Late Trane
Nikica Gilic | Zagreb, Croatia | 09/26/2009
(4 out of 5 stars)
"It's Coltrane! It's free jazz! It has "My favorite things"! As one would expect from such a late, 21th century issue of late Trane (from 1966!),
the sound is far from perfect (bootleg is not the wrong word here), but I guess it's still acceptable to most listeners - except for the Hi-Fi purists... The music is powerful and often dissonant,
the band is concentrated and intense, although I would lie if I said my attention didn't wonder off at few occasions. But- free jazz is not really my thing, it's just one of those things I like to take a look at occasionally.
Basically, since the "production values" are not perfect (for instance, I think Sanders is under-recorded at some solos) it would be wrong of me two give it full five stars. Otherwise, as far as I can tell, this is great free jazz music. No wonder Coltrane practiced his heart out - he had to in order to give such performances. The liner notes are OK; historically interesting, with a very strange (practically unedited) Coltrane interview included.
John Coltrane - soprano and tenor sax, percussion
Pharoah Sanders - tenor sax, piccolo percuss.
Alice Coltrane - piano
Jimmy Garrison - bass
Rashied Ali - dm"
4 star performance, 2 1/2 star sound quality
o dubhthaigh | north rustico, pei, canada | 01/10/2010
(4 out of 5 stars)
"First off, you had better like the free period in Trane's career or you won't get through this. The recording has historical merit in that it documents Coltrane's last appearance at Newport. But it isn't well recorded at all and sadly, that takes considerably away from any consideration of the full dimensions of the band's efforts. This is obviously very much a boot with very little pixie dust sprinkled over it to restore fidelity, any fidelity. There may not be a better or more complete tape of this and if that is the case, more's the pity. They all went for the throat on this concert, but drums, bass and piano have precious little presence or nuance, and it sounds like all that Alice is doing behind Trane and Saunders is comping. The liner notes indicate that My Favourite Things opened with an 8 minute bass solo, but that is gone, and so the editors made the decision to splice a bit of the melody from the end of the iteration to the beginning to get the song off and running on disc. Hopefully Wein has something, anything, in the vaults better than this. As I say, this performance has significant historic merit, but, like the last concert at the Church in Ny that was released a few years back, the tapes are in radical need of sophisticated cleaning up and whatever remastering is possible. If the estate is not up to the task, I'd suggest they contact Robert Fripp at [...]"
Poor Sound Recording
Jose Mario Serra | Sao Paulo, Brazil | 03/05/2010
(1 out of 5 stars)
"I decided to rate this album, just for one reason: the very poor sound quality. Of course I love Trane and almost everything was recorded from him, but this album sounds like an audience recording made by a fan, or even a radio transmission on a rainy day (AM radio - of course). I own more than 60 Conltrane's CDs covering his whole career (sideman and bandleader). If you are thinking on buy this CD, just be aware of its ridiculous sound. It's your decision. To finish: Coltrane was a genious and I never heard nobody blowing like him."
Track Listings (3) - Disc #1