Coltrane (album)

chronology
Coltrane
Studio album by John Coltrane
Publication ; (s)	1962
Label (s)	Impulses!
Format (s)	LP, CD
Genre (s)	jazz
Title (number)	5/7
running time	40:01 (LP) / 47:24 (CD)
occupation	Tenor saxophone / soprano saxophone : John Coltrane ; Piano : McCoy Tyner ; Bass : Jimmy Garrison ; Drums : Elvin Jones ;
production	Bob Thiele
Studio (s)	Rudy Van Gelder Studio, Englewood Cliffs , New Jersey

Coltrane is a jazz album by John Coltrane , recorded in Englewood Cliffs , New Jersey in four sessions from April 11, 1962 to September 18, 1962 and released on Impulse! Records .

The album

The LP, fully titled Coltrane - The John Coltrane Quartet, was the first full studio album by the tenor saxophonist with his classic quartet of McCoy Tyner , Jimmy Garrison and Elvin Jones .

Most of the tracks were written shortly before his collaboration with Duke Ellington ( Duke Ellington & John Coltrane , AS 30) and the recordings for the Ballads album (AS 32), on which Coltrane only recorded standards material in slow and medium tempo . This focus on standards also takes place on the Coltrane album; the only original compositions that appeared on the original LP were “Tunji” and “Miles' Mode”. During the two April and three June sessions, Coltrane recorded more pieces in order to have material to choose from; however, only the title "Big Nick" has survived, as it was on the album "The Definitive Jazz Scene, Vol. One" at the time. When Coltrane recorded two tracks for the Ballads album in September 1962 , “Up 'Gainst the Wall” was also created, which was first published on the Impressions LP (AS 42). The most important track on the album is the 14-minute "Out of This World", a composition by Harold Arlen and Johnny Mercer , which Coltrane should have in his program until his late recordings ( Live in Seattle , 1965). “Driven by the rhythm section, Coltrane plays a solo that becomes more ecstatic from measure to measure, but always reveals the reference to the topic. Tyner's solo is a little quieter, he starts from a few lines that he repeats in constant variations. "

This is followed by the harmoniously refined ballad “Soul Eyes” by the pianist Mal Waldron , with whom Coltrane had worked in his prestige era. The title is a reference less to vocal music than to "soul" as an indicator of "being black" or "black reality", according to the author Brian Priestley . After Tyner's solo, Coltrane's improvisation "almost breaks the harmonic framework, but then surprisingly dissolves again into the theme."

Frank Loesser's composition from 1952, “The Inch Worm” in three-quarter time, written for the film Hans Christian Andersen and the Dancer , is one of the most irritating titles on the album for jazz critics Richard Cook and Brian Morton; Coltrane takes up the soprano saxophone here .

This is followed by the slow blues “Tunji”, dedicated to the African drummer Babatunde Olatunji , with whom Coltrane was friends, then “Miles' Mode” with an extroverted Coltrane. Elvin Jones supports the saxophonist's playing with enormous thrust.

Coltrane dedicated the bonus track "Big Nick" to the saxophonist Big Nick Nicholas . The second bonus track is “Up 'Gainst the Wall” , which is musically and chronologically part of the Coltrane sessions.

Rating of the album

Richard Cook and Brian Morton, who awarded the second highest rating in their Penguin Guide to Jazz , the new edition of the album published in 1997, particularly emphasize the importance of the title "Out of This World". The All Music Guide also gives the album the second highest rating.

Editorial notes

After the single CD edition was expanded in 1997 to include the two tracks "Big Nick" and "Up 'Gainst the Wall", a double CD was released in 2002 with additional material, including the previously lost studio version of "Impressions" (2 takes) , the title "Not Yet" and alternate takes from "Miles' Mode" and "Tunji".

The titles

The original album

John Coltrane Quartet - Coltrane (Impulse AS 21)

Out of This World ( Arlen / Mercer ) 14:01 (June 19, 1962)
Soul Eyes ( Mal Waldron ) 5:23 (June 19, 1962)
The Inch Worm ( Frank Loesser ) 6:15 (April 11, 1962)
Tunji (Coltrane) 6:32 (June 29, 1962)
Miles' Mode (" The Red Planet ") (Coltrane) 7:30 am (June 20, 1962)

The Impulse album should not be confused with the 1957 album of the same name Coltrane (PR 7105), which John Coltrane had excluded for Prestige Records .

