Jazz Articles about John Coltrane

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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 ...

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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 ...

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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 ...

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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, ...

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John Coltrane (Pablo: Live Trane: European Tours

by David Tegnell
December 1, 2001

To celebrate the 75th anniversary of John Coltrane’s birth, Fantasy/Pablo has released Live Trane: European Tours. This seven-disc, eight-hour-long box set, mixing previously released and unreleased material, is intended to chronicle Coltrane’s three European concert tours, 1961-1963. To persuade us that this release is definitive, the set’s producer Eric Miller declares that he has emptied the vaults, and corrected previous discographical errors. He furthers this claim by asserting that he has been aided in his research by the most noted ...

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John Coltrane: Live Trane: The European Tours

by Scott Morrow
November 1, 2001

John Coltrane fans have a reason to freak-out with this still welcome new release. The reason being, after the release of both the seven disc Coltrane: The Classic Quartet Complete Impulse Studio Recordings, and the four disc Complete 1961 Village Vanguard Recordings, the realization occurs that the music of John Coltrane is so complex and able to be appreciated on so many levels (many, yet to be discovered), that entire years could be devoted to any one of these sets. ...

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Kenny Burell/John Coltrane: Kenny Burrell and John Coltrane

by David Rickert
May 1, 2001

Albums in which one jazz great “meets" another jazz great hold a special fascination with listeners and usually the collaboration itself is enough of a selling point to include it as the title. Consider Gerry Mulligan, who tended to record his best playing in tandem with another, like Ben Webster, Paul Desmond, and Stan Getz. Another frequent collaborator was Coltrane, who recorded with Ellington, Hawkins, and Hartman; however, his brilliant quartet recordings for Impulse tend to overshadow recordings such as ...