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‘Coltrane Live At Birdland’: John Coltrane’s Soaring Live Set
Udiscover Music ^ | October 8, 2022 | Richard Havers

Posted on 10/11/2022 3:38:48 PM PDT by nickcarraway

If you want to let someone hear what Coltrane is all about, then this is as good a place as any to start.

On October 8, 1963, John Coltrane, along with pianist McCoy Tyner, Jimmy Garrison on double bass, and drummer Elvin Jones were at Birdland, and a part of their performance was captured on tape by Rudy Van Gelder.

Released in 1964, Coltrane Live At Birdland became ‘Trane’s second live album on Impulse!, although only three of the five tracks on the original LP release were actually from the gig at the famous Manhattan club; the other two are from a session at Van Gelder’s Englewood Cliffs studio a little over a month later.

The three tracks from Birdland are Mongo Santamaria’s “Afro-Blue,” Billy Eckstine’s “I Want To Talk About You,” and “The Promise,” a Coltrane original. The Eckstine song was originally recorded by Coltrane on his 1958 album Soultrane and here it features a superb extended cadenza that lasts over eight minutes.

A week or so after the Coltrane Live at Birdland recording the band headed to Europe where they played gigs in Stockholm, Oslo, Gothenburg, Amsterdam, Paris, Berlin, and Stuttgart over a three-week period. The subsequent session at Van Gelder’s yielded two more Coltrane originals, “Your Lady” and “Alabama.”

The latter track is Coltrane’s tribute to the four children killed in the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing, in Birmingham, Alabama by white supremacists. The album’s original pressing accidentally included a false start, which was corrected in later copies, but restored to the CD edition that also included another track, “Vilia” which uses a melody from the Franz Lehár’s “Vivias,” with chord changes and a great deal more swing.

Critics have called this “Coltrane’s finest all-around album” and it’s impossible to disagree. The playing of Tyner is brilliant throughout, especially on “The Promise” and as we’ve already mentioned the cadenza on “I Want To Talk About You” is outstanding, made even more remarkable by the way that ‘Trane never loses sight of the fact that this is a beautiful ballad. If you want to let someone hear what Coltrane is all about, then this is as good a place as any to start.


TOPICS: Arts/Photography; Music/Entertainment
KEYWORDS: birdland; coltrane; jazz
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1 posted on 10/11/2022 3:38:48 PM PDT by nickcarraway
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To: nickcarraway

OK, I know this is heresy for you jazz aficionados but I can’t listen to any of this guy’s stuff. It’s fingernails on chalkboard to me. Maybe it gets better after a minute or so. I wouldn’t know; I’ve never stuck with it for that long.


2 posted on 10/11/2022 3:41:01 PM PDT by NohSpinZone (First thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers)
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To: nickcarraway

I LOVE John Coltrane! Miles Davis too! Haters go suck an egg! LOL!


3 posted on 10/11/2022 3:48:28 PM PDT by Psychedelic-Surrealist Artist
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To: Psychedelic-Surrealist Artist

I like early Miles, but he lost me after Bitches Brew.


4 posted on 10/11/2022 3:49:56 PM PDT by dfwgator (Endut! Hoch Hech!)
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To: nickcarraway

WOW! I am well aware of JC, but never listened. I am a listener NOW! Thx for the nudge!!


5 posted on 10/11/2022 3:54:32 PM PDT by SgtHooper (If you remember the 60's, YOU WEREN'T THERE!)
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To: NohSpinZone; nickcarraway

“fingernails on chalkboard”

That’s me, too.

I have friends who are accomplished musicians and who like a lot of the same music that I do. They tell me that Coltrane and maybe Frank Zappa are musical giants but it’s totally lost on me. I’m with the rubes who don’t get it.


6 posted on 10/11/2022 3:57:27 PM PDT by Pelham (World War III will be fought with nuclear weapons. World War IV will be fought with rocks & sticks.)
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To: nickcarraway
...their performance was captured on tape by Rudy Van Gelder...

Rudy Van Gelder was a legendary jazz recording engineer...and for good reason - always super high audio quality.

Wiki: "His recording techniques are often admired by his fans for their transparency, clarity, realism, warmth and presence."