Re-release as a single CD

John Coltrane Quartet - Coltrane (Impulse IMP 12152, published 1997)

Out of This World ( Arlen / Mercer ) 14:01 (June 19, 1962)
Soul Eyes ( Mal Waldron ) 5:23 (June 19, 1962)
The Inch Worm ( Frank Loesser ) 6:15 (April 11, 1962)
Tunji (Coltrane) 6:32 (June 29, 1962)
Miles' Mode (" The Red Planet ") (Coltrane) 7:30 am (June 20, 1962)
Big Nick (Bonus track) (Coltrane) 4:04 (Bonus track) (April 11, 1962)
Up 'Gainst the Wall (Coltrane) 3:13 (Bonus track) (September 18, 1962)

Re-release as a double CD

John Coltrane Quartet - Coltrane (Impulse 589567, published 2002)

Disc One

Out of This World ( Harold Arlen , Johnny Mercer ) - 14:04
Soul Eyes ( Mal Waldron ) - 5:25
The Inch Worm ( Frank Loesser ) - 6:14
Tunji (John Coltrane) - 6:32
Miles' Mode (Coltrane) - 7:31

Disc Two

Not Yet ( McCoy Tyner ) - 6:13
Miles' Mode - 7:08
Tunji "- 10:41
Tunji "- 7:55
Tunji "- 7:16
Tunji "- 7:48
Impressions (Coltrane) - 6:32
Impressions - 4:33
Big Nick (Coltrane) - 4:28
Up 'Gainst the Wall (Coltrane) - 3:15

literature

Ian Carr , Digby Fairweather , Brian Priestley : Rough Guide Jazz. The ultimate guide to jazz. 1800 bands and artists from the beginning until today. 2nd, expanded and updated edition. Metzler, Stuttgart / Weimar 2004, ISBN 3-476-01892-X .
Richard Cook , Brian Morton : The Penguin Guide to Jazz on CD . 6th edition. Penguin, London 2002, ISBN 0-14-051521-6 .
Michael Cuscuna , liner notes for the extended new edition 1997.
Gerd Filtgen / Michael Auserbauer: John Coltrane . Oreos, Schaftlach, 1989.

Web link

Coltrane at Allmusic (English)

Notes and individual references

↑ The authorship is unclear, however; some jazz historians name Eric Dolphy as the sole author of this piece.
↑ According to information from Michael Cuscuna 1997, these titles could not be found at this point in time: a new version of Body and Soul , a studio version of "Impressions" and the title "Neptune" (which possibly became "Brasilia"), " Not Yet ”and“ Two, Three, Four ”. See Cuscuna, liner notes 1997.
↑ Quoted from Filtgen / Auserbauer, p. 164.
↑ cit. based on the liner notes of the compilation John Coltrane - In a soulful Mood .
↑ Quoted from Filtgen / Auserbauer, p. 164.
↑ Coltrane picked up this title again five months later when he worked with Duke Ellington.
↑ cit. after Michael Cuscuna.
↑ Before that the CD IMP 254609-2 was released, which only contained Big Nick as a bonus track. See Filtgen, p. 165.
↑ First appeared on the Impulse! Compilation "The Definitive Jazz Scene, Vol. One" (AS-99)
↑ First appeared on the Impulse! Album "Impressions" (AS-42)

[1] The authorship is unclear, however; some jazz historians name Eric Dolphy as the sole author of this piece.

[2] According to information from Michael Cuscuna 1997, these titles could not be found at this point in time: a new version of Body and Soul , a studio version of "Impressions" and the title "Neptune" (which possibly became "Brasilia"), " Not Yet ”and“ Two, Three, Four ”. See Cuscuna, liner notes 1997.

[3] Quoted from Filtgen / Auserbauer, p. 164.

[4] t. based on the liner notes of the compilation John Coltrane - In a soulful Mood .

[5] Quoted from Filtgen / Auserbauer, p. 164.

[6] Coltrane picked up this title again five months later when he worked with Duke Ellington.

[7] t. after Michael Cuscuna.

[8] Before that the CD IMP 254609-2 was released, which only contained Big Nick as a bonus track. See Filtgen, p. 165.

[9] First appeared on the Impulse! Compilation "The Definitive Jazz Scene, Vol. One" (AS-99)

[10] First appeared on the Impulse! Album "Impressions" (AS-42)