Let’s be honest: after listening once to last year’s release of John Coltrane’s famed last recorded concert where he yells and shouts, you’re going to file the download or cd away and never listen to it again. Not so with this 4 disc set of “mid period” Coltrane. He’s on tour in Europe in 1961 with the famed band of McCoy Tyner/p, Elvin Jones/dr, Reggie Workman/b and the exotic Eric Dolphy/as-bcl-fl. All these guys were together for those famed Village Vanguard recordings, but for my money this is the collection you want.
Why? Well, for starters, there are a couple ringers here. The concerts are in Paris, Copenhagen, Helsinki and Stockholm during November of 1961, and just about every gig features a sizzling take of “Blue Train.” The takes here have Coltrane and the rhythm team bearing down like a closing reliever, and with Eric Dolphy joining in on alto, it’s just a joy to behold. Then, there’s a take of “Delilah” on the Copenhagen concert that has hints of India and the Middle East and Dolphy contributing some wonderful brooding on his bass clarinet. A number of readings of “My Favorite Things” have the band stretching out to almost a half hour, once without Dolphy, but the rest of the times including his flute. Tyner is glistening here, and Jones is marvelously propulsive.
As for Coltrane? He sounds inspired the entire collection of shows, going gently lyrical on soprano on “Every Time We Say Goodbye” and tenorly warm on “I Want to Talk About You.” He melds together with Dolphy’s soprano like a French sauce on “Naima,” and go mano a mano like Sumo wrestlers on bopping takes of “Impressions.” The various versions are distinct enough to make you want to imbibe each one. This is a real keeper, and a reminder of an era when jazz actually set the pace in modern music.
Acrobat Music