My favourite things (Rodgers and Hammerstein) (LP 2385)

John Coltrane with Eric Dolphy  Evenings At the Village Gate (CD, Impulse! Records, 2023) *****  

Genre: Jazz 

Places I remember: Real Groovy Records

Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: Greensleeves

Gear costume: Africa

Active compensatory factors: The back story on this one is pretty interesting. Recorded in 1961 and undiscovered for years. Wow!

This is firey, explosive, cutting edge, seat of your pants, OMG jazz.

All the musicians are masters and all are unbelievable on this album. In fact, I'd hazard to say that Eric Dolphy is actually overshadowed by the rest.

McCoy Tyner is superb - whenever he's given space, he takes off, Reggie Workman (and Art Davis) are endlessly inventive on bass, and Elvin Jones - words fail to describe his singular genius. 

Listening to this is incredible - it's mouth open, what just happened?, OMG, I can't believe it - all the way, during four compositions.

Greensleeves is a favourite of mine - ever since I heard it on a compilation album as a teenager. The version here is sublime. 

Where do they all belong? Coltrane. A freak!

Paradox (Sonny Rollins) (LP 2373 - 2376)

Dizzy Gillespie/Sonny Rollins  Duets (CD, Classic Jazz Records, 2010, originally released 1958) ***  

Sonny Rollins  Tenor Madness (CD, Classic Jazz Records, 2010, originally released 1956) ****  

Sonny Rollins  Plays For Bird (CD, Classic Jazz Records, 2010, originally released 1957) *** 

Sonny Rollins  Worktime (CD, Classic Jazz Records, 2010, originally released 1955) ****  

Genre: Jazz 

Places I remember: FOPP

Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: Tenor Madness

Gear costume: The Most Beautiful Girl In the World (Tenor Madness)

Active compensatory factors: These four albums form a '4 Originals' CD package and the four albums are featured in the order above.

First up is really a Dizzy Gillespie album with Sonny Rollins and Sonny Stitt taking turns on tenor sax with Dizzy's trumpet. I'm not a Gillespie fan. My dad liked him but I find his tone too strident.

Ray Bryant (piano), Tommy Bryant (bass) and Charlie Persip (drums) are the other musicians featured. 

Tenor Madness features the title track with John Coltrane joining Sonny. The other players on that track and the rest of the album are impressive as well - Red Garland on piano, Paul Chambers on double bass and Philly Joe Jones on drums.

AllMusic sums this album up with: a recording that should stand proudly alongside Saxophone Colossus as some of the best work of Sonny Rollins in his early years, it's also a testament to the validity, vibrancy, and depth of modern jazz in the post-World War era. It belongs on everybody's shelf.

Sonny Rollins Plays For Bird features material associated with Charlie Parker. It also has Kenny Dorham on trumpet, which both adds and detracts from Rollins own playing.

Worktime is a classic sax, piano, bass, drums quartet with Rollins joined by Ray Bryant (piano), Max Roach (drum titan), and bass player George Morrow. 

It's a terrific album. No trumpet cluttering up the approach. One of my favourite albums from Rollins, along with Tenor Madness.

Where do they all belong? Next up in the jazz section - St Germain.

My favourite things (John Coltrane) (LP 754)

John Coltrane  Birdland 1962 (Vinyl, Vinyl Passion, 2019) ***

Genre: Jazz 

Places I remember: Spellbound Wax Company (Gisborne)

Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: My Favourite Things

Gear costume: Mr PC.

Active compensatory factors: Not for the faint hearted this one as Eric Dolphy and John Coltrane spar over the white heat noises fashioned by McCoy Tyner, Jimmy Garrison and Elvin Jones (credited hilariously as Elvis Jones on the sleeve). Intense!

This is a truncated version of the concert with a 'bonus' track tacked on - Impressions from a concert in Berlin. Weird.

As I say - not for the faint hearted - this is intense music played by giants of jazz. Eric Dolphy's flute playing, for instance, is beautiful, challenging, engaging and scary - all often at the same time!

Once you're in, the music takes you places - some places you never thought you'd go.

Have a go, if you think you're brave enough.

Where do they all belong? That's it for now but I keep buying Coltrane albums so this statement is of the tbc variety.

Our delight (Red Garland) (LP 705 - 707)

Red Garland Quintet  All Mornin' Long (CD, Avid Jazz, 1957) ***

Red Garland Trio  Groovy (CD, Avid Jazz, 1957) *****

Red Garland Trio  All Kinds Of Weather (CD, Avid Jazz, 1958) ***

Genre: Piano jazz 

Places I remember: Ray's Jazz Bar in Foyles (Covent Garden)

Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: C Jam Blues

Gear costume: What Can I Say (After I Say I'm Sorry?) 

