Search - Wilbur Harden :: Jazz Way Out

Coltrane the sideman

Enrique Torres | San Diegotitlan, Califas | 11/29/2007

(4 out of 5 stars)

"This early recording of Wilbur Hardin's group, which featured John Coltrane for the recording dates on Savoy features the spirit of Trane in late bloom. On the verge of taking his own voice out front, releasing his debut Giant Steps and soon conquering the jazz world. As a sideman Trane is restrained but the energy and intensity of his solos is evident. "Oomba" and "Dial Africa" features Trane in the early development of his sinewy Eastern sound that would later become part of his signature sound on such tracks as his beautiful rendition of My Favorite Things. If one complaint can be made is that Coltrane is not featured enough. This is an odd collection of songs from some Savoy recording sessions. More tracks are available from these sessions but I could not find them here at Amazon. There was an LP released in 1977 entitled "John Coltrane-Wilbur Hardin Dial Africa The Savoy Sessions" that features these three songs plus three others. One song in particular is exceptional entitled "Once in a While" which is a great ballad reminiscent of later works to come from Trane like the one's featured on Ballads: John Coltrane (Deluxe Ed) (Bonus CD). If you can find the LP it is worth it as the sessions were pretty hot , in a cool kind of way. The music on "Jazz Way Out" is late bebop music, very mellow, late-night-type-music on the threshold of breaking from traditional jazz and going into the exploratory jazz of the sixties and seventies. This disc is for the Coltrane complete aficionado who is looking to collect Coltrane from all his periods."