Search - John Coltrane :: My Favorite Things: Coltrane at Newport

My Favorite Things Redux

Joe Pierre | Los Angeles, CA United States | 08/24/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Records companies these days can certainly be accused of repackaging old recordings in various forms to squeeze our more sales, and Impulse! is clearly guilty of this when it comes to the Coltrane discography, though who can blame them given the lack of worthy jazz masters these days... But this new release makes sense and is a vast improvement on previous packaging. What we have here is Trane at the Newport Jazz Festival in 1963, originally packaged as Newport '63 (minus the tack-on 4th track, "Chasing the Trane" from the '61 Village Vanguard sessions) along with a return to the festival in 1965, previously included as a double-header date with Archie Shepp released as "New Thing at Newport." Now it's all together in one tidy package that nearly takes current CD length to the limit, with 5 live tunes at just shy of 80 minutes.



I have a sizeable catalog of Trane, but I never purchased either Newport date despite the fact that the version of My Favorite Things (MFT) '63 is often claimed to be the best. But I recently heard it on XM Radio and was engrossed -- I looked it up, found out this new CD was released, and went out and bought it. It's fantastic.



Newport '63 has the quartet (Trane, McCoy Tyner, Jimmy Garrison) with Ray Haynes subbing in for Elvin Jones, who reportedly was in drug rehab for heroin addiction. The disc opens with a rather lame emcee requesting that the crowd "simmer down" for the Coltrane set, apparently because Jimmy Smith had fired up the crowd with his previous act. Anyway, Trane and Co. then open with "I Want to Talk About You," a fairly constained mid-tempo ballad with Trane on tenor. The sound is pretty good on this one, and Trane opens up near the end with an a cappella solo that builds up note upon note. The band then segues directly into MFT, and you can see why this version is considered definitive. Trane is still firmly rooted in his modal playing, and here he takes that framework to it's limit, circling in and out of and around the melody. The liner notes make much of the fact that Roy Haynes has a much lighter touch than Elvin, and you have to agree that this gives Trane space and a certain freedom that comes through in his playing. That is also the benefit of a live concert -- subsequent versions of MFT on Live at the Village Vanguard Again! or Live in Japan take that space and freedom even further. Tyner solos in the middle where the sound could be better -- Garrison sounds overly full, whereas Tyner is a bit submerged, but soon Trane's soprano takes over again and what follows is simply some of his strongest soprano work ever recorded. Very advanced explorations, though still not as out there as in his final years. The final number from the '63 set is "Impressions," with Trane starting by briefly stating the theme on soprano. Tyner gets some solo space and is better heard than the rest of the CD, but then Garrison takes a solo and the sound of his already muddy bass really degrades -- while this new CD release adds some heretofore missing parts of his solo, the remainder is edited out (seamlessly, I might add) allowing Coltrane to return on tenor. After stating the theme again, he turns to solo explorations, hinting quite a bit at what was to come from latter day Trane. At around 11 minutes, Tyner and Garrison recede, and Trane and Haynes go at it with an incendiary sparring match that foreshadows Trane's later work with Rashied Ali on Interstellar Space. Again, the 23-minute number allows Trane space to really go ballistic. There's some sound issues at the 17 and 18 minute mark -- it sounds like Trane wanders off mike (maybe he took a stroll to keep McCoy company) -- but that is the flip side of live recording and therefore forgiveable. All in all, I think you'd have to say this is by far the best music by Trane up until 1964 (well, except for Vanguard '61, that is).



The remaining 3 tracks were recorded at Newport '65 just after Ascension and are some of the very last recordings of Trane's group before Pharoah Sanders was added and the lineup began to change. Newport '65 had Monk, Carmen McRae, Diz, Art Blakey, and Archie Shepp preceding, leaving a foreshortened 30 minutes for Trane's group at the end. The first track is just the intro from a rather antediluvian emcee, referring to Elvin Jones, who would have been 38 at the time, as a "newcomer" and a "Detroit boy," and Trane as the "master of them all." The opener is then "One Up, One Down," (featured on the recently released Live at the Half Note dates), and this being 1965, differences are readily apparent. Elvin Jones is a powerhouse and Trane is escaping his modal tethers while the rest are still rooted in their pre-1965 style. Tyner is given generous solo space, but this time he really sounds like he's underwater, in contrast to Garrison whose bass now sounds much more crisp and clear than '63. Trane then rips into things on tenor, getting into his trademark upper register explorations that would typify his final style. Elvin's really bashing away, as if trying to dent the cymbals near the end before they transition to MFT. I'm partial to 1965 Trane, and have never tired of MFT, and this is good stuff, but somehow it seems like things don't quite get the chance to develop this time. The opening soprano salvo isn't that different from previous versions (aside from Garrison's growling vocal accompaniment), though after yet another somewhat anemic Tyner solo (I love Tyner, but I'm telling you, he just isn't well-served by the Newport soundstage), Trane does break into some madcap swirling trills and deconstructions, but all too soon, the playing comes to a close. The crowd erupts into a chant of "More! More!," but the emcee puts the kibosh on that since the venue had to shut down at midnight. Even though you've just heard 80 minutes of CD music, it's hard to not to feel the same as the crowd here, wishing there was more time to hear them play...



So there you have it. Pretty excellent playing by Trane, an interesting juxtaposition of MFT '63 and '65, and less than perfect live audio engineering that often leaves Tyner submerged. All in all, an outstanding re-release by Impulse!, with 80 minutes of incediary Trane and the mostly classic quartet."

Holy Crap . . .

TheRobert | Portland, Oregon | 08/04/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I'm no expert on jazz, so this won't be one of those reviews where I dismiss the entire CD based on the fact that the snare drum wasn't properly amplified during the solo at exactly 5 minutes, 33 seconds into the 5th track, etc., etc.... I do listen to quite a bit of Coltrane, and this CD is excellent. Outstanding performances, and the sound quality is very good. And it's almost 80 minutes long . . . a lot of music for your money."

Like a stretch limo

John J. Petersen | Pompton Plains, NJ USA | 08/03/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"more smooth and refined than impulse's 2005 release 'Live at the Half Note', this entire album is spacey and airy"