Active compensatory factors: All Mornin' Long features John Coltrane and Donald Byrd on Trumpet. That trumpet can get a little strident at times and so, this isn't as easy on the ear as the trio albums.

Groovy is both well named, and the pick of this set - his third album as leader and it hits a peak in the effortless stakes. Rubbish cover though.

All Kinds Of Weather is okay but the song selection is pretty eclectic, and again, Red is poorly served by the art department.

Where do they all belong? It's been a while (too long), but it's back to the vinyl next!!

The feeling of jazz (Duke Ellington) (LP 628)

Duke Ellington & John Coltrane  Duke Ellington & John Coltrane (Vinyl, Waxtime Records, Originally 1962, this reissue 2013) ***** 

Genre: Jazz 

Places I remember: My Music (music store in Taupo)

Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: Stevie

Gear costume: In A Sentimental Mood 

Active compensatory factors: I am a Coltrane fan, rather than a collector (his body of work is vast and I shy away from the free jazz material). 

My dad was a big fan of the big bands and swing so he had a few of Duke Ellington's albums so I was vaguely familiar with his music.

Given all that, when I saw this in My Music's jazz bins during a recent visit to Taupo I decided to have a punt. 

Wow! What an album. I've been playing it a lot since that visit to Taupo.

Even though it features only one Coltrane 'song' it's more his album than Duke's. Mainly that's down to Coltrane's dominant tenor sax and side men (Jimmy Garrison and Elvin Jones feature along with Sam Woodyard and Aaron Bell).

But really it's right to bill it as a Duke Ellington and John Coltrane album as Duke plays some superb piano, composes most of the tunes and is never overshadowed.

A great find!

Where do they all belong? A one off (in many ways)

The Pan Piper (Miles Davis) (LP 568 - 572)

Miles Davis Ascenseur pour l'échafaud (CD, Not Now Music, 1958) ***

Miles Davis with Cannonball Adderley   Somethin' Else (CD, Not Now Music, 1958) ***** 

Miles Davis Sketches Of Spain (CD, Not Now Music, 1960) ***

Miles Davis Miles Davis and The Modern Jazz Giants  (CD, Not Now Music, 1959) *****  

The Miles Davis Sextet  Jazz At the Plaza Vol 1 (CD, Columbia, 1958 but released 1973) ***** 

Genre: Jazz 

Places I remember: HMV; the Warehouse (Hastings); Kings Recording (Abu Dhabi)

Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles/ Gear costume: Sur L'Autoroute (Ascenseur pour l'échafaud), Autumn Leaves (Somethin' Else); Oleo (Jazz At The Plaza Vol 1)

Active compensatory factors: I confess to being a pleb when it comes to Miles Davis. 

I love Kind Of Blue (like everybody else does) and I love the hard bop sets of the late sixties that include John Coltrane (Jazz At The Plaza), Red Garland and Thelonious Monk (Modern Jazz Giants) or Cannonball Adderley (Somethin' Else).

Ascenseur is basically a movie soundtrack. It does a good job of it too, with soundscapes to (I presume) match the visuals. Sur L'Autoroute is a good example.

Somethin' Else is really a Cannonball Adderley album with Miles as a sideman but Miles has become the much bigger name so my re-released CD version has his name front and centre. In reality Miles and Adderley are part of a great ensemble with Art Blakey on drums and Hank Jones (piano). Sam Jones (bass) rounds out the group.

Sketches Of Spain is another key album in Miles' influential body of work, but it's one I can't appreciate much, somehow. Maybe all I can say is that it's not to my taste.

The Modern Jazz Giants album is brilliant though. The vibraphone sounds of Milt Jackson add some great textures and counter foils for the trumpet throughout the album and Coltrane appears on Round Midnight.

Finally, Jazz At The Plaza Vol 1 (Vol 2 was Duke Ellington recorded at the same event). This is the group that would shortly go on to record Kind Of Blue so we're talking genius level players.

There's a party vibe going on and the sound is a little spotty on the trumpet at times but Coltrane is on fire! He must have had off nights but I've never heard them. Bill Evans is also in sublime form. Wow - what it would have been like to experience this live.  

.

Where do they all belong? I haven't explored Davis beyond that late 50's/ early 60's period. At one time I bought Bitches Brew and Live Evil but quickly sold them off. Yikes - too tough for me. Free jazz, I've come to learn, is not my thing maan!

