Afro Blue Impressions

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Afro Blue Impressions
Live album by John Coltrane

Publication
(s)

1977

admission

1963

Label (s) Pablo

Format (s)

2 LP, 2 CD

Genre (s)

jazz

Title (number)

9

running time

45: 22/50: 06

occupation

production

Norman Granz

Studio (s)

Live ( Berlin , Stockholm )

chronology
Newport '63
(1963) 		Afro Blue Impressions Crescent
(1964)

Afro Blue Impressions is a jazz album by John Coltrane , recorded with two appearances in Europe in Berlin and Stockholm on April 11 and October 22, 1963 and released in 1977 on Pablo Records . For the fiftieth anniversary of the recording in 2013, the album, supplemented by three previously unreleased tracks, was re-released on Concord Records ; for their liner notes received Neil Tesser a Grammy .

The album

From 1961 to 1963, Norman Granz , who organized the European tours for Coltrane, recorded a total of 37 tracks at Coltrane's live performances, which initially remained unpublished (such as a performance by the Coltrane band in Hamburg in 1961 , with Eric Dolphy as a guest musician). Norman Granz finally published many of the recordings in the mid-1970s on his newly founded Pablo label, on which the Coltrane albums The Paris Concert , The European Tour and Bye Bye Blackbird from November 1962 were released. The material for the double album Afro Blue Impressions , released in 1977, came from two concert recordings . Most of the pieces, well-known titles from Coltrane's repertoire at the time, such as "Lonnie's Lament", " Naima ", "Chasin 'the Trane", " My Favorite Things ", "Afro Blue", "Cousin Mary" and "I Want to Talk About You." “Were recorded as part of the Berlin Jazz Days in the Auditorium Maximum of the Free University in West Berlin. The tracks "Spiritual" and "Impressions" were recorded at a concert in Stockholm on October 22, 1963.

“Lonnie's Lament” is largely a duo of Coltrane and Elvin Jones; Coltrane's biographers Filtgen and Auserbauer describe it as the most successful piece on the record. The following ballad “Naima” contains a longer, initially atmospheric solo by McCoy Tyner, until gradually the trio play is condensed and Coltrane returns with his forced, freer playing. "Chasin 'the Trane", played for the first time in 1961 (heard on Coltrane "Live" at the Village Vanguard ), is performed here in a considerably shorter form. In the Coltrane classic from 1960, the 20-minute "My Favorite Things", the saxophonist expands his improvisation accordingly. Tyner begins with a powerful solo game, in which Coltrane immediately joins the soprano. After about five minutes, Tyner returns with a powerful, longer solo, then Coltrane begins his second solo. “Afro Blue”, composed by Mongo Santamaría , the first piece of the second LP / CD is strongly reminiscent of “My Favorite Things” due to its performance on the soprano; it differs little from the version on the Impulse album Live at Birdland ; the following interpretation of “Cousin Mary”, however, stands out from the original version recorded in 1959 for Giant Steps because of its freer play . The thematic introduction is followed by a longer piano solo by Tyner. Coltrane enters the game condensed by Garrison and Jones with a longer solo, which he intensifies with overblowing techniques, before returning briefly to the topic at the end. The Billy Eckstine ballad "I Want to Talk About You" played Coltrane for the first time on his Prestige album Soultrane a 1958th As in “Naima”, Coltrane shows masterful mastery of ballad play.

The last two pieces, "Spiritual" and "Impressions", do not offer much new in the opinion of Filtgen and Auserbauer compared to the previous versions at the Village Vanguard concerts in November 1961 .

Rating of the album

Richard Cook and Brian Morton, who gave the album the highest rating in their Penguin Guide to Jazz , describe it as one of the saxophonist's most recommendable live albums, as it is one of the most meticulous productions outside the series of albums that Coltrane for this phase Impulses! Recorded records . With “Lonnie's Lament” the album gives a foretaste of the Crescent album, which was created in April and June 1964. John Coltrane's solos in “Spiritual” and “I Want to Talk About You” are exceptional, the rest of the recordings are almost essential. Garrison plays powerfully in "Lonnie's Lament".

The titles

Elvin Jones (1977)
  • John Coltrane Quartet - Afro Blue Impressions (Pablo Live 2620101)

CD 1

  1. Lonnie's Lament (Coltrane) 10:07
  2. Naima (Coltrane) 7:58
  3. Chasin 'the Trane (Coltrane) 5:41
  4. My Favorite Things (Rodgers / Hammerstein) 21:07

CD 2

  1. Afro Blue ( Mongo Santamaría ) 7:34
  2. Cousin Mary (Coltrane) 9:54
  3. I Want to Talk About You (Billy Eckstine) 8:15
  4. Spiritual (Coltrane) 12:16
  5. Impressions (Coltrane) 11:30

literature

Notes and individual references

  1. ↑ Expanded edition marks 50th anniversary of original recording dates in JazzTimes July 25, 2013
  2. ↑ Granz had known Coltrane since the time he recorded Johnny Hodges with his band, in which Coltrane also played, for his label Clef Records . See Granz in the Liner Notes .
  3. ↑ All titles were finally published in the 7 CD edition Live Trane: The European Tours (Pablo 84433).
  4. ↑ This goes hand in hand with correspondingly more negative reviews by the authors of similar publications on the Coltrane tours from 1961 to 1963 by record labels such as Charly , Cool & Blue , Moon Natasha or Bandstand , with some overlapping material.
  5. ↑ Quoted from Cook / Morton, 318.