Jazz Archives

John Coltrane - The Mastery Of John Coltrane / Vol. III Jupiter Variation (1967)

1. Number One (11:58) John Coltrane
2. Peace On Earth (7:12) John Coltrane
3. Jupiter (variation) (6:49) John Coltrane
4. Leo (11:02) John Coltrane

Credits
Rashied Ali - Drums
Alice Coltrane - Piano
John Coltrane - Sax (Tenor)
Charlie Haden - Bass
Pharoah Sanders - Tambourine, Flute (Wood), Shaker

Notes
Recorded at Van Gelder Studio, Englewood Cliffs, N.J on March 7, 1967 (A1), February 22, 1967 (B1, B2).
Peace On Earth recorded at Coast Recorders, San Francisco on February 2, 1966.
Alice Coltrane replaced her piano part and Charlie Haden replaced Jimmy Garrison's bass part at Village Recorders, Los Angeles in April, 1972.
Previously released on AS-9225 with a string section overdubbed in April, 1972. It is released here without the strings.

Cosmic Music, a jazz album by John Coltrane and his wife Alice Coltrane, was released shortly after the death of John Coltrane. The album has the following tracks: "Manifestation", "Reverend King", "Lord Help Me", and "Sun". Reverend King is a tribute to the famous Martin Luther King Jr.  John Coltrane's two tracks, among his last, were recorded in 1966 and Alice's two tracks were recorded in 1968. True to the name of the album, Cosmic, the music is intense, spiritual, soul searching and moving, with the common perception that John introduced fundamentals of Indian philosophy into jazz. The album has John Coltrane on the saxophone and Alice Coltrane playing the piano.

:::Review by www.vinylrevinyl.com:::

Alice And John Coltrane – Cosmic Music (1966)

A1 Manifestation 11:14
Percussion – Rashied Ali, Ray Appleton
Written-By – John Coltrane

A2 Lord, Help Me To Be 7:11
Percussion – Ben Riley
Written-By – Alice Coltrane

B1 Reverend King 10:45
Percussion – Rashied Ali, Ray Appleton
Written-By – John Coltrane

B2 The Sun 3:50
Flute [Traces Of Pharoah's Flute Can Be Heard In The Distant Backround], Vocals [Invocation] – Pharoah Sanders
Vocals [Invocation] – John Coltrane
Written-By – Alice Coltrane
Percussion – Ben Riley

Credits
Bass, Violin – Jimmy Garrison
Flute, Tenor Saxophone – Pharoah Sanders
Piano – Alice Coltrane
Tenor Saxophone, Bass Clarinet – John Coltrane

This CD reissues what was arguably the finest of the John Coltrane-Pharoah Sanders collaborations. On five diverse but almost consistently intense movements ("The Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost," "Compassion," "Love," "Consequences," and "Serenity"), the two tenor saxophonists, pianist McCoy Tyner, bassist Jimmy Garrison, and both Elvin Jones and Rashied Ali on drums create some powerful, dense, and emotional music. Unlike some of the live jams of 1966, the passionate performances never ramble on too long and the screams and screeches fit logically into the spiritual themes. This would be the last recording of Coltrane with Tyner and Jones.

:::Review by Scott Yanow:::

John Coltrane - Meditations (1965)

1. The Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost 12:50
2. Compassion 6:50
3. Love 8:11
4. Consequences 9:10
5. Serenity 3:31

Credits
Bass - Jimmy Garrison
Drums - Elvin Jones, Rashied Ali
Engineer - Rudy Van Gelder
Producer - Bob Thiele
Saxophone [Tenor] - John Coltrane, Pharoah Sanders
Piano - McCoy Tyner

:::Ebba Jahn - Rising Tones Cross (1985):::
Time: 112 mins
DVD label: FilmPals DVD 01 and the film's,
www.EbbaJahn.com 
through which the DVD can be purchased or the film rented for screenings.