Village Blues (John Coltrane) (LP 488 - 489)

John Coltrane Coltrane Plays The Blues (CD, Atlantic, 1962) ***** 

John Coltrane Blue World (CD, Impulse!, 2019) ****

Genre: Jazz 

Places I remember: Real Groovy Records; JB HiFi (Palmerston North)

Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: Mr Day - CPTB

Gear costume: Naima (take 2) - Blue World

Active compensatory factors: These are two albums on the fringes of the John Coltrane canon. 

The blues album, made up from sessions for the My Favourite Things album, was issued on Atlantic after he'd left the label. So it's not something released with his approval. Never-the-less, it's five star genuis all the same!

And Blue World was only released last year. It features material created between the Crescent and A Love Supreme albums that was used in a film The Cat In The Bag (released in 1964 under its French title - Le Chat Dans Le Sac). 

Where do they all belong? That's it for the Coltrane section of my CD Jazz collection. I'm sure I'll be adding to it in time though.

So What (Miles Davis) (LP 448)

Miles Davis Kind Of Blue (Vinyl, CBS, 1960) ***** 

Genre: Jazz 

Places I remember: Marbeck Records (I've got an Australian pressing - hence the different cover from the normal one)

Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: So What

Gear costume:  Freddie Freeloader

Active compensatory factors: It's widely acknowledged as a classic of the genre and it's easy to see why.

It's fresh, different, searching, comfortable, accessible, mysterious, dense, full of space. 

The musicians are all at a peak. By 1960 they knew each other well - often appearing together and on each other's recording dates. Coltrane, Paul Chambers, Cannonball Adderly and Bill Evans are all leaders with a wide range of albums under their own name.

Apparently, this group of musicians were only presented with sketches of the songs by Miles shortly before they were recorded, so there is a large degree of spontaneity in these performances.

Where do they all belong? This album is atop the jazz tree - nothing above it.

Crescent (John Coltrane) (LP 415)

John Coltrane Crescent (Vinyl, Impulse!, 1964) ****

Genre: Jazz 

Places I remember: Marbecks Records (Auckland NZ)

Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: Wise One




Gear costume:  Bessie's Blues  

Active compensatory factors: I'm not sure Coltrane produced a more cohesive side of music than side one of Crescent: three tracks that naturally, seemlessly, flow into each other. It's challenging in parts, soothing in others. I play side one a lot.

Side two is not so successful for me, mainly because Coltrane hardly appears: Lonnie's Lament has a pretty tedious bass solo, and The Drum Thing is a vehicle for Elvin Jones. Neither track I would ladel as essential Contrane.

But trust me on side one: it's the real deal!


Where do they all belong? A Love Supreme was his next release. Read about my response to that one here.

Giant steps (John Coltrane) (LP 366 - 372)

John Coltrane Coltrane (First Trane) (CD, Not Now Music, 1957) ****
John Coltrane Giant Steps (CD, MCPS, 1959) *****
John Coltrane Soultrane (CD, MCPS, 1958) *****
John Coltrane Coltrane Jazz (CD, Not Now Music, 1960) ****
John Coltrane Ole Coltrane (CD, MCPS, 1961) *****
John Coltrane My Favourite Things (CD, MCPS, 1960) *****
John Coltrane Africa/Brass (CD, MCPS, 1961) ****

Genre: Jazz 

Places I remember: The Warehouse Palmerston North

Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: Greensleeves from Africa/Brass is a firm favourite of mine.




Gear costume:  My Favourite Things 

Active compensatory factors: All those five stars? Too much? Not when you consider the singularity of the talent on display in every one of these songs.

Classics! One and all!

Repackaging of old Jazz albums has obviously grown as the copyrights have changed over time - good for collectors like me who can suddenly buy multipacks of quality music.

Blue Train is also on this 3CD set of 6 albums (for a bargain price of $10) but I've already written about that one.

These three multipack sets neatly cover some seminal albums from the 1957-1961 period.

Coltrane Jazz appears as a Twofer with Africa/Brass and Coltrane (First Trane) is twinned with Soultrane on another Twofer CD set.

They are each amazing in their own right but Giant Steps is the one I play the most.

The two main pianists on these albums also deserve a mention: Red Garland and McCoy Tyner produce some of their most inspired playing on these albums.


Where do they all belong? More to come from Trane.

Resolution (John Coltrane) (LP 343)

John Coltrane A Love Supreme (Vinyl, Impulse! Records 1965) *****

Genre:  Jazz

Places I remember: Marbecks Records, Auckland

Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles/ Gear costume: A Love Supreme (the full album) 




Active compensatory factors:  At 32 minutes, A Love Supreme may be seen as a fleeting experience in one respect, but the layers of sound, the progression along a spiritual path, and the heft of the music builds as the suite continues. 

These elements give the album a self-contained completeness.

The four tracks: Acknowledgement; Resolution; Pursuance; Psalm complete a long form hymn that recognises and praises God in a way that is unique in the world of music.

