John Coltrane - Live at the Jazz Gallery: 1960

[John L]

Is anybody else enjoying this one as much as me?

There is no shortage of live Coltrane floating around, but this one is quite special (IMO). Trane had just come back from his outstanding 1960 Europe tour with Miles in a white heat of inspiration, and had just formed his first quartet. This concert is supposedly from June 27, 1960. McCoy Tyner had joined the band the previous week, replacing Steve Kuhn on piano. Steve Davis and Pete LaRoca round out the quartet.

From the opening devastating 30 minutes of Liberia to the last killer 18 minutes of But Not For Me, this is one hour and twenty five minutes of great vintage and historical Trane. The sound quality is more than acceptable. Maybe there are other live tapes of the quartet from this period, but these are the first that I have ever heard and I can't get enough!

[jazzbo]

I don't have the new release yet but I have these on collector's tapes and yes, it's a very good show indeed.

It's a bootleg of course. Why the family hasn't brokered deals to have a dozen or more releases like this official. . . I do not know, other than it's I guess not profitable. Look at how the Monk family releases came and went (but I'm happy to have them all),

[kh1958]

Now you did it--I had to order this one, and toss in Abdullah Ibrahim and Ekaya's new one Sotho Blue for free shipping.

[Guy Berger]

Definitely worth hearing - there aren't a lot of recordings of Trane's working group pre-11/61.

Guy

[jazzbo]

And it sort of shows by omission what Elvin brought to the mix.