Search - John Coltrane :: Live In Japan

Elegant Beauty

Talking Wall | Queen Creek, AZ | 06/02/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"If you are a listener who is just getting into Coltrane's work on the Impulse label or maybe you are looking for a nice version of My Favorite Things, you might as well stop reading now, this is not the music you are looking for... just yet.



Even if you are just getting into Trane's more "difficult" free period work, this is not the place to start. I would start with Kulu Se Mama, Ascension, Live in Seattle, Meditations, Expression, Stellar Regions, and Interstellar Space in that order. If you have heard all of that music and hunger for more, then you've come to the right place to find it.



This is Coltrane & Co playing with no holds barred. After hearing say, Meditations or Om you might think that this is going to be more of the same. It isn't. For one thing, Sanders is far less... "abrasive" sounding. Not nearly as much tension as in his early work with this group. A change is taking place in Trane's music here. It is at once "free" and focused. These musicians have really learned to play music together at this point. Not that they couldn't before but it can't help but become more telepathic after a couple of years together. Alice really shines in her solos and shows us what a great pianist and accompanying player she really is. If you've doubted that, just listen to her work throughout. Trane, Sanders, and Ali play like there is no tomorrow. Garrison provides the foundation. One thing that is a little more difficult about the music with Rashied is he often sounds like a man who is looking for sure footing and never quite finding it, that's not a slam at all. It's an interesting approach.



Back to Garrison. I once snorted at a review that claimed Garrison was the father of the modern rock bassist. I thought that ridiculous, but listen to Garrison's introduction to My Favorite Things and then listen to the way Jack Bruce was playing, especially in Cream, a couple of years later. There really is something to that observation after all. I retract the "snort".



Another observation I would like to make is how very daring this music is. I am a huge fan of Miles Davis and for all his bravado and claims of changing music 1/2 dozen or so times (and he did), he never tried anything like performing a piece for close to 60 minutes until around 1972 with his Dark Magus band. Trane was very much forward looking here. There's an old Prestige release of Trane's called "Setting the Pace". Trane is definitely doing that here.



If you love the music I mentioned earlier and crave more, this is for you and well worth the money. Enjoy!"