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20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
An incendiary but poorly-recorded performance, November 23, 2001
This is the last live recording of saxophonist John Coltrane; by the time it was committed to tape, he and his quintet had ventured deep into free jazz territory, alienating many of his original fans and polarizing the jazz world. The music abandoned harmony and pulse, instead consisting of ecstatic and/or frightening solos over a churning rhythmic backdrop offered by drummer Rashied Ali and several percussionists. And Trane's partner in the front line, saxophonist Pharoah Sanders, angered many fans with his harsh style of screams and groans. This performance gives you a taste of that quintet -- sort of. The sound here is really bad, like a below-average bootleg. (Much worse than the Coltrane/Monk recordings from the Five Spot, if you want a point of reference.) It deteriorates as the CD progresses and by "My Favorite Things", the only things you can hear are the horns and Ali's thrashing drums; those instruments are so distorted that Trane's soprano sax reminds me of Little Walter's harmonica on those great Chess recordings! That said, these are better performances than other currently available recordings of this band. (Live in Japan and Live at the Village Vanguard Again, both from 1966.) "Ogunde" is incredible, from Coltrane's anguished reading of the melody to his exploratory solo for the last ten minutes; Alice Coltrane contributes a piano solo -- one of the few places you can hear her on this recording. "My Favorite Things" is similar to other performances of this staple by this group: not many references to the melody, but instead a moaning and busy exploration beginning with a Jimmy Garrison bass solo and culminating with a saxophone duel by Coltrane and Sanders. This is not the first place to start with Coltrane, his Impulse recordings, or his avant-garde music. It is not even the place to start with his 1967 recordings -- Interstellar Space or Stellar Regions are both much more digestible and better-sounding recordings. But once you cut through the cobwebs of awful sound, the power and alien beauty of these performances cannot be denied.
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14 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
What the...?, June 7, 2005
I have never heard any of Coltrane's avant garde stuff - I was driven away by its fearsome reputation for being nothing but random noise. But I was tempted by a cut-price copy of Olatunji Concert of 1967 - Coltrane's last recorded performance.
I tentatively put on My Favorite Things, and settled down to hear an avant garde performance of one of my favourite Coltrane tunes.
As I said before - what the...?
I was first met with a seven minute Jimmy Garrison solo - comfortably familiar, sounding much as he had in 1961. But then...
Since I just heard the music a few minutes ago for the first time, I think I should record my impressions here now. So here goes.
First, I recognised NOTHING. NOTHING at all. Zip. I'm not joking. I thought the Newport performance of MFT from 1965 had been pretty out there. I had also seen the footage of Coltrane's Belgian performance of 1965, which was even more out there. But here??? I can't describe what it was like to hear Trane's soprano shrieking out, and trying desperately to hear the familiar sound of the opening bars...and waiting...and waiting...
Immediately I was plunged into random noise, like listening to static on the radio (an impression heightened by the abominable quality of the sound). The sound was far, far more offensive than I could have anticipated. It was ugly, stressful, musically barren, assaultive.
No beat. No key signature. No melody. No chord progressions. Not even modal scales! Just pure, utter NOISE. My first idea was that you could literally change the titles of the tracks around - Ogunde instead of MFT - and never know the difference.
But after a moment I began to hear tiny, distorted fragments of MFT coming through. I could sense the general spirit of MFT even through the assaultive noise.
I began to be exhilirated by the sound about when I heard the first recogniseable portion of melody - more than eleven whole minutes in! I realised that Coltrane really was keeping the original melody in mind.
The horrid, thunderous noise is not just random. It is as passionate and emotional as any of Coltrane's previous stuff. In fact, with the complete breaking down of musical structure I thought it was even more powerful. I found I could hardly breathe with excitement.
The performance is like watching a thunderstorm, or a bushfire. It's a primitive, crude sound, the sort of music that early people might have played, to drive out evil spirits. I was reminded of the charismatic church when I grew up, all the parishoners speaking in tongues and that indefinable energy surging through the room.
I can't even imagine what this stuff must have sounded like live. At one stage Coltrane leaves the stage (after playing a teeny little fragment of the original tune) and seems to beckon Sanders to come on. The sound of percussion during the pause is absolutely unbelieveable - deafening! - it's literally like hearing the pounding of surf - and then Sanders begins his solo.
Sanders has been criticised for being arrogantly avant-garde in his performances - his playing repetitiously screechy and not very intelligent. But I found his solo very moving. His tenor echoes around the stage. He plays more gently at first, playing fragments of My Favorite Things. He then rises into his famous squeaks and shrieks.
Just before Coltrane comes back in, Sanders amusingly plays the original melody very straight. It is amusing because, having never toured with Coltrane before Trane's avant garde phase, he actually plays the melody more like the original Sound of Music melody than Trane ever did!
Then Coltrane comes back in, and goes into another thunderous solo. At the very end, he seemingly goes back to his old self, playing the old coda ("when the dog bites, when the bee stings...") exactly as before, only now Sanders keeps hooting over it - not exactly an Eric Dolphy.
I have not yet heard Ogunde. I just wanted to comment on what I just heard. I definitely do NOT recommend this disc to everyone. Only get it if you are really prepared for a storm of what is basically random noise.
Unlike most avant garde music, it is not at all cerebral. Quite the reverse. The reason it is hard to listen to is that is is so rawly emotional that there is almost nothing musical in it at all. There is no thought required to disgest this music. Turn off the logical part of the brain, wallow in the sound, and like me you can say "What the...?"
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
mind boggling, earth shattering, November 8, 2002
Never before have I cared to write a review of a CD. Taste is not universal, and generally I prefer to have my own, and let others have theirs (as long as they are justified). But this CD NEEDS to be heard, and I NEED to tell people to listen to it. The Olatunji concert absolutely shattered me in the most beautiful and intense way possible. It redefined jazz for me, reinvigorated my love for it, and ultimately showed me what art looks like in its purest form, devoid of one extraneous ounce of aesthetic packaging. Coltrane took every ounce of himself, and rather than devoting it to a polished sound, applied every bit of it to the feeling behind that sound. This is artistic purity like I have never before seen. Still, many people will get a headache from this. Shoot, sometimes I get a headache from it, but a headache like one I would get from reading a philosophy text and repeatedly having my brain stretched out...the absolute best kind of headache. This record changed me, and even if you don't "enjoy" it on a listening level (I personally do) you must still try to recognize how much there is to be learned from this, not necessarily in music, but in life and art in general. As for the recording, yeah, it's a bit shoddy, but I tend to like the noisy overdriven intensity it produces. Like the music, it bypasses capturing the sound and captures the feeling of it all, which is what it's all about in the first place, isn't it? good luck...
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