Swinging Swede

Actually that's not true any longer since two later studio sessions have been discovered, including one recorded one month after the Olatunji concert. Here are the unissued studio sessions from 1966-67, taken from Allan J. Sutherland's Coltrane Sessionography. They amount to two and a half hours(!) of late studio Coltrane, including over one hour from his last two sessions, and without them we can't paint a complete picture of where Coltrane was at the end, or where he might have been heading. John Coltrane Session 66-04-21: Date: 21 April 1966. Place: Van Gelder Studio- Englewood Cliffs, NJ. Ensemble: John Coltrane Quintet: John Coltrane soprano sax, tenor sax, Pharoah Sanders flute, tenor sax, Alice Coltrane piano, Jimmy Garrison bass, Rashied Ali drums, Recording: Commercial for Impulse. Recording Engineer: Alternative Issues: Recent Available Issue: 1. Darkness (10:43) (Unissued.) 2. Lead Us On (8:20) (Unissued.) 3. Leo (18:00) (Unissued.) 4. Peace on Earth (5:20) (Unissued.) Notes: Tapes for this session were recently discovered, and are rumoured to be released sometime in the future. John Coltrane Session 66-04-28: Date: 28 April, 1966. Place: Van Gelder Studio- Englewood Cliffs, NJ. Ensemble: John Coltrane Quintet: John Coltrane soprano sax, tenor sax, Pharoah Sanders flute, tenor sax, Alice Coltrane piano, Jimmy Garrison bass, Rashied Ali drums, Recording: Commercial for Impulse. Recording Engineer: Alternative Issues: Recent Available Issue: 1. Call (9:20) (Unissued.) 2. Leo (9:40) (Unissued.) Notes: Tapes for this session were recently discovered, and are rumoured to be released sometime in the future. John Coltrane Session 67-02-27: Date: 27 February 1967. Place: Van Gelder Studio- Englewood Cliffs, NJ. Ensemble: John Coltrane Quintet: John Coltrane tenor sax, Alice Coltrane piano, Jimmy Garrison bass, Rashied Ali drums, Marion Brown bells. Recording: Commercial for Impulse. Recording Engineer: Alternative Issues: Recent Available Issue: 1. E Minor (6:61) (Unissued.) 2. Half Steps (7:10) (Unissued.) Notes: Tapes for this session were recently discovered, and are rumoured to be released sometime in the future. John Coltrane Session 67-03-29: Date: 29 March, 1967. Place: Van Gelder Studio- Englewood Cliffs, NJ. Ensemble: John Coltrane Quartet: John Coltrane tenor sax, Alice Coltrane piano, Jimmy Garrison bass, Rashied Ali drums, Recording: Commercial for Impulse. Recording Engineer: Alternative Issues: Recent Available Issue: 1. Number Eight (5:01) (Unissued.) 2. Number Seven (3:18) (Unissued.) 3. Number Six (2:12) (Unissued.) 4. Number Five (6:18) (Unissued.) 5. Number Four (4:02) (Unissued.) 6. Number Two (4:09) (Unissued.) Notes: Tapes for this session were recently discovered, and are rumoured to be released sometime in the future. John Coltrane Session 67-05-17: Date: 17 May 1967. Place: Van Gelder Studio- Englewood Cliffs, NJ. Ensemble: John Coltrane Sextet: John Coltrane tenor sax, Pharoah Sanders alto sax, Alice Coltrane piano, Jimmy Garrison bass, Rashied Ali drums, Algie DeWitt Bata drum. Recording: Commercial for Impulse. Recording Engineer: Alternative Issues: Recent Available Issue: 1. None Other (14:28) (Unissued.) 2. Collidoscope (35:52) (Unissued.) Notes: Tapes for this session were recently discovered, and are rumoured to be released sometime in the future.

Not necessarily a mix-up. According to Mr. Nessa it's the same guys behind all those labels.

I don't know how common knowledge it is (it was new to me), but I recently read in Bob Blumenthal's liner notes to 'Round About Midnight that when Miles Davis was putting together his new quintet in 1955, he first tried John Gilmore on a few rehearsals. That didn't work out the way Miles wanted, and Philly Joe then suggested Coltrane, whom Miles hadn't been impressed with before. Jazz history came close to being very different.

