Jazz Articles about John Coltrane

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John Coltrane: The Very Best Of The Atlantic Years

by Chris May
August 5, 2007

Does the world really need another John Coltrane compilation album? Yes, most certainly. The world needs as many Coltrane albums, of any description, as can be thrown at it. Even the tackiest, most opportunistic Coltrane compilations--take a bow Coltrane For Lovers (Impulse!, 2001) and Plays For Lovers (Prestige, 2003)--are redeemed by the presence of their subject, perhaps the greatest tenor saxophonist who ever lived, and certainly the most influential and enduring.

The Very Best Of The Atlantic Years ...

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John Coltrane: Fearless Leader

by Marc Medwin
July 19, 2007

2007 is a significant Coltrane year as we commemorate his untimely death in July, 1967. 2006 predated the occasion with a fine release more quietly revelatory than the shocking Monk and Trane At Carnegie Hall (Blue Note, 2005) concert. Fearless Leader groups together, on six discs, the sessions that Coltrane recorded for Prestige between May 1957 and December 1958. These have all been available in one form or another since Last Trane's release in 1965. The present ...

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The Indefinite Version (of My Favorite Things)

by Bertil Holmgren
July 3, 2007

'How 'gainst this rage shall beauty hold a plea, Whose action is no stronger than a flower?' W. ShakespeareIn connection to the newly released album The John Coltrane Quartet plays The Sound Of Music (Impulse!), this article describes the evolution of the song “My Favorite Things" up until the last entry in the “Olatunji Concert" of 1967, where Coltrane gives a performance that is today evident to stand the test of time much further ...

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Encounters with Elvin

by Bertil Holmgren
April 25, 2007

As I mentioned in Coltrane's Music, in 1962, I had the good fortune to see and hear the classic John Coltrane Quartet in live performance five nights running, at Birdland in New York City. After Trane, Elvin Jones was the most exciting member of the group. For me then, however, Coltrane was enough, he would do. Elvin, McCoy and Jimmy Garrison were secondary for me. It wasn't until later, when deepening perception or maturity, enabled me to look beyond Coltrane ...

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Coltrane's Music

by Bertil Holmgren
April 24, 2007

After listening often to his recordings, I first heard John Coltrane live at Birdland in June 1962. My interest had developed earlier in my young life in my home country of Sweden, considering that broadcast jazz there at the time was restricted to a half-hour broadcast on the national radio each week. It was also possible to tune in on the fading Voice of America radio-transmitter in Tangiers, Africa on the short wave band Sunday nights at ten o'clock (always ...

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John Coltrane: The John Coltrane Quartet Plays The Sound Of Music

by David Rickert
April 1, 2007

Everyone is familiar with Coltrane's classic recording of “My Favorite Things. However, what many people may not know is that Coltrane was so taken with the musical that his first project for the Impulse! label was an entire album of songs from the stage classic. Bob Thiele shelved the project after it was finished, claiming it didn't fit in with the image the label was trying to project. “We weren't looking for another Brubeck, he said at the time. Now, ...

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John Coltrane with the Red Garland Trio: Traneing In

by Stephen Wood
March 14, 2007

Guitarist Pat Metheny once said that he didn't often play standards because he felt like he couldn't offer much along the way of a unique interpretation. This paralyzing sensation in the face of prodigious precedent is equally as debilitating when it comes to delivering fresh insights on the music of saxophonist John Coltrane.After listening to this Rudy Van Gelder remastering of 1957's Traneing In nothing fresh needs to be said. Reviews and insights are chock full of painstakingly ...