Customer Reviews

Lush Life (Reis)

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

 

 

I noticed this Coltrane Album was not reviewed. Coltrane infuses the title track, Lush Life with sweet tender beauty. Both raw and refined, it is a masterful outpouring of love that meshes soul and sound into a moment of artistic genesis. The rest of the album is great as well. I think it's one of Coltrane's best, though of course, there are many beautiful Coltrane albums. but this one is unusually gripping for it's sweet intensity. In film they call such an overlooked gem, a Sleeper.

This is an early offering by Coltrane. He plays with a variety of sidemen (no piano on "Someone in Love" for example), and doesn't yet play "sheets of sound", but this album is definately 'Trane.

He's a little more lyrical here, not in as much a hurry. He also plays some standards, such as "I Love You", rather than all originals.

The highlight of the album is the title track. In fact, this may be the defining recording of Lush Life. Unlike the other tracks, 'Trane has a foil in Donald Byrd on trumpet, and the two play beautifully together. It's also an opportunity for some extended improvisation, as the track is over 10 minutes long.

This is a great Coltrane album to start with if you are new to the 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.

Without denying Trane's greatness and importance, I have to confess that not a single one of his albums as a leader is among my favourite recordings. I mean, there's great Coltrane moments scattered around on albums under Miles' leadership, or Red Garland's, and many of Trane's albums have individual tracks I adore, e.g., the title cut on the album Ole. But none of his albums adds up. Take Lush Life, for instance (which, admittedly, was a sort of Prestige Records odds-and-sods of leftovers, cobbled together to capitalise on Trane's "My Favourite Things" fame on Atlantic Records). This album comes as close to being my favourite among Trane's pre-Atlantic work, but each of its tracks almost serves as an answer to all of Trane's critics. You've got an almost unrecognisable cover of Cole Porter's "I Love You," which is utterly magisterial and unsentimental but also lacking in all of the traditional jazz virtues, like swing or melody. But then the album's closer, "I Hear a Rhapsody" swings like mad. Or, you've got "Like Someone In Love", which couldn't be more unlike Sonny Rollins' pianoless trio recordings, as Trane is clearly uninterested in the tune and very much interested in exploring the harmonics of it. But then you have this justifiably famous version of "Lush Life" on which all of the soloists (Trane, Garland, a particulary fine Donald Byrd) are VERY MUCH aware of the intricate melody all the way through, to stunning and fascinating effect. Ironically, the greatest cut on the album Lush Life may actually be "Trane's Slo Blues," where you can almost feel everyone easing up and releasing the tension on familiar blues turf. (It's the only place on the album that Coltrane doesn't seem to be playing through clenched teeth.) On this brilliant piece, Trane proceeds to do this fascinating, cerebral exploration of the blues that is also infused with passion. It anticipates the great things Booker Ervin would go on to do in the same vein in the 1960s. So, there you go, all of the contradictions of Coltrane, united by that commanding sound of his.

3 1/2

LL is undoubtedly a premier collection of 50's saxophone ballads from the up-and-coming horned titan, but lacks the unbounded pulse much of his stronger work possessed and can often, despite potent, if restrained soloing, become mired in standardized predictability.

If you're a Coltrane fan, snatch this up. If you're not a Coltrane fan but are a jazz fan, snatch this up. Either way you win. Unless you're not a jazz fan, of course. Then you should spontaneously combust, because you don't like jazz. No, I'm kidding, if you don't like jazz that's your thing. This is a pretty traditionalist effort, really. Coltrane had yet to truly develop the "sheets of sound" technique, and was far away from creating the infamous "fire music". But I really enjoy traditionalist jazz, and this is a great example of it. Especially the lengthy, emotional title track, where Coltrane really hits in the gut. Furthermore, "I Love You" has an interesting melody that twists around Indian intonations for the first time in Coltrane's career; and "Like Being in Love" has some stellar playing from the leader. These songs are all on the lush, "chill" side of things, but this is not a one-sided album at all. There are also a couple considerably bluesy songs here. I like "Trane's Slow Blues" a lot. It's the only original here, but it's fantastic. "I Hear a Rhapsody" is pretty good too, though it's easily the weakest song on the album. On a whole, Lush Life does not at all match up to the later heights Coltrane would hit - in fact, it would only take a year or two for him to outdo it with Giant Steps. But it's still an undeniably great album.

This is a great recording from the 1950s which has lost nothing in the intervening years. It is interesting to hear the seeds of Coltrane's later style in this recording. The pianoless format suits his sound very well. He had a rythmic sense unique to himself, and a beautiful sound.