Wiki: "From 1999, he remastered the analog Blue Note recordings he made several decades earlier into 24-bit digital recordings in its RVG Edition series. He was positive about the switch from analog to digital technology. He told Audio magazine in 1995."

7 posted on 10/11/2022 4:16:07 PM PDT by newfreep ("There is no race problem...just a problem race")
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To: dfwgator

“I like early Miles, but he lost me after Bitches Brew.”

Same here .


8 posted on 10/11/2022 4:16:52 PM PDT by sushiman
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To: dfwgator
Teah, I like Birth of the Cool, and of course Kind of Blue. I'm not a jazz afficianado, but I think that's Be-bop? Also like Bill Evans, Theolonius Monk...as an 80"s young adult, I got into jazz after watching "Around Midnight."

But whatever came in the late 60's/early 70's (fusion?), I hated.

9 posted on 10/11/2022 4:26:09 PM PDT by Trailerpark Badass (“There should be a whole lot more going on than throwing bleach,” said one woman.)
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To: Pelham; nickcarraway; NohSpinZone

In the event you haven’t, give a listen to Coltrane’s recordings with Johnny Hartman. And also listen to him playing his composition Naima. And also on Kind of Blue listen to his solo on Blue in Green.

You will hear a sublime tenderness that reveals the great musical sensitivity he possessed. You will not be disappointed.


10 posted on 10/11/2022 4:33:44 PM PDT by jobim
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To: Trailerpark Badass

The best thing from Kind of Blue was Bill Evans, I became a huge Bill Evans fan after that.


11 posted on 10/11/2022 4:35:02 PM PDT by dfwgator (Endut! Hoch Hech!)
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To: jobim

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TLDflhhdPCg

That is just gorgeous. I agree with some of the others about Coltrane sometimes being hard to listen to, but here his playing is really lyrical and accessible. The whole track has a deep moodiness about it that can grab you even if you’re not a hardcore jazz head.


12 posted on 10/11/2022 5:20:37 PM PDT by Yardstick
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To: nickcarraway

Now that the pipelines are being blocked by our friends on the Left, we need more Coltranes.

(Coltrane is about as off-the-wall as I can appreciate; Ornette Coleman and Sun Ra is pure drek.)


13 posted on 10/11/2022 5:29:34 PM PDT by chajin ("There is no other name under heaven given among people by which we must be saved." Acts 4:12)
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To: chajin
(Coltrane is about as off-the-wall as I can appreciate; Ornette Coleman and Sun Ra is pure drek.)

I love the story about Max Roach decking Ornette Coleman after hearing one of his concerts.

14 posted on 10/11/2022 5:31:37 PM PDT by dfwgator (Endut! Hoch Hech!)
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To: chajin
I like Ornette Coleman. I like avant garde, but not fusion.
15 posted on 10/11/2022 5:34:41 PM PDT by nickcarraway
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To: nickcarraway

I have the album he did with Pat Metheny, it takes some getting used to.


16 posted on 10/11/2022 5:35:04 PM PDT by dfwgator (Endut! Hoch Hech!)
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To: Psychedelic-Surrealist Artist

Saw Miles live a couple times. Always will have that memory.


17 posted on 10/11/2022 5:35:06 PM PDT by Fuzz
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To: NohSpinZone
Try listening to his "Ballads" album. Really, click on the link below. It is just beautiful.

I love it. But I get your point about some of his stuff, which as a sax player, doesn't appeal to me.

But really, "Ballads" is different, and quite beautiful.

Especially this one "Say it" which is the opening song of the album:

Click to play: "Ballads-"Say it"

I played this one often when courting my wife...:)

18 posted on 10/11/2022 6:08:06 PM PDT by rlmorel (Nolnah's Razor: Never attribute to incompetence that which is adequately explained by malice.)
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To: SgtHooper

See my post above. One of my absolute favorite jazz albums.


19 posted on 10/11/2022 6:08:39 PM PDT by rlmorel (Nolnah's Razor: Never attribute to incompetence that which is adequately explained by malice.)
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To: dfwgator

Song X… I worked with a talented saxophonist and he introduced me to it. It was sort of like having someone’s first drink being Laphroaig


20 posted on 10/11/2022 6:13:43 PM PDT by Tijeras_Slim ( )
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