Live Trane: The European Tours [Box set, Live, Original recording remastered]

John Coltrane | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (October 16, 2001)
• Original Release Date: 2001
• Number of Discs: 7
• Format: Box set, Live, Original recording remastered
• Note on Boxed Sets: During shipping, discs in boxed sets occasionally become dislodged without damage. Please examine and play these discs. If you are not completely satisfied, we'll refund or replace your purchase.
• Label: Pablo
• ASIN: B00005OM4L
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (23 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #129,340 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

The music on this seven-CD set was recorded during three European tours, capturing Coltrane live as he was becoming the most compelling, most influential musician in jazz. His working relationships with pianist McCoy Tyner and drummer Elvin Jones were already solidly in place on the 1961 tour, which also had Eric Dolphy on reeds and Reggie Workman on bass. For the '62 and '63 tours, the classic quartet with Tyner, Jones, and bassist Jimmy Garrison had found its form. There are multiple performances of Coltrane's favorite vehicles here, tunes to which he could return nightly with different results: "Impressions," the springboard to some of his most explosive tenor explorations; "My Favorite Things," the soprano signature that could summon floating bliss or coiled intensity; "Mr. P.C.," a rapid-fire trip through his evolving harmonic approaches. There's fascinating contrast, too, between some of the same pieces played by the different bands. The earlier group is more fluid, and it's extraordinary to hear the added stimulus Coltrane gets from Dolphy's cascading invention. There are other gems here as well, like "Lonnie's Lament" and "Spiritual," original anthems that Coltrane imbued with a keening, magisterial power, and the equally beautiful balladry of "I Want to Talk About You."

This is a treasure trove for those who love Coltrane, a fine complement to the Impulse studio and live recordings of the same period. Roughly half of this music, generally the later material, has been available on a series of Pablo CDs. Much of the earlier material has surfaced on bootlegs, usually with very inferior sound and an absence of recording data. Live Trane is the first time this great material has received the treatment it deserves. --Stuart Broomer

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

35 of 35 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Spiritual Pungence on the Razor's Edge, October 11, 2004

By 

Mark E. Farrington (Albany, NY) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Live Trane: The European Tours (Audio CD)

The "Classic" John Coltrane Quartet, 1961 thru '63, live in Paris, Stockholm and West Berlin (in transfers vastly improved from previous issues) and in a more sympathetic setting than their "home base."

Now, it's true that there has been some "flap" between various Coltraneologists and Pablo, over apparently incorrect dates for some of the earlier tracks in this box..."Is it Paris or is it Stockholm?" Three selections, allegedly air-checks from Birdland in NYC (not the European tours) have sound quality that is distinctly inferior to all the other tracks; whatever their origin, they were probably NOT recorded with equipment belonging to Norman Granz (who produced these European tours).

Still, Pablo is to be applauded for 1) negotiating royalties with the Coltrane Estate and the surviving musicians, so that much of this material is legitimately released for the first time, and "de-bootlegged." 2) The SOUND, people, the SOUND of these tracks (at least the ones which have been heard previously) is better than it's ever been...For example, the former "drop-outs" in the Berlin "Favorite Things" are gone- and even those "Birdland" tracks are truly LISTENABLE for the first time.

Dive into this box, and when you come out of it you'll realize what's been lost since 1963: a fresh sense of adventure, somehow married to lucidity...a "phase" which cannot always be sustained in either a society as a whole, or even within the work of any one artist (not even Trane ! ). Certainly, the November 2, 1963 "Favorite Things" is the greatest of all surviving versions, for its poise on the razor's edge of supreme spiritual risk-taking and sweet, almost Greek-classical lucidity...And all this before a series of audiences for whom this combination was as natural as the air they breathed...Such an atmosphere does not and cannot exist, today.

