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.
It’s an acquired taste.
Lots of people only really start to appreciate Trane if they have the opportunity to listen while following along with the chart, especially from this era, even now, 60 years later.
Worth the effort, IMHO.
In other words, Kenny G fans.
8~)
That’s another fingernails on the chalkboard choice
I am not a super jazz fan but as a lad growing up not too far from New Orleans I was exposed of course the Dixieland jazz quite a bit so it brings back fond memories but the jazz I do like is fusion jazz with Billy Cobham Stanley Clarke and Tommy Bolin but of slightly earlier jazz I probably prefer Miles Davis to John Coltrane but I am not an expert on Jazz
I am no Hefner jazz wise he was a fanatic
I remember the resurgence in the early to mid 70s of jazz with things like Grover Washington and Stanley Turrentine and of course it kind of started with the spectrum album anyhow my mother like jazz and she liked early rock ‘n’ roll like the 50s
I’m on the front porch beautiful middle Tennessee fall morning around 60 degree having a la Gloria Cubana I think I will put Spectrum on my outdoor speaker
Just messin’ with you.
I Agree With Pat Metheny
The irony is the incorporation of John McLaughlin is what brought we rock fans into Miles yet drove away purists
It was the first Pat Metheny Group album that brought me into the Jazz world.
I am a moderate jazz fan
Reluctant maybe
I do not like any pap music. except for singles I grew up like the monkees or grass roots
Kenny G no thanks
Waiting room ambiance music
I’m listening to Strata from Spectrum right now
Fusion
Some melody
I never do not like Tommy Bolin
A bright light
Too bright obviously
His cousin is my Endocrinologist at Vandy
Cool.
Dave Brubeck, ‘Take Five’, is about the level of jazz that I can roll with. And Steely Dan if they even qualify.
He's an artist, a pioneer.
We’ve got to have some music in the New Frontier.
My favourite Far Side of all time!
Why am I not surprised. ;)
lol.
Well played.
Title really confused me. Rob Coltrain just died a few hours ago.
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