John Coltrane - tenor, soprano & alto saxophones and percussion
with varied personnels including : Miles Davis & Donald Byrd -
trumpet; Pharoah Sanders, Cannonball Adderley, Eric Dolphy - saxophones
and flute; McCoy Tyner, Wynton Kelly, Tommy Flanagan, Alice Coltrane,
Thelonious Monk - piano; Jimmy Garrison, Paul Chambers, Wilbur Ware
- bass; Elvin Jones, Philly Joe Jones, Shadow Wilson, Rashied Ali
- drums.
Recorded 1955 - 1967
Originally released on the Prestige, Fantasy, Blue Note, Atlantic
and Impulse! labels.
DISC 1 Harmonic And Melodic
1. Straight Street
2. Trinkle Tinkle
3. Lazy Bird
4. Countdown
5. Naima
6. Giant Steps ( alternative take )
7. Fifth House
8. After The Rain
9. Crescent
10. A Love Supreme: Part 1 - Acknowledgement
11. Dear Lord
12. Offering
13. Iris
DISC 2 Rhythmic
1. Stablemates
2. Lover
3. My Favourite Things
4. Impressions
5. Nature Boy ( first version )
6. Song Of Praise
7. Compassion
8. Tranesonic
9. Venus
DISC 3 Elvin And Trane
1. Village Blues
2. Liberia
3. Mile's Mode
4. Up 'Gainst The Wall
5. All Or Nothing At All
6. Your Lady
7. The Drum Thing
8. Wise One
9. A Love Supreme: Part 3 - Pursuance
10. The Last Blues
11. Sun Ship
12. Serenity
DISC 4 Live
1. Two Bass Hit
2. Impressions
3. I Want To Talk About You
4. Nature Boy/One Up, One Down
5. Naima
It is refreshing in today's climate of never ending
re-issues that Impulse! have seen fit to make so many imaginative
compilations available. There has been a fine series of enhanced discs
in recent months - the de-luxe discs have included "Ballads", "Coltrane"
and recently "A Love Supreme", all of which have been doubles containing
previously unreleased and related material. With "Legacy" the company
has combined with the other major labels that John Coltrane recorded
for to produce the most significant and comprehensive over-view of
his career so far. Forget the price, this four CD set represents possibly
the best value for money in terms of content and quality of any major
edition released to date.
The discs are not presented as a time-line, although
each separate disc is in chronological order. The idea behind this
compilation is that each album serves to illustrate a different aspect
of the style of John Coltrane. I find this to be rather a tentative
concept - assuredly the last CD is made up entirely of live performances,
but in general the actual way in which each section is ordered is
really not of the greatest importance. This minor criticism aside,
the selection of material contained herein is absolutely superb. The
choices were made by Coltrane's son, Ravi, who is a first class saxophone
player in his own right. Ravi was only two years old at the time of
his father's demise and he must have experienced great anguish in
choosing to become a musician himself. His understanding of his parent's
work is obviously very deep, as it would be difficult to imagine a
more imaginative and complete representation of the career of John
Coltrane than the one illustrated by the recordings contained in this
box set.
It would be virtually impossible to do a satisfactory
track by track analysis - there is enough variety and outstanding
music here to merit a book rather than a review. It is probably enough
to say that all of the famous and significant albums are featured
to some degree -"Blue Train", "Giant Steps", "Impressions ", " My
Favourite Things", "A Love Supreme" etc. etc. etc. There are one or
to unexpected delights - disc two contains "Lover" from the album
" The Last Trane" which, to my ears, is one of the great up-tempo
Hard-Bop recordings.
Each different phase of Coltrane's development is
carefully documented on this issue and the mastering is as good as
it gets. There are so many gems here, and although I was familiar
with all but one track ( from an early Miles Davis session ) it has
been a sheer delight to here this music in the present enhanced setting.
Whilst I have the original albums, I will continue to listen to this,
and use it in my teaching, and for my own pleasure, whenever I require
an illustration of the musical life of Coltrane but do not have the
time to play several albums to give a broad spectrum. It goes without
saying that this is extremely important music - it must rate alongside
Armstrong's Hot Fives, Ellington's major compositions and the recorded
works of Charlie Parker.
The packaging and liner are magnificent and I must
urge any listener who wishes to hear a broad representation of some
of the greatest recordings in the history of the music to buy this
set - it will assuredly be recognised as one of the classic compilations.
Dick Stafford
CD Reviews
Impulse!
314 589 295-2 (4CDs)