Left off?! I didn't know that! Is it due to time restrictions, or because MC didn't like the tune? It was scheduled for release on Blue Note 84316, so it can not have been rejected in any case. I agree, a real disappointment that the whole unissued album isn't present.

Could be that Cuscuna intended to spread them out, but with EMI having been sold and the end of the series possibly being near, he decided to get the Morgans out quickly.

This is one thing I've been thinking about too, and very much would like to see come out. These are the relevant albums AFAIK, and they are all Universal-owned: Pacific Standard (Swingin') Time (1960) Decca DL-4031 Presenting The Buddy De Franco-Tommy Gumina Quartet (1961) Mercury MG-20685 Kaleidoscope (1962) Mercury MG-20743 Polytones (1963) Mercury MG-20822 The Girl From Ipanema (1964) Mercury MG-20900 Although I don't know what the selection would be if they all are included! Speaking of De Franco, a bunch of his 1950s Verve recordings have recently been released by the Andorrans. They include albums that never have been on CD before, or only on early 1990s Japanese CDs: Buddy De Franco And The Oscar Peterson Quartet (also on a Membran CD) The Buddy De Franco Wailers Buddy De Franco Plays Benny Goodman (early 1990s Japanese CD) Buddy De Franco Plays Artie Shaw (early 1990s Japanese CD) I Hear Benny Goodman And Artie Shaw (early 1990s Japanese CD) Wholly Cats Closed Session Generalissimo Live Date! (early 1990s Japanese CD)

Must have been when all those VEEs, VBRs and West Coast Classics were coming out!

Sure, but neither were the Half Note and Olatunji recordings that were released on Impulse recently. So, when all of you have bought this release, be sure to expect a Newport Deluxe set also including the 1961 and 1966 performances in a couple of years or so!

But someone else (Bob Belden? I forget) thought that it wasn't so bad, and that at least some of it could come out.

Wasn't EMI just sold? With all the other majors shutting down their jazz reissue programs and letting staff go, I wonder why EMI would be immune to the same development. I wonder if we have seen the last Connoisseur batch, for example.

Or the one from 1961.

No, almost all tracks are piano solos. Violinist Michel Warlop joins in on two tracks, and actress Nina Mae McKinney sings on two. Wilson switches to celeste on one track. All Lunceford recordings have been issued under Lunceford's own name on Classics. They are much recommended. Lunceford's was one of the great bands of its era.

A second Gerald Wilson, 1946-1954, is coming out on Classics (Classics 1444). It includes the remaining tracks by his 40s big band (at last!) and I suppose the same 1954 material. There is a Garland Wilson 1931-1938 (Classics 808). Don't know if the guy on the phone possibly could have been talking about that one.

Being without the Organissimo board is like being Paris Hilton in jail! Or something!

No - though you can get all the tracks (except the two by Sonny without Jug) on Chronological Classics. And those two tracks have also been released by Chronological Classics, but under Stitt's name.

Rehashing previously released material, like the Duke box and the Masters of Jazz compilations, seems to be what they are about these days. It's not only the D.E.T.S. series - remember the Cotton Club 1938 set that was supposed to come out? And I think it was mentioned in the liner notes of some Ellington release that there still was a lot more to come out from Duke's stockpile recordings. There also used to be new releases of material by so many other names from the Swing era and later. This is a very unfortunate development. But then almost every label seems to have imploded recently. Only the Andorrans seem to be more active than ever. Storyville doesn't seem to be distributed in America any longer either. That can't help sales.

This means that the Herman Select will have all of his Phillips albums except the very first one, Swing Low, Sweet Clarinet which was a quartet album only. Would have been nice to have the complete Phillips recordings, but getting these five big bands albums is an excellent deal in any case. Only one of them has been on CD as far as I know. The Phillips big band sessions contain several unissued tracks, a few non-album tracks plus several numbers from the Basin Street West engagement that were on the Jazz Hour CD 1963 Summer Tour. I wonder if all of it will fit on 3 CDs, or if something will be left out?

That's right actually. When they realized that Smithville is the name of a city just like Basra, they withdrew it, so as not to offend anyone.

This must be the ugliest album cover I've ever seen. Even if you were a Glenn Miller fan, would you buy it? It just went for $66.90 on eBay, so someone apparently would.

When was this recorded and what label was it on originally? AMG isn't helpful. Vocalion LAE 587 - Issued in UK in 1964 on this Decca subsidiary label. Thanks!