The Coda of the Coltrane Quartet, Chronologically
In 1965, Trane's music got too big for just 4 guys to play
Welcome to another installment of Cheap Thoughts, grumpy sofa-based observations by a 19th Century Refugee not really enjoying my front-row seat for The Apocalypse.
Years ago I was an FM-radio jazz DJ and program director at a local college station. I learned an awful lot awfully fast about the history of jazz music, and also about the business of jazz promotion.
One of my first favorite jazz musicians was John Coltrane, who had an aesthetic totally different from his peers. Love it or hate it, Trane’s music was breathtakingly new, pushing the boundaries in every possible direction in every stage of his brief two-decade career. One might say that he was the Mozart of his jazz generation; one could either embrace his music or reject it, but no one could ignore or dismiss it. His influence on the course of jazz history is incalculable.
Never satisfied with what he was up to, Coltrane didn’t remain for very long in whatever bag he was in. After all, with his previous band he recorded the album ‘Giant Steps,’ on which he debuted Coltrane changes — still considered a rite of passage for up-and-coming players to hurdle over — and yet soon enough he was on to the next thing.
In this case, that next thing was an increasing infatuation with modal jazz, which he had explored during his time in the Miles Davis Quintet. Rather than the traditional chord changes associated with popular songs, the modal approach involves a back-and-forth between passages in usually-unrelated keys, which creates an unusual tension the soloist can exploit to great dramatic effect. Combined with his musical roots in church music (both his grandfathers were A.M.E. Zion ministers), Coltrane distinguished himself in the post-bop NYC jazz scene by being an electrifying live performer at the top of his game, performing music nobody else could.
This was the period of so-called “avant garde” or free jazz, and Coltrane was one of the most prominent figures. But the evolution of his music was not linear, and his period of transition from “straight-ahead jazz” to “other” has become one of my favorite time-slices of jazz history.
Since I could not locate a listing of the 1965 tracks in the order of their recording, I decided to make one myself. Listening to them in the correct sequence, it’s clear to me that Trane’s concept underwent drastic acceleration during this period, and it’s fascinating to hear.
This list catalogs the recorded twilight of the John Coltrane Quartet, which had featured McCoy Tyner (piano) and Elvin Jones (drums) since 1960 and Jimmy Garrison (bass) since ’62.
The band recorded the iconic ‘A Love Supreme’ album on December 9, 1964. Released by Impulse Records in January 1965, it was “one of Coltrane's bestselling albums, and one of his most critically acclaimed. It is widely considered his masterpiece, as well as one of the greatest albums of all time.”1
Talk about a tough act to follow. But just like earlier after ‘Giant Steps,’ Trane was already looking beyond.
The following tracks document the band’s subsequent search for direction, which Coltrane himself labelled a ‘Transition’ at the mid-year June 10 studio date. Just two weeks later, the ‘Ascension’ album was recorded with eight guest artists; four musicians were no longer enough to accomplish the music Coltrane heard in his head, and the Quartet had become obsolete.
The tracks from the three subsequent studio dates were shelved, not to be released until after Trane’s untimely death from cancer in 1967 at just 40 years old. In my opinion, the August 26 and September 2 tracks rank amongst the best work of his career.
Click the track titles to enjoy each of the selections on YouTube
SESSION : TRACK - ALBUM (release date) - [L] indicates live recording
March 26: [L] One Down, One Up - Live At The Half Note (CD 2005)2
March 28: [L] Nature Boy - Impulse! promo AS-90 (LP 1966)3
May 7: [L] Song Of Praise - Live At The Half Note (CD 2005)
May 17: Song Of Praise / Brazilia - JCQ Plays ( LP 1965)
May 26: Dear Lord / After The Crescent / One Down, One Up - Dear Old Stockholm (CD 1993)4
June 10: Transition / Suite - Transition (LP 1970) Welcome - Kulu se mama (LP 1967) Untitled Original 90314 - Living Space (CD 1998)
June 16: Living Space / Dusk Dawn / UO 90320 - Living Space (CD 1998)
June 28: Ascension (LP 1966) - augmented Quartet date5
July 2: [L] One Down, One Up - New Thing At Newport (LP 1966)
August 26: Sun Ship / Dearly Beloved / Amen / Attaining / Ascent - Sun Ship (LP 1971)
September 2: Love / Compassion / Joy / Consequences / Serenity - First Meditations “for quartet” (LP 1977)
September 22: Joy “alternate version” First Meditations CD reissue (1992)
All studio tracks were recorded at the Rudy Van Gelder studio in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, except ‘Sun Ship,’ recorded at RCA Victor Studios, New York City; and Joy “alternate version,” recorded at Coast Recorders, San Francisco.
Following the final Quartet studio session on September 2, the band travelled to Seattle, recording on September 30 ‘Live In Seattle’ and on October 1 ‘Om’ with new member Pharoah Sanders (tenor sax), and guests Don Garrett (clarinet and bass) and Joe Brazil (flute).
This marked the beginning of Coltrane’s ‘Meditations’ band, the last to feature Tyner and Jones, who were out by the end of the year, dissatisfied with the new direction of the music (and presumably the payroll pie slices being smaller).
The ‘Meditations’ album was recorded on November 23, just under one year after ‘A Love Supreme’ — the “transition” was complete.
Note that this chronology deliberately omits standards/covers (except for the live version of Nature Boy, by eden ahbez), solos/duets, unissued/alternate takes and other marginalia. Also omitted are the February 17-18 studio sessions with Art Davis as second bassist, which yielded two versions of Nature Boy and the Broadway show tune Feeling Good, both covers.
Note also that of the 27 tracks recorded during 1965 (excluding ‘Ascension’), ONLY FIVE were issued before Coltrane’s death on July 17, 1967: Nature Boy (AS-90 live version); Song Of Praise and Brazilia from ‘JCQ Plays;’ Welcome from ‘Kulu se mama;’ and One Down, One Up from ‘New Thing At Newport.’
For more information on Coltrane’s recorded legacy, wikipedia is a fine start:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Coltrane_discography
Finally, a shout-out to
, whose recent Coltrane post was my inspiration for dragging out this list and embellishing it with some scribbles. Thanks Lewis...…and thank you for reading. I hope you’ve enjoyed the music, especially if you’re hearing it for the first time. Trane would be pleased we’re still listening.
Pro tip: watch YT videos ad-free by using Firefox or Chrome browser with the uBlock Origin extension installed
https://www.discogs.com/Various-The-New-Wave-In-Jazz/release/2015447 - “John Coltrane and his Quartet played several times at the Village Gate. Only one track has appeared so far on an authorised recording: the outstanding version of Nature Boy that was issued on the ‘New Wave of Jazz’ (Impulse 90) album, one of the five [tracks] recorded on March 28, 1965 at the concert for the benefit of the Black Arts Repertory Theatre/School. The other [tracks] on the album were performed by the groups of Albert Ayler, Grachan Moncur/Bobby Hutcherson, Archie Shepp, and Charles Tolliver/James Spaulding.” (https://www.organissimo.org/forum/index.php?/topic/3358-coltrane-at-village-gate & https://www.ayler.co.uk/html/greenwichcovers.html)
At the May 26 session, Roy Haynes replaced Jones on drums.
At the June 28 session, Coltrane recorded ‘Ascension,’ the first studio date with the Quartet augmented by guests since the 1961 ‘Africa/Brass’ band featuring (the late) Eric Dolphy. Guests on ‘Ascension’ were Pharoah Sanders and Archie Shepp (tenor sax), Freddie Hubbard and Dewey Johnson (trumpet), John Tchicai and Marion Brown (alto sax), and Art Davis (bass).