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John Coltrane: Live at the Village Vanguard Again!
by Robert Spencer
Live at the Village Vanguard, was one of John Coltrane's most successful and controversial albums. It was one of the first by the “classic quartet," and contained a boffo guest appearance by Eric Dolphy on the magnificent “Spiritual." This isn't it. Five years after that triumph, Coltrane returned to the Vanguard with his New Thing quintet, ...
John Coltrane: The John Coltrane Quartet Plays
by Robert Spencer
“Chim Chim Cheree”? Sure. The guy has a hit with “My Favorite Things,” and some record company executive with gold chains sticking out of his chest hairs says, “Johnny! We love this far out stuff, this ‘Chasin’ the Trane’ stuff. Beautiful. You’re a spiritual cat, you know, Trane (may I call you Trane)? And I respect ...
John Coltrane: Meditations
by Robert Spencer
This is it, friends: the last recording (November 23, 1965) McCoy Tyner and Elvin Jones made with John Coltrane. One need only turn from this to The Real McCoy or any other McCoy Tyner or Elvin Jones album of the period to get a clue as to why they left the “classic quartet." In the first ...
Archie Shepp: Four for Trane
by Robert Spencer
This is Archie Shepp’s first album for Impulse (1964); in a gesture of gratitude to the man who got him the gig, he records four Giant Steps -era Coltrane tunes plus one original in an unusual large-ensemble arrangement. It is newly available in a pristine 20-bit remastering. One listen to this album reveals the debt Shepp ...
Evan Parker and Sainkho Namtchylak: Mars Song
by Robert Spencer
A few years ago I was teaching music appreciation classes when I happened upon a book called Tuva or Bust. It was an account of how the author was inspired by the renowned physics professor Richard Feynman to investigate (and eventually visit) the remote central Asian land known as Tannu Tuva. Tuva, as it is commonly ...
John Coltrane: A Love Supreme
by Robert Spencer
Although this disc is relatively new in its packaging and 20-bit format, it enjoyed a popular run previously as one of the first Impulse CD reissues. The latest re-release is an attractive treatment: the original (first-rate) cover art is restored, the sound is markedly better, and John Coltrane's liner letter and poem are in a readable ...
Charles Mingus: The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady
by Robert Spencer
Some Mingus albums are like a tremendous three-ring circus. You'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll be struck with awe and delight. The music is absorbing, intense, harrowing, beautiful. Drop everything and run to the show, and don't expect to get anything else done at the same time: this is about as far from background music as it ...
Wayne Shorter: Odyssey of Iska
by Robert Spencer
Exotic percussion-based proto-World Music worked for Wayne Shorter on Super Nova, so he tried it again the next year (1970) on Odyssey of Iska. The sound is very similar but the lineup completely different: here Wayne plays tenor and soprano; unlike Super Nova, where he stuck exclusively to soprano. Dave Friedman plays vibes and ...
Wayne Shorter: Super Nova
by Robert Spencer
It was the summer of 1969, flower power was in the air, conventional hard bop was in serious trouble, and Wayne Shorter wrought the hipfest Super Nova in the company of a gaggle of guitarists and percussionists. Super Nova , while typical in many ways of jazz in 1969, is by no means the ...
Kenny Dorham: Whistle Stop
by Robert Spencer
If you’re looking for “straight ahead" jazz (in near-perfect form), here it is. Kenny Dorham plays here with the burning rhythm section John Coltrane used on Blue Train : Kenny Drew on piano, Paul Chambers on bass, and Philly Joe Jones on drums. Hank Mobley adds his tenor sax to this 1961 session that features Kenny ...
