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Coltrane, "Afro-Blue Impressions"


Bol

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A couple of weeks ago the owner of Decatur CD, my favorite Atlanta-area brick-and-mortar new CD store, excitedly showed me the new Afro-Blue Impressions issue, sure that I would want it. I told him that I thought all the extra material was from the Live Trane box set, and I'm glad to have that confirmed.

But isn't it nice to have a record store owner looking out for you?

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The original LP release of Afro-Blue Impressions was my second Coltrane - played it endlessly over 1977-8.

I got the Live Trane set as downloads a few years back. Good to play a disc every now and then but there's a concision to the 2 LP set that really works. I've never been bothered by the sound of the 2 LP - it varies more between dates on the box.

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The original LP release of Afro-Blue Impressions was my second Coltrane - played it endlessly over 1977-8.

Yes, I've still got the vinyl of it somewhere in the racks. There were several of those 'Pablo - Live' Coltranes, very nice issues. In fact the whole 'Pablo - Live' series was great (Adderley/Johnson Yokohama Concert, Milt Jackson at the ... thingy, Hodges, Joe Pass at Long Beach etc.)

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  • 4 months later...

Not keeping up with re-issues much, I just found out about this release. So I was wondering if they had somehow/magically come across different masters than the ones they used for the Live Trane box. Glad I found this thread before taking a chance on pulling the trigger.

BTW, mjzee. Did you ever hear the original Pablo individual CD's? The sound quality of Live Trane is absolutely divine in comparison. Many of the original stereo mixes were almost as unlistenable as The Olatunji Concert (an album that made me lose a ton of respect for Impulse!).

Edited by Scott Dolan
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Not keeping up with re-issues much, I just found out about this release. So I was wondering if they had somehow/magically come across different masters than the ones they used for the Live Trane box. Glad I found this thread before taking a chance on pulling the trigger.

BTW, mjzee. Did you ever hear the original Pablo individual CD's? The sound quality of Live Trane is absolutely divine in comparison. Many of the original stereo mixes were almost as unlistenable as The Olatunji Concert (an album that made me lose a ton of respect for Impulse!).

I heard the LPs when they came out, but didn't buy them. The original LPs barely gave recording dates, so I never knew what to make of them; I also didn't understand the Pablo/Norman Granz connection until the box set.

Count me as someone distinctly underwhelmed by the Live Trane box. Besides the mediocre, remote sound quality, these performances do not strike me as adding to our knowledge about Trane. You can hear the same sorts of performances, much better performances, elsewhere.

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This one is definitely filed under Your Mileage Will Vary, but as a good buddy, great tenor player, and total Trane adherent once said to me, the point of hearing all the live tapes (and I do believe this guy had heard a lot more them all than he had not, he had some crazymad connections that way) is not to look for something new or even better in them, it's just a chance to hear one more night of them doing it, because that's how it really happened, one night at a time. Ultimately, he said, you gain perspective and realize how great it was, not how GREAT the high points were, but how great it all was, just as human accomplishment.

Ain't everybody got that time and/or that inclination (and there's also the fact that experiencing any kind of history is a different way of processing information than is dealing with it as it happens, right there in front of you. For one thing, you already know what comes next!) But some do have that time and that inclination, and I can't say that I don't understand at least the impulse (no pun intended) to go that way. I go through spells with certain players where I get that same way. It was a lot easier before the internet, though, because, paradoxically, it was harder, not unlike, perhaps, 78s vs LPs, a whole helluva lot more information at your disposal all at once.

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This one is definitely filed under Your Mileage Will Vary, but as a good buddy, great tenor player, and total Trane adherent once said to me, the point of hearing all the live tapes (and I do believe this guy had heard a lot more them all than he had not, he had some crazymad connections that way) is not to look for something new or even better in them, it's just a chance to hear one more night of them doing it, because that's how it really happened, one night at a time. Ultimately, he said, you gain perspective and realize how great it was, not how GREAT the high points were, but how great it all was, just as human accomplishment.

Ain't everybody got that time and/or that inclination (and there's also the fact that experiencing any kind of history is a different way of processing information than is dealing with it as it happens, right there in front of you. For one thing, you already know what comes next!) But some do have that time and that inclination, and I can't say that I don't understand at least the impulse (no pun intended) to go that way. I go through spells with certain players where I get that same way. It was a lot easier before the internet, though, because, paradoxically, it was harder, not unlike, perhaps, 78s vs LPs, a whole helluva lot more information at your disposal all at once.

Couple of years back I spent some serious listening time going through it all (I think I have about every tape that is in wider circulation, no rarities, but most bases covered, I'd assume, including tons of the European tour material from which "Live Trane" is mostly offering a selection). Anyway, I can very much relate to that. There was no off-night, and even though there's not a great number of tunes they did, it's fascinating to hear it, night after night. Coltrane remains a towering figure and hearing all those live tapes helps one to remind you of it!

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