Customer Reviews

Fearless Leader

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This set is fantastic on a variety of levels.

1. Performances: While some call Coltrane's Prestige albums "emergent" or "formative", keep in mind that he was already thirty years old, had recently kicked heroin and alcohol, and was finishing his definitive work with Thelonious Monk when he began these sessions. While the settings are more traditional, he was covering a ton of new ground at this point. Volumes have been written about this music, so I won't go on and on. Suffice it to say that there is a lot of fantastic jazz to be found in these Prestige sessions.

2. Sound: Rudy Van Gelder is legendary for a reason. His recording techniques were superb, and benefit greatly from the new 24 bit mastering in this set.

3. Packaging: As the other reviewer noted, there must have been a typo in the Amazon reviewer's use of the term "subpar". The six CDs are packaged in a beautiful box, an extremely informative booklet includes excellent analysis by Lewis Porter, autor of the definitive Coltrane biography "John Coltrane, His Life and Music", and concludes the cover art and original liner notes from each of the albums represented in this box.

4. Value: Earlier CD versions of all 11 original albums included in this box are still available individually, often at prices of $11.95 a piece or higher. That's $132 for older versions lacking the 24 bit mastering and excellent booklet.... makes the decision easy when Amazon's price for the box is $53.99, and some Amazon partners have it even cheaper.

All in all, this is not one to pass up.
Highly recommended.

John Coltrane is one of the most revered figures in jazz. Almost forty years after his death at the age of 40, his legacy transcends the genre and continues to grow. As a result his discography as both a leader and sideman has been scrutinized and commercialized like few others except for perhaps Miles Davis and Charlie Parker.
The recently released six-CD set "Fearless Leader" on Prestige, gathers nine sessions recorded between May 31, 1957 and December 26, 1958. From these sessions the label fashioned a total of eleven LPs, including his first as a leader, the aptly titled "Coltrane."
The saxophonist's tenure at Prestige was also the subject of a recently discontinued 16-CD set that included everything except his work with Miles Davis' quintet. Whereas that set was clearly geared towards the completist, "Fearless Leader" is sure to have a much broader appeal, not just from a price standpoint. The benefit of a narrower scope enables the set to paint a much more concise, almost linear portrait of Coltrane's first phase of artistic and instrumental development.
Presenting the tunes in chronological order, the programming of the original LPs is sacrificed. However, the accompanying 60-page booklet includes photos of the original LP art and essays about each. It also cross-references the discs and tracks so that listeners can replicate the original LP sequences.
Comprised of ballads, blues, and the post-bop which defined the era, Coltrane's instrumental ferocity which ultimately manifested itself in his "sheets of sound" style moves to the fore. Cast in group settings that range from a pianoless trio to sextet, roughly half of the tunes find Coltrane at the helm of a quintet with a trumpet sharing duty on the front-line. Here we hear him mix it up with a young Freddie Hubbard on three ballads, Donald Byrd on eight tunes, and the lesser known and underrated Wilbur Hardin and Johhny Splawn on eight and four tracks respectively.
Those not familiar with this somewhat "overlooked" period will find "Fearless Leader" an excellent means for becoming better versed in what preceded Coltrane's subsequent and more celebrated Atlantic and Impulse affiliations.
Two additional Prestige Coltrane boxes are slated for future release. One will focus on his work as a sideman, while the other will cull the numerous all-star blowing sessions in which he participated.

During the late 1950's I was a college student going through the usual college age angst. I was also music director of WLR and WLRN at Lehigh University in Bethlehem PA, the rare college station which was fully-provided with sample of all Prestige and Blue Note records. I had a late jazz night radio show "NightSounds" and played the classic records of John Coltrane, Miles and others every night from 12-2 AM. When I was depressed, I would play these very records by John Coltrane and get lost in their unique beauty. Later in 1965, I got to see John Coltrane play a matinee at The Showboat with his '60s quintet. I walked in and he was playing "My Favorite Things" and two hours later I walked out he was playing the same song but his sound was too advanced for me to identify with. It took my mind a decade to catch up with him. But these records touch my sould to this day and I play them still. These are the best of his '50s recording. The presence of Red Garland's bluesy piano, Freddie Hubbard's trumpet, Paul Chambers amazing bass and Art Taylor and Philly Joe Jones on drums adds depth to this music that will never be lost. Buy This set and play it late at night or in your car.

