Jazz Articles about John Coltrane

John Coltrane: Lush Life (20-Bit Remastered)

by C. Michael Bailey
October 10, 2002

Coltrane Schmoltrane...can he play a ballad?

I once read that a well-known music critic opined that John Coltrane might very well be jazz’s most boring genius. It cannot be disputed that Giant Steps and A Love Supreme, as well as, My Favorite Things were important pioneering affairs in the evolution of jazz. But a good deal of his late music is noise. It might be brilliant noise, but it is noise all of the same. Amid the deluge of late ...

John Coltrane: Ballads (Deluxe Edition)

by C. Andrew Hovan
June 25, 2002

With the success that Blue Note has had in eliciting the services of the legendary recording engineer Rudy Van Gelder in remastering the past glories of one of the most revered record labels in all of jazz, it’s no surprise that Impulse would eventually follow suit and ask Van Gelder to do the same handiwork for releases from that label’s archives. So the story goes, producer Bob Thiele would often have Van Gelder run extra copies of Coltrane recording sessions ...

John Coltrane: Coltrane (Deluxe Edition)

by C. Andrew Hovan
June 25, 2002

With the success that Blue Note has had in eliciting the services of the legendary recording engineer Rudy Van Gelder in remastering the past glories of one of the most revered record labels in all of jazz, it’s no surprise that Impulse would eventually follow suit and ask Van Gelder to do the same handiwork for releases from that label’s archives. So the story goes, producer Bob Thiele would often have Van Gelder run extra copies of Coltrane recording sessions ...

John Coltrane: Coltrane Plays The Blues

by Mike Perciaccante
June 7, 2002

These recordings come from the same sessions that produced 1961's My Favorite Things. This is one of the least well know Coltrane albums, partly because it is an all blues format and partly because it was released at the end of his association with Atlantic records.

Plays The Blues features the talents of McCoy Tyner, Elvin Jones and Steve Davis. It is the beginning of his work with Tyner and Jones in quartet form. For that alone this recording would ...

John Coltrane: Ole Coltrane

by Mike Perciaccante
June 7, 2002

Following his classic releases Giant Steps, Coltrane Jazz, My Favourite Things and Coltrane Plays The Blues in the Coltrane catalog, Ole Coltrane was the master's final recording for Atlantic before moving to the Impulse! label.

Perhaps that is why this album seems to be one of his most overlooked recordings. Ole which was originally released in 1962, was recorded in between the two sessions that formed the Impulse! release Africa/Brass.

It appears that with Ole, Coltrane was continuing the experimentation ...

Sonny Clark: Sonny's Crib

by Reid Thompson
December 1, 2001

Sonny's Crib is a very pleasing recording from the sadly overlooked pianist Sonny Clark that works very well as a representative piece of the Blue Note catalogue at the time, framing all the characteristics that made that label so successful. It is essentially a blowing session, and to some extent, a preparation for Coltrane's seminal Blue Train, which was recorded several weeks after Sonny's Crib and featured the same ensemble with Lee Morgan subbing for Donald Byrd and Kenny Drew ...

John Coltrane: Live Trane: The European Tours

by David Rickert
December 1, 2001

John Coltrane has had no less than nine disc’s worth of material released this fall. Not bad for a guy who passed away nearly 40 years ago. This Pablo set should be greeted with the same shout of joy reserved for an Ohio State win over Michigan, simply because it over the most comprehensive look at a transition period of a musician whose career was constantly in transition to begin with. Although Impulse generally released two Coltrane albums a year, ...