Eye of Sound: It may sound difficult to believe it, but most of the artists listed above were once striving for recognition in the jazz scene and fighting for sheer survival. Ebba Jahn's Rising Tone Cross captures a moment when these artists were just starting to create a "scene", when their sparkling creativity was not yet comforted by certainty and success. More interestingly, perhaps, the film deals with issues of class and race and with the differences between the social contexts of improvised music in Europe and America, challenging many assumptions about musicianship, career building, and the possibilities for an artistic livelihood. What really distinguishes this from other "jazz films", however, is the visual and narrative focus on New York as the metaphorical force behind the musician's creative burst, portraying it as a dirty, poor, rough and lively city not yet tamed by shinny images of  success and bourgeois comfort.

  

This film is a documentary composition of new jazz, New York as the city that generates it, and the musicians playing it. The thoughts of the saxophonist Charles Gayle, the bass player William Parker, and Peter Kowald from Germany accompany the film. Shot on 16 mm in the mid 80s this film remains one of a kind until today.

"Rising Tones Cross is a nostalgia piece for some, a valuable historical document for others...Many of the musicians are still active players, and unsurprisingly the film captures many who have departed firmly in their element: Charles Tyler, Don Cherry, Frank Wright, Denis Charles, Jeanne Lee, Wilber Morris, Peter Kowald...
The film is romantic. There is a certain appeal and charm to images of a dirtier and grittier New York...and the music is wonderful, compelling stuff even for people jaded about improvised music. Rising Tones Cross provides some continuity, showing how jazz survived..." Andrey Henkin

 

BOY! ARE WE HAPPY TO SEE THE RELEASE OF THIS FIRST ITEM IN TODAY'S NEWSLETTER...
Ebba Jahn's documentary of the 1984 was shot partly at the New York Vision Jazz Festival curated by William Parker and Peter Kowald. Groups and musicians on film include Don Cherry & The Sound Unity Festival Orchestra; Jemeel Moondoc Sextet; Peter Brotzmann Ensemble; Peter Kowald Quartet; Billy Bang's Forbidden Planet; Charles Tyler Quintet; Peter Kowald Trio; William Parker & Patricia Nicholson Dance; Burton; Roy Campbell Jr.; Ruediger Carl; Daniel Carter; Dennis Charles; Ellen Christi; Curtis Clark; Marilyn Crispell; Charles Gayle; Wayne Horvitz; Masahiko Kono; Jeanne Lee; Wilber Morris; Bobby Previte; Irene Schweizer; David S. Ware; Frank Wright; John ZornThe early 1980s were a period of transition for the avant-garde fringe in New York. The loft scene -the days in which Ornette Coleman's home on Prince Street and Sam River's Studio Rivbea provided workshops for experimenters to develop their art - was drawing to a close, and the arrival of the Knitting Factory and its explosive impact on the Downtown scene was still a few years away. It fell to the artists themselves to create new opportunities.
As chronicled in Ebba Jahn's 1984 documentary, Rising Tones Cross, two such motivated visionaries were bassist William Parker and dancer Patricia Nicholson. The film centers around the Sound Unity Festival, a precursor to the couples' current Lower East Side bash, the Vision Festival.
It was the German bassist Peter Kowald, on an extended sojourn in New York that included a hefty formative role in Sound Unity, who convinced Jahn to make a film about the upstart festival. "It was clear to me that I wanted to have a German protagonist and an American protagonist," Jahn says. Her friend Kowald was the German choice, naturally, but America's representative had yet to be confirmed. "Originally, I had thought of Ornette Coleman. But on the day I arrived, first thing in the morning I met Charles Gayle, the most un-famous saxophonist at that time in New York City." That meeting, combined with a chance encounter with a cameraman who was working on Shirley Clarke's Coleman documentary, Made in America, led Jahn to shift her focus "from the most famous avant-garde saxophonist to the most un-famous."
"Instead of simply a compilation of festival footage - though performances by musicians like Jemeel Moondoc, Don Cherry, and Peter Broetzmann abound in the film - Rising Tones Cross was intended to be a "tool for music education. "For many people who saw the film in Germany, it was the first time they ever heard this type of music," she says. To help facilitate this reaction, Jahn put the most difficult music at the end of the film, easing the audience into it gradually. She also included a number of scenes intended to dispel common myths about free jazz. For example when Broetzmann's strapping 11-piece ensemble - boasting a tenor phalanx comprised of the leader, Gayle, David S. Ware, and Frank Wright - seems to be blowing chaotically onstage, Jahn's camera pans across Broetzmann's diagrammatic score to reveal an extraordinary amount of careful detail, planning, and scripting - the architecture girding the maelstrom. And having overcome an initial distrust and some reluctance to take part in the film, the enigmatic Gayle is revealed to be affable, erudite, and quite well-versed in jazz-history, a far cry from his dark public persona and stage presence. "He was perceived as a philosopher in Germany," says Jahn.
" In 1984, before Tonic or CB's Lounge or even the Knitting Factory and Rudy Giuliani, New York City was a rough-and-tumble place filled with a wonderful array of musicians in a state of hyper-creativity. Some of them had come out of the loft scene of the '70s or even earlier and were reconciling all the shades of the avant garde while others were creating entirely new vocabularies still being solidified today.
German filmmaker Ebba Jahn made 'A Jazz Film' that year with interviews, musical performances and fascinating visuals of the city before it became sterilized. For the film's 20th anniversary last year, Jahn put the film onto DVD format, a nostalgia piece for some, a valuable historical document for others. Many of the musicians featured are still active players: Charles Gayle, William Parker, John Zorn, Jemeel Moondoc, Irene Schweizer, Peter Brotzmann.
And unsurprisingly, the film captures many who have departed firmly in their element: Charles Tyler, Don Cherry, Denis Charles, Peter Kowald.
The two main voices of the film are Gayle and Kowald, an American and a German playing improvised music in basements and lofts and in the Sound Unity Festival, the precursor to today's Vision Festival. The film is romantic. There is a certain appeal and charm to the images of a dirtier, grittier New York.
The scene, always the scene, seemed to be more vibrant and the musicians less weighed down. And the music is wonderful, compelling stuff even for people jaded about improvised music. Rising Tones Cross provides some continuity, showing how jazz survived when pop and rap and heavy metal began to fully take over the public consciousness." (Steve Smith, Andrey Henkin, DMG)

