Coltrane

by John Coltrane

Product Description:

Personnel: John Coltrane (tenor saxophone); Sahib Shahab (baritone saxophone); Johnnie Splawn (trumpet); Mal Waldron, Red Garland (piano); Paul Chambers (bass); Al Heath (drums).

Recorded at the Van Gelder Studio, Hackensack, New Jersey on May 31, 1957. Originally released on Prestige (7105). Includes liner notes by Ira Gitler and Chris Albertson.

Personnel: John Coltrane (saxophone); McCoy Tyner (piano); Jimmy Garrison (acoustic bass); Elvin Jones (drums).

Recorded one month after DAKAR, COLTRANE explores many similar directions, and again features the tenor saxophonist as part of a three-horn front line, albeit with baritone saxophone and a trumpeter. It also showcases Texan Red Garland on the first three cuts, while DAKAR pianist Mal Waldron is featured on the final three.

The rhythm team of Albert Heath and Paul Chambers gives COLTRANE a more centered rhythm feel than its predecessor, as the bass player's huge beat and elegant harmonic sense set the pace on both ballads and hard hard-driving swing pieces. Drummer Heath introduces "Bakal" with an African rhythm motif supported by bass and baritone counterpoint, as Coltrane and trumpeter Johnnie Splawn essay the chanting melody before breaking into a swinging bridge that is pure Max Roach-Clifford Brown in its steely articulation and sweet voicings. Garland's spacious, laid-back statement sets the stage for Coltrane's swaggering solo, in which he constructs long melodic refrains from splintered thematic scraps.

Again, Coltrane's balance of ruminative and expressive materials is a sign of his growing maturity as an improviser. "While My Lady Sleeps" is given a haunting treatment, sleepwalking between an Arabic-flavored vamp and a dancing two-beat release, while "Violets For Your Furs" is a classic, one of Coltrane's most sumptuous and tender performances. "Time Was" finds the tenor alone, strolling along with the rhythm section at a jaunty medium tempo, leading to some of Coltrane's most expressive, probing solos of the date, even as the stop-time devices of "Chronic Blues" mirror the laid-back intensity of "Blue Trane."