Coltrane Plays the Blues
| Coltrane Plays the Blues | ||||
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| Studio album by John Coltrane | ||||
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Publication |
July 1962 |
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| Label (s) | Atlantic Records | |||
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Format (s) |
LP, CD |
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Title (number) |
6th |
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running time |
40:57 |
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| occupation |
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Studio (s) |
Atlantic Studios, New York City |
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Coltrane Plays the Blues is a jazz album by musician John Coltrane that was released on Atlantic Records in 1962 . In addition to Coltrane, McCoy Tyner , Steve Davis and Elvin Jones also play .
The album: history and content
The album was recorded on the afternoon and evening of October 24, 1960, three days after the recordings for the successful album My Favorite Things began; During the same recording session, the (later released) album Coltrane's Sound and the jazz standard Summertime for My Favorite Things were created . The producer was Nesuhi Ertegün ; Sound engineer at Atlantic Studios was Tom Dowd .
The album contains some blues compositions; Blues to Elvin "is a slow, earthy blues". According to Filtgen / Auserbauer, one notices Coltrane's solo "his apprenticeship years with King Kolax and Eddie Vinson , his improvisation cleverly takes up clichés and standard phrases in order to skillfully make them a coherent whole."
The slow track Blues to Bechet is dedicated to Sidney Bechet ; Coltrane plays soprano in this piano-less piece and thus "a tribute to the first great soprano saxophonist in jazz [...] Coltrane does not play with the voluminous, vibrating tone of Sidney Bechet, but sharp and cutting".
Blues to You is played more up-tempo than the previous songs and, in the opinion of Coltrane biographers Gerd Filtgen and Michael Auserbauer, offers “a premonition of Chasin 'the Trane ” from 1961. Coltrane is playing “those strange lines that started in 1961 should become his trademark. ” Mr. Day is a blues with a complicated harmonic scheme and an ostinato bass figure; Mr. Syms is played at a slower pace, but harmonically more complicated than the normal blues form. After Coltrane has played the theme , a chorus , improvisation and then the theme again, McCoy Tyner has a largely chordal solo (...) with single-note lines on the piano . Like Mr. Day , Mr. Knight unfolds over an ostinate bass figure.
Track list
- Blues to Elvin ( Elvin Jones ) 7:53
- Blues to Bechet ( John Coltrane ) 5:46
- Blues to You (John Coltrane) 6:29
- Mr. Day (John Coltrane) 7:56
- Mr. Syms (John Coltrane) 5:22
- Mr. Knight (John Coltrane) 7:31
CD edition
In 2000 Rhino Records released the record on CD as part of the Atlantic 50th Anniversary Jazz Gallery series . The sound was changed by remastering . As a bonus, several alternative takes from the recording session and an untitled composition were given, which had initially been decided against.
7. Untitled Original (Exotica) (John Coltrane) 5:22
8. Blues to Elvin (alternate take 1) (Elvin Jones) 11:00
9. Blues to Elvin (alternate take 3) (Elvin Jones) 5:59
10. Blues to You (alternate take 2) (John Coltrane) 5:35
11. Blues to You (alternate take 2) (John Coltrane) 5:36
Reviews
The album comes from one of the great jazz quartets. Allmusic gave the album four and a half (out of five) stars.
When Coltrane plays the blues we reach at once the most mature and the most instinctive form of this meeting between traditional jazz and the compositional tendencies of the avant garde.
According to Coltrane biographers Filtgen and Auserbauer, "Coltrane demonstrated new ways that renew and modernize the traditional scheme of the blues."
Web links
- Review of All About Jazz (2002)
Individual evidence
- ^ Coltrane Discography
- ↑ a b c d e f cf. Gerd Filtgen / Michael Auserbauer, John Coltrane, Schaftlach, Oreos 1989, p. 151 f.
- ^ Oxford Encyclopedia of Popular Music
- ↑ Coltrane Plays the Blues on Allmusic (English)
- ^ Wilfrid Mellers: Music in a New Found Land - Themes and Developments in the History of American Music , p. 369