Credits

PETER KOWALD QUINTET
Melting - Lines - Cycle

Charles Gayle
Peter Kowald
Marilyn Crispell
Rashied Ali

PETER KOWALD TRIO
Harvest Green

Charles Gayle
Peter Kowald
John Betsch

JOHN ZORN DUO
Sunday Afternoon at Life Café

John Zorn
Wayne Horvitz

BILLY BANG`S FORBIDDEN PLANET
Music For The Love Of It

Wayne Horvitz
Billy Bang
Oscar Sanders
Kim Clarke
Bobby Previte

WILLIAM PARKER & PATRICIA NICHOLSON ENSEMBLE
A Thousand Cranes Opera

Wayne Horvitz
Ricardo Strobert
Masahiko Kono
William Parker
Denis Charles
Lisa Sokolov
Jeanne Lee
Ellen Christi
Patricia Nicholson-Parker
Maria Mitchell
Carol Penn Muhammed
Frank Boyer
Keith Dames
A.R. Penck piano

CHARLES TYLER QUINTET
Life Can Be Whatsoever

Curtis Clark
Charles Tyler
Roy Campbell jr.
Wilber Morris
John Betsch


DON CHERRY & THE SOUND UNITY FESTIVAL ORCHESTRA
Kangaroo Hoopie

Don Cherry
Peter Brötzmann
Rüdiger Carl
Daniel Carter
Ellen Christi
Felice Rosser
Peter Kowald
Wilber Morris
Denis Charles
Maria Mitchell

JEMEEL MOONDOC SEXTET
In Walked Monk

Jemeel Moondoc
Roy Campbell jr.
Rahn Burton
Ellen Christi
William Parker
Rashied Ali

