal with Impulse!). These recordings are the first that came out in his lifetime to feature the initial versions of his classic quarter: Trane, Paul Chambers, Tyner and Elvin Jones. There were other line-ups on individual tracks but it is "Village Blues", with Tyner, Jones and bassist Steve Davis that stands out.

Coming after his innovative Atlantic debut Giant Steps, the worst that can be said of the music on Coltrane Jazz is that it is extremely solid, bluesy bop. A landmark recording for most any other musician is a fine transitional record for Trane.