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Which Coltrane are you enjoying right now?


jazzbo

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My two that listen to quite a bit for no real known reasons are Giant Steps and Coltrane's Sound (Soultrane too). Other than that I listen to his stuff with Miles the most. But honestly, all early to mid period Coltrane is always nice for me. :D

Edited by Soul Stream
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None right now, but a few weeks ago it was his solo on "Manhattan" from George Russell's New York, N.Y.. I've had this side in some form or fashion for about 35 years now, and the entry of that solo still blows me away. The rest of the solo's a gem too, but that entry, both harmonically and (especially) tonally is just... WHOA!!!! It's just one bar or so, but DAMN.

When I read the anecdote about how Trane stopped the session for a little while to go off to a corner to "get his changes together", just for that one solo, and how some of the other players on the date were thinking that he was crazy or something, I just gotta laugh, because that was time well spent!

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Last night I was stuck and decided to let the cat pick something out. Held her up and she put her paw on Kind Of Blue. Sheeeesh, that's why the album always heads up the "best" lists - peoples' pets are picking it! Then I realized she was also pawing Olympia Theater 3-21-60. Hmmm, okay kitty, I need to give you more credit with your picks.

Filed under Miles but just as easily could be filed under Coltrane. Hadn't played it in a year or so. Whew, those guys were pretty good!

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Last night I was stuck and decided to let the cat pick something out. Held her up and she put her paw on Kind Of Blue. Sheeeesh, that's why the album always heads up the "best" lists - peoples' pets are picking it! Then I realized she was also pawing Olympia Theater 3-21-60. Hmmm, okay kitty, I need to give you more credit with your picks.

Filed under Miles but just as easily could be filed under Coltrane. Hadn't played it in a year or so. Whew, those guys were pretty good!

om

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Late Coltrane is one of those things that transcends the 'kick'--I can listen to him up, down, stone focused or shot... the sense of elevation, of 'height,' is the same. I can always enjoy the earlier material, but there's something about those '64-'67 sides ('60+, really) that really burrows down to the human core--something supra-emotional. It's the quintessence of soul, and somehow it surpasses mood, abstracts the humanity. It's not quite 'the form', but it's definitely orbiting the spheres.

Think I'll spin Sun Ship later. First time I heard it, the sound drove me nuts (not a Van Gelder project, right?)--the band setup is so poorly balanced. But that power is so intense, so bright, brutal, and free, that it really doesn't matter. What's the point of quibbling at this level?

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Well, I hadn't been listening to any, but decided to pull out Crescent and give it a spin due to this thread. I agree with Lon, one of my favorite Coltrane's (I actually prefer it to A Love Supreme).

I go on different "tangents" with Trane, listening to the Atlantic stuff for awhile, then Impulse, etc. I've been on a Prestige kick recently and enjoying those great sessions..some personal favorites:

Soultrane (this album is physically addictive I think)

Traneing In

Cattin' With Coltrane & Quinichette

Settin' The Pace

The Stardust Sessions

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I'll be enjoying the Impusle studio box in a few days courtesy of Amazon! :)

how would expressions rate? i believe that was the last release he authorized. dont you think it has a valedictory air about it

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i found this amazon review which somewhat expresses my feelings:

Hawkins "jimmy_cello" (New York, NY) - See all my reviews

This was Coltrane's last album, and while it is a truly incredible album, it leaves me with a sense of longing and frustration. Expression deviates quite a bit from his other albums of 1965-67, and seems to be pointing the way to a new road Coltrane was going to take had he not died at 40.

What makes this so frustrating is that the journey he would have taken would have been amazing. The opening track of this album, Ogunde, is a sweeping, rolling ballad that flows with a sense of freedom and majesty that I simply don't hear in his earlier works (though I know others who do). In some ways, this album seems like a logical continuation of his Classic Quartet stuff. However, the rhythms are far freer, and the tonal center is less defined (Alice Coltrane sounds less tied to modality than Tyner). The result is this massive sound that moves along on a more intuitive level, rather than on a logical, metric one (not to say that his music was rigid).

Adding to all this is an excursion by Coltrane into the flute. Here I'm a little ambivalent. His flute playing is not even remotely at the level of his work on tenor or soprano. However, I feel that we hear the foundation of what was to come, and I'm fully prepared to believe that his flute technique would have developed and progressed quickly.

It's amazing that in 1967 after all of his experiments, Coltrane was able to discover yet another avenue to explore in his own playing. This album is a testament to that, and is a must for Coltrane fans.

Edited by alocispepraluger102
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Listening to the second disc of the "A Love Supreme" "Deluxe Edition" two cd set.

That concert is amazing! And I really like the two versions of "Acknowledgement" that add Archie Shepp and Art Davis to the Quartet. Yes, I think all concerned (okay, Trane) made the right decision to use the Quartet version of this for the real release. BUT I still like the sextet versions. Love that arco bass!

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I'll be enjoying the Impusle studio box in a few days courtesy of Amazon! :)

how would expressions rate? i believe that was the last release he authorized.

I would actually rank it below Interstellar Space and Stellar Regions. But we're talking about music at a very high level.

dont you think it has a valedictory air about it

All of the '67 studio stuff does, but is it the music or the listener?

Guy

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I'll be enjoying the Impusle studio box in a few days courtesy of Amazon! :)

how would expressions rate? i believe that was the last release he authorized.

I would actually rank it below Interstellar Space and Stellar Regions. But we're talking about music at a very high level.

dont you think it has a valedictory air about it

All of the '67 studio stuff does, but is it the music or the listener?

Guy

... the only thing to do with trane is let his music speak to each of us one on one?

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Listening to the second disc of the "A Love Supreme" "Deluxe Edition" two cd set.

That concert is amazing! And I really like the two versions of "Acknowledgement" that add Archie Shepp and Art Davis to the Quartet. Yes, I think all concerned (okay, Trane) made the right decision to use the Quartet version of this for the real release. BUT I still like the sextet versions. Love that arco bass!

The 'official' and quartet recordings aren't even in the same league, IMHO. But--there's a certain zeal about the larger group that just doesn't come across on the original version. There's a sense of vigor and struggle about Davis and Shepp's lines that counterpoises Trane wonderfully--a youthful sense of spiritual wonderment that Coltrane, for all his severity and gravitas, couldn't express. Ultimately (and for the same reasons), I don't think that Shepp and Davis belong on ALS--but it's nice to hear their alternate perspective... reckless, restless, somewhat immature, but honest.

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