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| Impressions - Jonh Coltrane and Eric Dolphy |
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Impressions is a 1963 album by jazz musician John
Coltrane. Most of the album was recorded live at
the Village Vanguard on November 3, 1961 and
released in 1963 on the Impulse! label. The
recording features the "classic quartet" of John
Coltrane, McCoy Tyner, Jimmy Garrison, and Elvin
Jones; they are joined by Eric Dolphy and Reggie
Workman on the live Vanguard tracks. Dolphy plays
a memorable solo on the long modal workout
"India", but lays out on all but the coda of
"Impressions". Workman is at hand only on "India",
to join Garrison in approximating the sound of an
African drum choir.
Throughout, Tyner's presence is unusually muted;
he takes his only solo on the bonus track, "Dear
Old Stockholm", is barely audible on the two
Village Vanguard tracks, and lays out entirely on
"Up 'Gainst the Wall". Also, drummer Roy Haynes
— as he sometimes did for Coltrane's group
during this era — replaces Elvin Jones on "After
The Rain" and "Dear Old Stockholm" (which were
each recorded at the same April 1963 studio
session). Jones and Garrison are also
uncharacteristically low-key. All told, and even
more so than on his other albums, the focus on
this LP is on Coltrane. The title track (based to
a certain extent on Miles Davis's "So What") is
notable for featuring nearly fifteen minutes of
Coltrane's soloing.
The music reflects Coltrane's evolving emotional
and musical range, where he explores jazz
modality, the music of India, the blues, and a
traditional Swedish folk song (this last track was
not included on the original 1963 album, but
appeared first on a 1970s previously-unissued LP
compilation and is on the current — as of year
2000 — CD release of Impressions as a bonus
song). The eclecticism is to be expected; the
album amounts ultimately to a compilation of three
years of oddments.
Tags : DrThiMarques jazz bill evans john coltrane stanley jordan bebop Miles Davis |
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Affichage : 3441
Durée : 290 s |
| Alabama - John Coltrane |
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Coltrane wrote the song 'Alabama' in response to
the bombing. He patterned his saxophone playing on
Martin Luther King's funeral speech. Midway
through the song, mirroring the point where King
transforms his mourning into a statement of
renewed determination for the struggle against
racism, Elvin Jones's drumming rises from a
whisper to a pounding rage. He wanted this
crescendo to signify the rising of the civil
rights movement.
New Generation
Coltrane had already revolutionised jazz
twice--the sheets of sound and his 'classic
quartet' sound. He changed direction again with
the recording of Ascension. He threw himself into
the free jazz movement which was coalescing around
a new generation of young musicians--Ornette
Coleman, Archie Shepp and Albert Ayler. The music
was pure improvisation. Coltrane was now playing
two hour long solos. The music was free from
constraints and barriers. Coltrane began to
introduce percussionists, harp players and African
vocalists. He was creating a world music 25 years
before the term was even coined. For some in the
free jazz movement the musical revolution was
purely artistic, but for many that aesthetic
revolution was linked to the explosion sweeping
the Northern cities. Coltrane's drummer, Rashid
Ali, said as much:
'Those were trying times in the 1960s. We had the
civil rights thing going on, we had King, we had
Malcolm, we had the Panthers. There was so much
diversity happening. People were screaming for
their rights and wanting to be equal, be free. And
naturally, the music reflects the whole period...
I think that that's where really free form came
into it... I'm sure that the music came out of the
whole thing.'
As one club manager noted, 'Whenever Coltrane
played we seemed to attract the most politically
advanced blacks. He'd take a long solo, probably
close to an hour, and these guys would be
shouting, "Freedom Now!"' King and the other
leaders of the civil rights movement were left
floundering as a new generation of leaders such as
Malcolm X and the Black Panthers began to
articulate the growing radicalisation of the
movement. Coltrane heard Malcolm X speak in 1964.
Despite all their attempts, Coltrane and the free
jazz musicians failed to become the musical voice
of the movement. It was the sound of the Beatles
and Motown that the youth bought into. Soul and
rock expressed in a much more direct and dynamic
way the spirit of the times. While jazz musicians
codified their message, James Brown sang 'Say it
Loud--I'm Black and I'm Proud' and Aretha Franklin
demanded 'Respect'.
That criticism is not in itself a reason to write
off free jazz. It is an incredibly complex music,
and the lack of melody can make it difficult to
follow. But for any art form to move on it has to
shock and it has to experiment. As is the case
with much art that is regarded as avant garde,
years later it becomes understood and familiar,
and swiftly moves into the mainstream. Many of
Coltrane's musical ideas that shocked the music
critics have today been incorporated into the jazz
canon. Just listen to the music of Joshua Redman,
Courtney Pine and Kenny Garret.
Sadly Coltrane died on 16 July 1967 aged 40 from
the effects of liver cancer. So what does Coltrane
offer us today? During his life the US was waging
war against Vietnam. When he was asked for his
opinion on the war, he replied, 'Well I dislike
war--period. So therefore, as far as I'm concerned
it should stop, it should have already stopped.
And any other war.' Oh yes, and of course there is
his wonderful life affirming music.
Tags : DrThiMarques jazz bill evans john coltrane stanley jordan bebop Martin Luther Kin |
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Affichage : 4295
Durée : 355 s |
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