Customer Reviews

First Meditations

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Somewhere lost between the avant-garde adulation of "Ascension" and the historic praise of "Love Supreme" is this forgotten gem.Maybe it's posthumous release or the dreadful cover art has kept it from wider acceptance. At once raging,tender, and abstract it contains some of the Classic Quartets finest moments. If for no other reason, a must-buy just for the album opener "Love"... Truly one of Trane's most beautiful performances and one of those rare moments in music... when all heaven breaks loose.

The fact that an album like this wasn't released until several years after Coltrane's death speaks volumes about his productivity. To my knowledge, this 1965 set was the final studio recording by the Coltrane/Tyner/Jones/Garrison quartet, widely regarded as one of the greatest groups in all of jazz history.

"First Meditations" is a quartet version of Coltrane's "Meditations" suite. The better-known sextet version with Pharoah Sanders and Rasheed Ali is ferociously intense and dissonant, enough to scare a Coltrane novice away for good. The quartet version on this recording is nearly as impassioned, but thoroughly enjoyable to any fan of the classic quartet. If you enjoy "A Love Supreme", check this one out - more than any other recording, "First Meditations" is the sequel.

Coltrane was in transition when he recorded this version of Meditations. The album was only released in the 1970s. Although Trane's style is beyond A Love Supreme, it has not yet crossed the boundary to his full later style. Listen to the way his soloing on "Love" slowly ascends to an improvisation of pure sound, screaming atonally. These steps to a fully free style are only tentative, however.

THis is also the last album recorded by the classic quartet that had faithfully served Trane (in one form or another) since about 1960. There is definitely strain between Trane and his less enthusiastic pianist, Tyner. Tyner seems determined to hold back Coltrane's music and somehow make it fit into classic music theory. When Coltrane begins screeching, Tyner frantically plays louder and more severely, trying to catch the leader's stratospheric ambition in the gravity of classic harmony.

Nevertheless, the music is incredibly beautiful. The tune "Compassion" may be my favourite, with a music theme that might represent the heartbeat of God. "Joy" is very fierce and uplifting; "Love" is strangely angst-ridden.

In November 1965, John Coltrane recorded a classic free jazz suite called Meditations. In addition to the saxophonist's longstanding quartet, made up of Jimmy Garrison (bass), McCoy Tyner (piano) and Elvin Jones (drums), Coltrane also brought in a second drummer, Rashied Ali, and the visionary saxophonist Pharoah Sanders, whose love of honked and overblown notes contrasted with Coltrane's more traditional timbres.

But Coltrane had in fact recorded elements of this suite two months before in a pure quartet format, and that's what we hear in FIRST MEDITATIONS, which came to light long after his death. "Joy", here in two takes, is a composition missing entirely from MEDITATIONS, but the other tracks have some interesting differences from the later recording. It's all in all a more sedate affair. Without the twin saxophones driving him on, Tyner's playing in "Compassion" is almost classically balanced. Garrison gets a much more substantial solo (the second take of "Joy") than in the final version.

I have to admit, I find MEDITATIONS such an amazing album that I can't help but view this as a rough draft. However, for those who find the hyperbolic free jazz of MEDITATIONS too much to handle, this is the record to go to after A LOVE SUPREME and may help in breaking into the late style.

I have only had this cd for about two weeks, but it has been enough for me to realize how truly wonderful it is! I have already listened to it quite a few times. It is immensely beautiful and at the same time haunting. "Love" is Trane trilling away over a wash of sound, "Compassion" is solemn but wonderful and "Joy" is a suspended-chord romp that is nearly danceable! All in all, I think First Meditations is a wonderful album, one of the best the Classic Quartet ever recorded and definitely as good if not better than "A Love Supreme." (Which was recorded 9 months before.) This album is definitely magical, and it proved to me that Coltrane definitely one of the most gifted musicians to ever have lived. This album showcases him from 3 standpoints: improviser, composer and leader. Not many other albums of his have done that. That only adds to the beauty of this album. I would even recomend this as a first buy for a novice Coltrane fan. Challenging, but not enough to ruin the enjoyment. I haven't heard the original version of "Meditations" yet (with Rashied Ali and Pharoah Sanders) but this is a great choice if it is too much for you. (From what I have heard, it is very hard to listen to, and may even scare away novices.)

If you agree to Albert Murray's definition of the blues as the music used by African Americans to drive away the blues (who come down like "great big showers of rain") - than this is blues at its best.
Performed in 1965, the year Malcolm X was murdered, when the realities of American life were a little bit too much for everyone, let alone a sensitive soul such as Coltrane's - the music is certainly an attempt to pierce in reality, to reach for a better world.
Coltrane's tenor sound is as strong as ever, and his playing is inspired and driven. Later he would take this direction and further explore it with Rashid Ali, Pharoah Sanders, and his wife Alice. There is a tension here created by the fact that Coltrane was going in a direction that was not totally shared by Tyner and Elvin Jones. It did limit Coltrane if you compare it with his later works - but why compare ?
All track are inspired - and Coltrane makes sure every sound he plays is meaningful. Tyner, Garrison and Jones follow his lead - and whatever differences they in dierction - only make for great music.
This is spiritual music by an exploring musician, a spiritual leader, who plays at the top of his form, concerned only with his own creative process (in the group context).
If you want to enrich the spiritual journey you are taking - try it - as it certainly enriched mine.

If you can handle dissonance, or if you are simply feeling adventurous, grab this CD. If you are not comfortable with 1960's avant garde jazz, then you will need to listen to it a few times. Once you get in touch with what the musicians are doing, this music will overwhelm you with its power and beauty. It's simply one of the most staggeringly beautiful pieces of music that I've ever heard. I think that it would be tragic to have lived one's life without listening to this music. Really.

Greg Cornelius says here in his review of this record "all heaven breaks loose"! I wish I had written that! What a perfect description of this record! Bravo to you Greg Cornelius! Impulse should really make this and Meditations a two c.d. set, so you can compare and contrast them, I love them both so don't ask me which is better, but I do lean towards the later version just because I am a Pharoah Sanders Junkie. But both versions are essential. Great great beautiful record, one that everyone needs to hear. But that cover art just doesn't suit the mood at all, come on now, think Gaudi's Sagrada Familia at Twilight instead. Yet another flawless piece of music from the master.

I think first meditations is an underrated and overlooked album. Many people think it is not good because it wasn't released until 12 years after it was recorded.(Recorded in 1965 released in 1977)It was technically the last album made in the studio by the classic quartet.If you think it's a rip off of Meditations it's not they have some of the same songs but this is not in free form like Meditations.

When I listen to this album, it doesn't seem to sit right. The performances are excellent and the compositions are great. It seems to be missing something. This version seems to be more for Tyner and Jones while the later (originally released) version is more Trane's conception of this music. I am assuming that is why he shelved this version and rerecorded the music. This version lacks the total abandonment of Trane's best and most spiritual works such as A Love Supreme and the quintet version of Meditations.

That said, I do listen to this one often to contrast the quintet version. This is still an essential purchase for true fans.