Search - John Coltrane :: Bye Bye Blackbird

Buy "Bye Bye Blackbird"

Michael B. Richman | Portland, Maine USA | 03/11/2001

(4 out of 5 stars)

""Bye Bye Blackbird" was the last of four live John Coltrane albums to be released by the Pablo label, originally on vinyl, in the late 1970s and early 1980s. All four titles -- the others are the double disc "Afro-Blue Impressions" and the single discs "The Paris Concert" and "The European Tour" -- feature the Classic Quartet of 'Trane, McCoy Tyner, Jimmy Garrison and Elvin Jones in performances from a European tour in the fall of 1962. The finest of these four recordings in my opinion is "Afro-Blue Impressions," both in terms of the quantity of material (more than 90 minutes of music and a dozen tunes) and the quality of the performance and sound. With that being said, "Bye Bye Blackbird" is a close second. To my ears, the sound quality is better than that of "The European Tour" (see my review) and "The Paris Concert," and even though the Quartet tackles only two tunes, they are wonderful, lengthy improvisations on old Coltrane staples. My reason for withholding a fifth star, as with "The European Tour," is two-fold. First, these live discs are not as good as live albums released during Coltrane's lifetime, like "Live At Birdland" or "Live At The Village Vanguard, and second, Trane's Atlantic and early Impulse studio recordings are the best place for those new to his music to start. However, if you are a Coltrane fan, you should definitely buy "Bye Bye Blackbird," along with the other three Pablo titles."

Chasin the Blackbird

H. Lim | Carlingford, NSW Australia | 05/02/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"
Forget what the other review said - this is improvisation of the highest possible order. Especially Bye Bye Blackbird, whose hyper-extended length and cool energy reminds me of Chasin' the Trane. That any group could improvise for eighteen minutes on one theme, and never let the pace flag, is incredible."