02/25/12: John Coltrane - Coltrane (1962)

02/25/12: John Coltrane - Coltrane (1962)

1. Out of This World
2. Soul Eyes
3. The Inch Worm
4. Tunji
5. Miles Mode
6. Big Nick
7. Up 'Gainst The Wall

     This album is the first to include John Coltrane, McCoy Tyner, Jimmy Garrison, and Elvin Jones as what is now known as The Classic Coltrane Quartet. 

From the liner notes (I Just think it's cool):

          "After repeated listening to this album I felt that any comments here would be unecessary. After All, John Coltrane and his men have something to say musically and the true jazz lovers will understand the music without detailed explanation..."

     John Coltrane's work usually falls into specific eras of his career. I wasn't entirely able to pin this one down even with the help of wikipedia and the CD booklet. Stylistically it is the most diverse of any Coltrane album I've listened to. I've listened to many that are avant-garde or experimental, many that were more traditional jazz and many that were simply unified pieces of work despite stylistic choices. This album is truly all over the place and that fact makes it a really enjoyable listen.
     The first three songs on the album are all by other composers. I think they are more classic jazz pieces with a Coltrane spin. They do have a more traditional feel than the latter half of the album. The song "Tunji"  was a Coltrane composition and had this strange almost psych-rock or Pink Floydesque feel to it. It was my favorite on the album for sure. Tracks 4 through 7 were all composed by Coltrane and the shift is apparent on the album. The Tempos are all over the place, the feel of the individual songs are fairly different and they are all unified by the fact that they were all from a specific group of recording sessions. the last 2 tracks were originally released on various compilations around that time and according to the booklet, they were included because they were originally from the same sessions.
     I really dug this album. It's one of my favorites I've heard from his pre avant-garde days. (056)
   

2/20/12: John Coltrane - Blue Train (1957)

2/20/12: John Coltrane - Blue Train (1957)

1. Blue Train
2. Moment's Notice
3. Locomotion
4. I'm Old Fashioned
5. Lazy Bird

     "Blue Train" is John Coltrane's second solo album and was released in 1957. It was really early on his career so his stuff was definitely still more traditional musically then his later recordings. The songs follow a basic thirty-two-bar blues form. Its a really upbeat album that almost sounds big band like at times. Apparently this album is also famous for being the first time Coltrane was recorded playing what are now known as Coltrane Changes. I tried understanding that fact but apparently was something he created for improvisational sections that did not follow the traditional rules of harmonic progressions. He expounds on that method further on his album "Giant Steps" which I'm sure I'll get to later.
     I enjoyed my time working with this album in the background. I could definitely tell what he was on his way to doing on this album. Its drastically different than the albums I've listened to a lot by him like "A Love Supreme" and later albums yet at the same time I can hear the roots of those albums here. I really have yet to find a Coltrane album I can't at least bop my head to. (051)

02/12/12: John Coltrane - First Meditations (for quartet) (1977)

02/12/12: John Coltrane - First Meditations (for quartet) (1977)

1. Love
2. Compassion
3. Joy
4. Consequences
5. Serenity
6. Joy (alternate version)

     I am going to be honest. I love Jazz but I am not thourougly educated in this genre of music nor do I have a wide group of Jazz musicians I listen to. John Coltrane and Miles Davis are the majority of Jazz music I have listened to and enjoyed. First Meditations was originally recorded in 1965 but was released posthumously in 1977. It was the last recording session with the John Coltrane Quartet and was never released due to the fact that he rerecorded this suite of songs 2 months after as a six piece as he added tenor saxophonist Pharoah Sanders and Drummer Rashied Ali. Those sessions were released as the more well known album "Meditations" (will listen to this abum soon) in 1965.
     From what I've read, the rerecorded "Meditations" is much more avant-garde than this version.  I had never listened to this album thoroughly but it was enjoyable. Coltrane is exclusively on tenor sax on this album. He plays a lot of pretty lyrical sections making for a fairly straightforward jazz album coupled with the occasional explosion of crazy overblown notes and a more avant-garde sound at other times. I feel that the songs actually live up to the song titles for the most part. I found this to be a good work album. It was for the most part a peacful jazz album. It gets out there but its not over the top and still easy to follow. I will be listening to a bit more jazz in this project. Maybe I'll learn some things and actually have intelligent things to say about Jazz. (043)