And, of course, you could hardly "do it again" within this idiom. It wasn't just record-company greed and commercial pressure that led Carlos Santana and his generation to funk, fusion, and paths other than acoustic post-bop...Because Trane had very nearly exhausted this idiom, the next generation HAD to explore elsewhere...Nevertheless, Santana and others were emboldened by Trane's risk-taking and "purity of intention" (to borrow a phrase from Thomas Merton, who also loved Coltrane).

By immersing yourself in this 7-CD box, you'll very nearly get it all "back," then forward...I remember when I first took this set home- tired and mentally worn down after a day-from-hell-at-the-office, intending just to sample a few tracks...Within ten minutes, something more than just adrenaline began to kick in..."Holes" were "punched" in my fatigue, the mind began feeling "toned up," and a sense of possibilities began to surface...In about two hours, the wild stream of life was flowing again, and I forgot all about being "worn down"... What (in LETTERS TO OLGA) Vaclav Havel calls Being, turned toward me and I toward Being...Whether or not it sounds "strange," I'll sign off with this : It's in this music, I'm telling you it's HERE.

39 of 42 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Not Essential But Still Great, October 29, 2001

By 

A. Johnston (San Francisco, CA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Live Trane: The European Tours (Audio CD)

This doesn't come close in terms of quality or performance to any of the sets from Impulse but it is nonetheless an important release. I personally enjoy early-60s Coltrane the most so call it a bias. I can't dig the free jazz stuff and the early Prestige material bores me. Early 60s Coltrane was the perfect blend of experimentation and soul with respect for the audience. This is also why I like Miles Davis' 2nd Great Quintet.

This is basically an everything-but-the-kitchen-sink live set from Pablo and likely the last major live set we'll see unless Impulse is sitting on a golden egg. The sound quality ranges from excellent to kinda' muddy in spots but is always enjoyable. Coltrane was a power player and I admire Impulse's way of bringing that out to the fullest with their releases, but I actually like the slight distance of these recordings. That slight murkiness. It adds to the ambience and mystery in my opnion. It's definitely an atmospheric change from the pristine-digital-audio-as-crisp-as-the-wind production of the Impulse stuff. This music is 40 years old! Let me hear at least a little bit of that! Okay, rant off...

The performances here are often stellar (Eric Dolphy's flute solos on the first two versions of My Favorite Things are amazing) and the set offers a decent enough selection of tunes. I actually enjoy the version of Afro Blue found here more than the Live At Birdland take. I could do without some of the tired runs at "Mr. P.C." found here, though.

Ultimately, this is a great set to buy AFTER you have purchased the Villiage Vangard set. If you just have a passing fancy in Coltrane, skip this. If you've listened to everything else and can't get enough, check it out. A warning to collectors: if you already have "Afro Blue Impressions" or any of the other Pablo live cds, think twice as those performances are all featured here. It's the typical box set "upgrade dilemma" folks. I will say that the disc of exclusive material is the best here and features some of Coltrane and Dolphy's best live work.

One thing for those who complain about repetition in the set lists: it's jazz! The title of the song is very often just that - the title. A name. Something to call it on the liner notes. Listen to the solos and stop making it seem like these box sets only feature the same five songs repeated identically five times each. Yes, there are half-a-dozen versions of My Favorite Things here but once the main theme is done, you get a different song each and every time. That's what jazz is all about. If you haven't gotten that by now, stop listening to it.

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Coltrane collectors take caution, October 25, 2001

By 

Dan Plankton (Boston, MA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Live Trane: The European Tours (Audio CD)

This box earns four stars (and should earn five) simply for the quality of the performances. On stage, the classic Coltrane quartet stretched the tunes out, often to more than double the studio length, building to incredible levels of intensity. There's no complaint with the music on this collection--eight hours of Coltrane at arguably his peak. But the record company has been careless (if not blatantly dishonest) with the recording information. The worst example is where they mislabel one set as "Hamburg 1961 (previously unreleased)" when in fact it is a frequently issued 1962 recording from Birdland in NYC. There are other similar errors.