There are certain bands that you simply need to eventually get everything they released. Some groups were so important that you must hear the entire evolution of the paradigm-shifting team. A few such entities are Armstrong’s first groups, the first Bill Evans Trio, the two classic Miles Davis Quintets, the Dave Brubeck Quartet and without a doubt the John Coltrane Quartet with McCoy Tyner, Jimmy Garrison and Elvin Jones. They recorded so much earth shattering material, and took the listener on such an amazing John Muir Trail of a journey, that it still causes the mind to reel in retrospect.
This 2 cd or 3 lp set (released by Verve and Mosaic Records, respectively) includes seemingly EVERYTHING that was recorded on that August 26 of 1965, just after having put together A Love Supreme and before Ascension and Meditations, making up essentially the last hurrah for the Quartet before Pharoah Sanders, Rashied Ali and Alice Coltrane came in to create a whole new environment and sound. The surfeit of material that Coltrane was inspired to create and record resulted in this music here being shelved until 1971, and all of it has never been quite put together like this.
Along with studio chatter and false starts, the bonus material includes multiple and interesting alternative takes of just about everything. Jones and Garrison are highly featured on the assertive and mood shifting “Ascent” and “Ataining,” and the tumultuous “Dearly Beloved” has more crescents of waves than Plettenberg Bay. Coltrane’s tenor and soprano’s are just about to leap over Niagara Falls here, but he doesn’t quite jump over the precipice…yet, with “Amen” having walking a tightrope over the crashing waves. This is some of the most viscerally intuitive music you’ll come across, or dare to.
Verve Records
Mosaic Records