Even though I have listened to it many times (I play it a lot) somehow it both floats away effortlessly, and reveals new things every time.

Where do they all belong? It stands alone in the canon and remains Coltrane's masterpiece.

Spiritual (John Coltrane) (LP 238)

John Coltrane Coltrane "Live" At The Village Vanguard (vinyl - MCA records, 1962) *****

Genre: Jazz

Places I remember: Marbecks Records (Queen's Arcade, Auckland)  

Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: Chasin' The Trane


Gear costume: Spiritual, Softly As In A Morning Sunrise 

Active compensatory factors: My family hated me playing this album. It's not music to use as a background, to let wash over you or to allow the ambience to soak into the atmosphere.

This is music from another dimension. It's called 'jazz' but in many ways John Coltrane is his own genre.

Breath-taking is an over used expression - as in 'it took my breath away' and while it does do that, in this context, it also means controlled breathing - and catch your breath. 

Don't get it? Play Chasin' The Trane. Listening to it can be exhausting unless you breathe properly!

It's intense!

You have to engage with it, control your reaction, live it!

I love this critics description: a torrential and anguished outpouring, delivered with unmistakable power, conviction, and near-demonic ferocity.

That's why my family hated me playing this album!

Where do they all belong? Crescent and A Love Supreme are next up.

My favourite things (John Coltrane) (LP 185)

John Coltrane Afro Blue Impressions (Vinyl - Pablo Records, 1977) ****

Genre:  Jazz

Places I remember:  Marbecks Records. Roger imported a lot of stuff on Pablo Records at that time. I wish I'd got more then, but you can't always get what you want. 

Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: Cousin Mary




Gear costume:  My Favourite Things, Naima

Active compensatory factors:  Recorded in 1963, this set has the classic Coltrane quartet blasting through their current repertoire and they are each in blistering form.

Cousin Mary is especially amazing as it focuses for a lengthy period on McCoy Tyner's breathtaking piano with Elvin Jones on drums and Jimmy Garrison on bass - all three are locked into a great groove. And then Coltrane drops in. And the energy levels head into the red zone. Sheer brilliance!!

Sidebar: Far away and long ago (Ramelton Road days so the early seventies), I used to have a double album on the Impulse! label called John Coltrane - His Greatest Years Volume 2. Unfortunately, one day I left it on the turntable and the sun got to it. A harsh lesson. One that I learned well - since then, I always put the record safely away!

I tried everything to try and straighten out the vinyl but the roller coaster look remained. With a killer version of Greensleeves on it (from the Africa/Brass album), I have missed it!

Luckily I found a replacement in Real Groovy last week - for $10!! And Greensleeves is as great as I remember it. 

Where do they all belong? Coltrane is a major figure and I have most of the landmarks so stay tuned.

Locomotion (John Coltrane) (LP 123)

John Coltrane Blue Train (Vinyl - Blue Note, 1958) ****

Genre: Jazz

Places I remember: Marbecks Records (Auckland)

Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: Locomotion (Trane/train - see what he did there?)

Gear costume: Blue Train

Active compensatory factors: Coltrane’s only album on the famous Blue Note label was his self-proclaimed favourite album up to 1960.

It's a varied hard bop affair with Lee Morgan, on trumpet, Kenny Drew, piano, and Curtis Fuller, on trombone, joining the rythym section (Paul Chambers, bass, 'Philly' Joe Jones, drums), to provide additional colour to Coltrane's masterful tenor sax.

Overall, it's hard to argue with the sleeve notes that highlight the 'free, but not disorganized, blowing mood that has everyone in exceptional form both individually and collectively'.

Where do they all belong? Coltrane would next take a giant step in 1959.

Art for art's sake, money for God's sake (10CC)

My recent post on record albums remade as books has made me think about some of my favourite record covers. Sadly, the art of designing a fantastic image for a record has gone the way of record shops with the advent of, first the CD, and now the download, where no image at all is required. This is not only sad but a criminal waste of talent and imagination. Album cover art deserves to be celebrated (and a quick google search will reveal that the blogosphere hasn't forgotten it as an art form).

So I have compiled my personal favourites and blown them up as big as I can get away with. Size does matter when it comes to album cover art. But the choice is subjective so keep that in mind as you view my choices.

Rather than put them all on one post, I have gone through them all and put them into loosely themed groups. Here's the first batch called The Musician Takes Centre Stage. First installment: top ten close ups of the artist. I've attached a caption only where it's not really clear who the artist is.

Lene Marlin as a Norwegian blue.





Sssshhhh - it's Alvin Lee in fractured mood. 



Grace Slick's Manhole