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Have you ever had a record/tape or CD that has been lying around for years – you play it once or twice – it doesn’t grab you and it gets thrown on a pile, then one day, you discover it? The most egregious example of this for me was the Stone Roses’ debut album that suddenly infected me in about 1997 (8 years after release). The most important, though, was a cassette of “Blue Train” by John Coltrane that was my soundtrack in the early summer of 1991.

Every “greatest jazz albums of all time” list ever constructed will point you towards “A Love Supreme” by John Coltrane. I have owned many versions of that recording – CD, LP, Blu-Ray audio, Box set etc. and I can say, for certain, that I am not quite ready for it. Yet.

In 1990 – for most of us, jazz was Stanley Jordan, Stanley Clarke, David Sanborn, Kenny G – and all of the crap that was featured, back then, in Jazziz magazine (so called “contemporary jazz” analogous to elevator music). The sounds were echo gated, overproduced, layered with synthesizers. There was no jazz on the radio, as I have mentioned before. My only access was from various sampler tapes and CDs. And then a jazz movie came out – not a crusty old bio flick like “Bird” or “Round Midnight” but bright and colourful and ambitious and elegant.

The movie, a Spike Lee joint, was “Mo Better Blues.” It starred Denzel Washington as a jazz trumpeter. Wesley Snipes played Shadow Henderson, the saxophone player in Washington’s quartet. They are competitive professionally and romantically – principally for the attention of Clarke (played by Cynda Williams). Neither the movie nor its soundtrack ever grabbed me – but one scene jumped to my attention. Shadow goes into a record store and buys a bunch of John Coltrane CDs (says something like “I have all of these already) just to spend a few seconds at the till with Clarke – and maybe arrange a little bit more.  The message was clear – if you wanted to be taken seriously as a jazz saxophone player in 1990 – you needed to study Coltrane. My first JC album was “Blue Train” picked up on cassette, mid-price, in the late 1980s, at the Virgin Megastore. It did not click instantly.

“Blue Train” is an anomaly. Recorded in 1957 (September 15^th), it was is only recording as a leader for Blue Note (Coltrane had previously contributed to a Johnny Griffin blowing session and a Paul Chambers album). He had recently quit heroin – for which had been banished from the Miles Davis band. He had been recording as a sideman and leader at Prestige records for about 6 months, and would continue to do so through most of 1958 (hence the recent Craft recordings boxset).  At the time, Coltrane had playing with Thelonious Monk and was soon to rejoin Davis.

The session came about as a result of a visit Coltrane made to Blue Note records the previous year – in order to scrounge some Sidney Bechet records. At the time he made verbal agreement and received an advance from Alfred Lion. In the meantime Coltrane signed an exclusive contract with Prestige and required the permission of Bob Weinstock to record with his competitors.

The band he assembled will be familiar to Miles Davis fans: the drummer was Philly Joe Jones and the bassist Paul Chambers. Kenny Drew played piano. In addition Lee Morgan played trumpet and Curtis Fuller trombone.

I’m not going into detail about the tracks on the album – it opens with the fabulous “Blue Train” and fizzes along for 42 minutes. The sound is marvelously crisp – typical Van Gelder and the band are tight – nicely rehearsed and disciplined. All of early Coltrane is here from sheets of sound to blues to ballads. It is wonderful and not “over valued” as suggested in the Penguin Guide to Jazz (which I will visit in a later post).

My original version was on cassette – listened through a Walkman. I have, at least, three copies on vinyl (see picture above), the best of which is the Music Matters 33rpm. I have a CD copy or two and the 24/192 high res version. They are all good. It is one of the few jazz albums that I can listen to in the car, at home while working or by the fireside. It is a great place to start with Coltrane. Unfortunately, being the early 1990s, the only CDs that I could afford were those that were on sale – and I followed it up with the (relatively) inaccessible  The Major Works (including Ascention), Expression,  and the outtakes album From the Original Master Tapes. Newport 1963, however, was terrific.

Anyway, for the uninitiated – here is my suggested Coltrane listening in order:

1. Blue Train (Blue Note)
2. My Favorite Things (Atlantic)
3. Giant Steps (Atlantic)
4. Ballads (Impulse) or Africa/Brass
5. Settin’ The Pace or Lush Life or Soultrane (Prestige)
6. Bags & Trane (Atlantic)
7. With Thelonious Monk at Carnegie Hall (Blue Note)
8. With Johnny Hartmann (Impulse)
9. Live at the Village Vanguard (Impulse)
10. A Love Supreme (Impulse)
11. New Thing At Newport (Impulse)
12. Ascension (Impulse)

There are now bad Coltrane albums – although I would advise against Live at the Village Vanguard – Again: it is tough going and, strangely, seem to be in every vinyl bin I ever visit containing Coltrane albums.

Of course there are lots of albums on which Coltrane plays as a sideman – various Miles Davis recordings, a load of Prestige albums and then albums with Kenny Burrell, Cannonball Adderley and Duke Ellington. The are all highly accessible and wonderful. If you were to pick one era – it would be Atlantic (the Heavyweight Champion Boxset). My personal favorite is Live At The Village Vanguard (1962). I have a lovely mid 70s Japanese pressing, but the 1997 box-set is truly wonderful – featuring Coltrane’s best band: McCoy Tyner, Elvin Jones,  Jimmy Garrison and Eric Dolphy (I have a nice copyright free bootleg box of the band playing in Europe and there is a Jazz Icons DVD available featuring the group).

~ by Pat Neligan on June 4, 2019.

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