Customer Reviews

Dakar

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

 

 

a fairly fascinating Coltrane album on the Prestige label. what's most interesting to hear on Dakar is the line up of 3 saxes...Coltrane on tenor (natch') and Cecil Payne and Pepper Adams on baritone. there are plenty of cool moments (the delightful title track and the smooth careen of Route 4). this is certainly not the ultimate Coltrane disc and not the best of the Prestige output (my money's on the stellar Black Pearls album for that honour) but this is a great album full of solid playing and memorable performances.

this fine set from april, 1957 has two baritone saxophone players joining up with coltrane's tenor. cecil payne and pepper adams deliver fine performances on an album that is quite conventional when compared with what was soon to come from john coltrane. nevertheless, mr trane hits many a moment of intensity here, and fans of his later work should enjoy this release just fine. the excellent piano man mal waldron is on board, too. it's a session that is well worth having.

Heard this album once and never turned back. The sheer intensity, the swing, the drive and the musicality of all the tracks opened up and whole new world of music.

All of Coltrane's Prestige catalog, while not so much influenced by the Eastern sounds that would later envelop his music, is wonderful. You get to hear Trane in a more traditional setting somewhere between his work with Miles (in fact he was still with Miles when this stuff was recorded) and his first steps (ha pun not intended) away from more traditional tunes on the Atlantic label. Now, there are 11 CDs that make up this catalog (Trane as a leader on Prestige). You do the math. If you buy 'em separately you are going to pay around $125.00. You can get the Fearless Leader box set right here on Amazon for half that price PLUS you get a great guide to all the music Trane recorded as a leader for Prestige, a complete "session-ography", nice picks of all the CD covers including some of those that went through some changes over the year, 45 rpm single covers and so on. It's a very nice package. Buy this if you must but I recommend you save your pennies for a few weeks until you can afford to buy Fearless Leader.Fearless Leader

As an album, this isn't bad at all. The instrumentation is unusual- 2 baritone saxes, (Cecil Payne & Adams), Coltrane on tenor, Waldron on piano and Doug Watkins on bass and Art Taylor on drums. The compositions are actually compositions, not just unison blues lines- 2 by Teddy Charles, 2 by Pepper Adams and one by Mal Waldron- an attempt to produce something other than the standard Prestige blowing session of the time. The downside to this is that a little rehearsal would've tightened things up a little, but since Prestige's Bob Weinstock didn't really believe in rehearsal, or at least he didn't believe in paying for them, there's some sloppiness apparent.

True, this is by no means a Coltrane album, just a sideman appearance by him and a cheesy cash in by Prestige. Apparently a cheesy cash in that has continued to move product so don't expect to see the misattribution corrected anytime soon. Either way, there's still some good music here.

Pity about this oner, it is a Pepper Adams record wrongly reissued by Prestige under Coltrane's name, in a sideman appearance and an average one at that. Great RVG remastering as usual, but still, it's nothing more than a routine date, and the continued use of Coltrane's name as the leader is deceptive and should have been corrected - or in some way handled more honestly by Concord.

This is the first Trane LP I ever owned. Back in '60 I saw it in a record shop window. Then I heard this tenor on late nite (bebop)radio, made a (mental) connection, and bought the record that week. It was Trane, but a different record. He's been here ever since. Dakar uses TWO baritones (Pepper Adams,Cecil Payne) for a deep, afro theme and mood. Cecil opens, swinging, interrupted abruptly by Trane's seriously stated solo. Mal Waldron's 88 is a definate asset here, followed by Pepper's more blustery, bullish sound. The solos, though, are not bad at all. Mary's Blues puts everyone on a more comfortable beat. It also produces Cecil Payne's best solo of the set, although Pepper opens with his own good solo, as does Trane, who follows with some very impressive work. Mal's laid-back piano solo brings on a nice exchange between the horns, before the closing theme. Route 4 has everybody sped up. Doug Watkins and Art Taylor provide plenty of hustle. Cecil handles the theme with backup. The 2 Baritones provide the "Big Band" background for the only ballad, Velvet Scene. Pretty nice solos from Pepper and Trane. High-speed "Witches Pit" has the best theme of the set. Good solos all around lead to some 'fours' between the horns and Taylor before the close. Cat Walk is a cool, breezy theme (a "drummer's delight") with Pepper leading off. Notice Mal's piano work behind Trane here. Cecil gets off a pretty cool solo of his own, as does Mal. All in all, this is a pretty good set. It has a different mood than most straight-up bebop, which is what makes it unique. While Dakar is not the greatest John Coltrane record ever produced, it will grow on you, with memorable (horn) statements that will stick in your brain. You'll be glad you heard it.

I'm relatively new to jazz and bought this album on a whim. I was not disappointed, this is a terrific CD. One listen to the songs on this CD and I was hooked on Coltrane. WOW! I don't know enough to tell you where this album fits into the rest of Coltrane's work or the jazz universe more generally, if you want to know these details you'll have to do more searching on the internet. I can tell you though that all six songs (about 40 minutes total) on this album are outstanding and you'll be listening to them over and over. Highly recommended.

The Art Pepper solos are unforgettable!