CD Details
- Released: October 5, 2005
- Label: Savoy Jazz
Entertainment Reviews:
Down Beat - 3/93, p.35
4.5 Stars - Very Good Plus - "...Coltrane's playing on the record is dumbfounding, waves of cascading notes washing ashore. An odd, engaging session..."
Tracks:
- 1.Dial Africa
- 2.Oomba
- 3.Gold Coast
- 4.Rhodamagnetics - (take 1, bonus track)
- 5.Dial Africa - (take 1, bonus track)
Product Description:
Personnel: Wilbur Harden (trumpet, flugelhorn), John Coltrane (tenor saxophone), Curtis Fuller (trombone), Tommy Flanagan (piano), Ali Jackson (bass), Art Taylor (drums).
Originally released on Savoy (MG 12131). Includes original release liner notes by Alan Stein.
The presence of John Coltrane on this 1958 Savoy release is its obvious drawing card, but in fact there are impressive contributions from all hands. Leader Wilbur Harden had left the jazz scene by the early '60s, which is a pity. He was a player with fresh ideas and an engaging command of his trumpet's and fl?gelhorn's middle register. The sextet heard on this CD performs two Harden compositions and one by the group's trombonist, Curtis Fuller, for a skimpy total running time of 29 minutes. The "way out" reference in the title is misleading. There are traces of "exotic" Asian and African influences, but they never overpower what is essentially an intelligent, straight-ahead, hard bop date.
At the time of this release, Coltrane had been recording as a leader and sideman for Prestige and was on his second tour of duty with Miles Davis, whose group was on the verge of recording Kind of Blue. Coltrane was also about to begin recording for Atlantic. Interestingly, Jazz Way Out's pianist, Tommy Flanagan, and drummer, Art Taylor, were to join Coltrane on the classic take of "Giant Steps" and most of the other tracks on the tenor player's Atlantic debut. With Harden's group, Coltrane, as he did with Davis and on his own Atlantic recordings, systematically (and with sublime composure) turns the chord changes inside out, upside down, and sideways, creating a new vocabulary, syntax, and structure for jazz. Coltrane completists will definitely want these tracks in their collections, but the less fanatical listener will also have no difficulty in appreciating the collective performances of the entire sextet. ~ Jim Todd