The late 50's leading into the 60's was a fertile period leading up to historic breakthroughs in the evolution of jazz as an art form. In Fearless Leader we have a collection containing all of the Prestige sessions, presented in chronological order that document the development of John Coltrane as a leader when his talent was heating up like water just ready to boil. Having kicked a drug habit that caused Miles Davis to fire him from his quintet, Coltrane was on a spiritual and artistic journey that would have a profound influence on all jazz musicians that came after him. Coltrane was already accomplished as a player, but drug addiction had prevented him from reaching his full potential. Prestige records was wise enough to recognize some of that potential and signed Coltrane to a recording contract, both as a sideman and a leader.

Of the nine session dates, one that I find the most thrilling was January 10th, 1958 with Donald Byrd on trumpet, Red Garland on piano, Paul Chambers on bass and Louis Hayes on drums. It is nice to hear the session in its entirety; originally the tunes were spread out of three different releases: The Last Trane, Lush Life and The Believer. This was an incredible session, the rhythm section solid and swinging, Byrd and Coltrane blowing like crazy. Listening to them swapping fours with Hayes on "Lover" is quite a treat. The ballads are heartfelt, including the best saxophone interpretation of Stayhorn's "Lush Life" that I've ever heard.

Even for a fan who has several of the original releases, this remastered set offers a complete picture of Coltrane taking charge. Fearless Leader containes a 64-page booklet with photos, extensive notes, details of the sessions and all of the original liner notes. Any Coltrane fan who hasn't heard these should. If you love Coltrane from the Miles Davis quintet, Blue Trane, or Giant Steps, you'll love this set.

Listen: This is a great, great box set. If you are like me (a musician) who wants to learn everything there is to learn about the greatest music ever played by Americans then you need to hear this stuff. I have a real passion for the music of Miles and Trane, I want to hear and understand ALL of it.

Now Trane's career can be a tad confusing to some, especially those just getting to know the man's music. It's easy to pick something up that you just aren't ready for yet. Many think that Trane was... not quite up to the intensity he is/was know for when he was recording for Prestige. That's sheer nonsense. In fact, it was during 1958, when these recordings were made, that Ira Gitler coined the term 'sheets of sound' to describe Coltrane's approach to playing. That same searching, desperate, blues-filled, penetrating sound is all over these discs. This is Trane recording as a leader during 1957 and 1958 - the same time he was just moving out of Monk's quartet and going back to Miles' band (now a sextet) and all the incredible music that group released like "Milestones" and "Kind of Blue". The music is mostly classics, standards, and covers but there are also several original compositions included in this body of work.

To be sure, Trane hadn't quite escaped the gravitational pull of the earth and tradition but his playing on this box set is awe-inspiring and jaw dropping none-the-less.

In the boxset, you get Trane's entire 11 album Prestige catalog for the sessions where he was the leader. Note that there are Prestige CDs out there that bear the Coltrane name where Trane was really a side man - but this box set does not include any of that material - you find that stuff on the Interplay boxset.

The boxset is beautifully packaged. The 68 page booklet is full of photos of Trane and all the accompanying players including Freddie Hubbard (this boxset includes the very first session Freddie Hubbard was ever involved in), Paul Chambers, Red Garland, Donald Byrd, Jimmy Cobb, Mal Waldron, and many other "known" stars from that era. There are also shots of all of the original Lp sleeves, a session-ography that cross references the tunes recorded on each date with the Lp they were originally released on.

Personally, I think the price is a real steal here at Amazon (though I did manage to get lucky and score a new copy for about 1/3 less on that auction site we all know about).

If you are a big fan of John Coltrane or a student of the man's career, you are going to want to pick this up. You cannot understand Trane's career without studying this this music. It's all great stuff!

I'm guessing that the Amazon reviewer had a spell check problem, as the packaging for this set is hardly subpar. It's absolutely beautiful. The tri-folding "box" contains a 60+ page color booklet (in its own sleeve) with incredible photos (many I have never seen before), a highly detailed sessionography, reproductions of the front AND back of all of the albums (with the original liners transcribed), shots of the original LP labels, single and EP sleeves from around the world, original catalog numbers and release dates, multiple interesting and insightful essays... How all of that equals "subpar" is beyond this owner. Heck, the packaging ITSELF deserves 5 stars. Add in that the music is transcending and essential and this box proves to be a must own for any Coltrane lover, any jazz lover and any music lover. I, for one, CAN NOT WAIT for the next two installments of the series.

I owned all these discs/sessions before buying this box. Most of the 11 album/cd's offered here in a compact 6 disc package had not been remastered since the late 80's or early 90's. SOULTRANE, COLTRANE and LUSHLIFE being the exception. These have been remastered and reissued numerous times in the last 15 years including on SACD. The sound is pretty excellent through out with a few annoying overloads here and there creating distortion. The 6 discs are sequenced in order of session and date. It was interesting to find out that these sessions were edited or pieced together over 8(?) years into the 11 albums. If you listen to the box set in order you will see why these sessions were sliced and diced to make the original album releases. The last 2 discs in the box set are very slow tempo, bluesy, ballady. Too much of that puts me to sleep. So, some of these tracks were combined with uptempo numbers from other sessions to make more rounded programming, or albums. I would have preferred the songs on the discs to be in order of album sequencing with whole albums, two would have fit nicely, on each disc. There was a reason the producer and record company sequenced the origianl albums the way they did and that's the way until now I always heard them and to hear it any other way is disconcerting.

Having said all that, this is an excellent package with excellent sound quality. Most folks considering this box probably only have the 3 most popular album titles mentioned above. The other 8 are redone here for the first time in a long time and the results are stunning. Even if you have all 11 of these titles, you don't have them sounding this good unless you have this box.

Another interesting fact that I did not remember is that most of these sessions feature John Coltrane and Red Garland. Donald Byrd and Arthur Taylor are also prominently featured. If you want to hear more of the same music from almost the same exact time period with almost the same exact players, check out the four Red Garland Quintet sides with John Coltrane and the five Miles Davis Quintet sides w/Red and John (recently reissued in a box set).

Length:: 2:33 Mins

This video was created with a Flip camcorder. It is a first time experiment and not being offered as a professional production. Thanks.

John Coltrane was a musical giant. Few jazzmen in the second half of the 20th century achieved the stature or had as much influence as he did. His 1960s output for the Atlantic and Impulse! labels was as important as any musician's catalog in any genre. Giant Steps, My Favorite Things and A Love Supreme rank at the top of anyone's listing of the jazz canon.

But prior to those landmark recordings, John Coltrane had built a reputation as a sideman during the 1950s, most prominently as an on-and-off sideman with Miles Davis in the latter half of the decade, culminating in the legendary Kind of Blue sessions in 1959. The following year he put together his own quartet and spent the rest of his life (he died in 1967) pushing the boundaries to unimagined places.

While working with Miles, and during one of those off-again periods with Thelonious Monk, Trane began making records as a leader for Prestige Records. From May, 1957, until the day after Christmas, 1958, he led nine different recording sessions yielding a treasure trove of music that would be issued by Prestige in various LP incarnations into the mid-`60s. Every one of those tracks has been collected in the new 6-disc box set, Fearless Leader. It's a remarkable statement.

Having kicked a heroin addiction in the month preceding the first session included here, Coltrane had a new lease on life. Getting the monkey off his back led to what he would later describe as a "spiritual awakening," and his saxophone playing took on a deeper intensity. This set documents the beginnings of what jazz critic Ira Gitler dubbed his "sheets of sound" style--he sounded like a man possessed, loading up his solos with storms of notes, building to multiple climaxes with power and authority. If you've ever wondered what all the fuss about John Coltrane or jazz in general is about, this set offers ample evidence.

The informative, well annotated booklet notes that Prestige Records owner Bob Weinstock prodded his musicians to record just one take of each tune, both to save money and to promote spontaneity in the playing. This practice produced recording dates that captured the freshness and free-wheeling excitement of unrehearsed jam sessions. Coltrane is heard in a variety of settings, from a basic sax/bass/drums trio to quintet and sextet lineups with additional horns. Albums like Soultrane, Lush Life and Traneing In were the result, and sidemen included a very young Freddie Hubbard (his second time in a studio), Donald Byrd, Red Garland, Paul Chambers and Jimmy Cobb.

Originally published in Port Folio Weekly, 11/21/06
copyright © 2006 Jim Newsom/Port Folio Weekly. All Rights Reserved. Used by Permission.

What a treat it is to have all of these early Trane recordings in a convenient 6 disc box and in RVG remastered form. Thankfully I only already owned a couple of the albums included here, so it was still a bargain. While I love everything he recorded up to about 1964 (I don't much care for his later Impulse! work after "A Love Supreme"), it is these and those with Miles Davis that I find myself coming back to the most. The supporting artists on most of the tracks are the excellent Red Garland, Paul Chambers and Arthur Taylor, with appearances by other greats such as Freddie Hubbard, Donald Byrd, and Jimmy Cobb. Also included is a nice 60 page booklet with all the original album info, artist bios, and other interesting facts. A must for any Coltrane fan, and for those only familiar with his Atlantic and Impulse! recordings, you are in for a wonderful surprise.