IRENE SCHWEIZER DUO
For Julian Beck

Irene Schweizer
Rüdiger Carl

PETER BRÖTZMANN ENSEMBLE
Alarm

Peter Brötzmann
David S. Ware
Frank Wright
Charles Gayle
Jemeel Moondoc
Roy Campbell jr.
Masahiko Kono
Irene Schweizer
Peter Kowald
William Parker
Rashied Ali

Arguments abound as to when John Coltrane reached his creative zenith. There are listeners who look upon his Giant Steps period, documented through a string of recordings on the Altantic label as his most fertile period. Others with freer leanings point to his so-called Late Period as the source of the most musical promise and joy. There are even those who contend that his life ended before his artistic apogee was attained. Preferences run the gamut of his career but such factionary distinctions are ultimately immaterial in the larger scheme of his life's work. What is widely agreed upon is the accelerated pace of his musical search in later years; a quest that found him delving deep into the religious and the emanicipatory and unveiling a recorded legacy that stands as one of the finest in the history of Jazz. There were a host of precursors and influences that shaped Coltrane's sound, but his method and vision remained wholly his own.
As one of Coltrane's final recordings this duet session with Ali is one of his most essential and unique. Not only is it the grandfather of all extended saxophone/drums duets in jazz, but it also set the standard for all that came after. Coltrane had engaged in earlier duets with Elvin Jones (see "Vigil" on Kulu Se Mama ), but in Ali he found a drummer even more willing to abandon terrestrial rhythmic boundaries and set course for uncharted space. Across these duets the saxophonist is at his most visceral exuding an overpowering confidence tempered at times with sacrosanct tenderness. Ali's interlocking pan-rhythmic patterns envelop and embrace while fervently pushing the music forward.
The synergistic rapport between the two men is in gorgeous evidence from the onset of "Mars." A brief invocation of delicate bells and the two take off like a pair of comets trailing forth incandescently twined tails. "Venus," like the deity that is it's namesake, is a creature of absolute beauty built on a melodic phrase that mollifies the ears at the same time it galvanizes them. "Jupiter" turns the tables, bursting forth in a torrential sheet of densely packed phrases. Ali's traps carve out a brawny swathe of rhythmic energy and his muscular solo that initiates "Saturn" is similarly packed with barely contained ecstatic force. Rounding out the session are two bonus tracks, both of which were included on an earlier compact disc reissue, but not on the original LP. Setting this edition apart from earlier incarnations is the superb 24-bit remastering work and several false starts that preface "Mars" (presumably aimed at Trane aficionados who must have every scrap the master committed to tape).
Much free jazz today is accorded the additional appellation "energy music"—music so suffused with strength and vigor that it rejuvenates the listener through the transfer of aural victuals. If ever there were an archetypal example of "energy music" these duets between Trane and Ali are it. As if in unanimous testament to the power of these two players together piano and bass are never even remotely missed.

:::Review by Derek Taylor:::

John Coltrane - Interstellar Space (1967)

1. Mars 10:42
2. Leo 10:55
3. Venus 8:27
4. Jupiter Variation 6:45
5. Jupiter 5:22
6. Saturn 11:36

Credits
Drums - Rashied Ali
Saxophone [Tenor], Bells, Producer [Original Recordings], Written-by - John Coltrane

This is a major set, "new" music from John Coltrane that was recorded February 15, 1967, (five months before his death) but not released for the first time until 1995. One of several "lost" sessions that were stored by Alice Coltrane for decades, only one selection ("Offering" which was on Expression) among the eight numbers and three alternates was ever out before. The music, although well worth releasing, offers no real hints as to what Coltrane might have been playing had he lived into the 1970s. The performances by the quartet (with pianist Alice Coltrane, bassist Jimmy Garrison, and drummer Rashied Ali) are briefer (from two-and-a-half to five-plus minutes) than Coltrane's recordings of the previous year, but that might have been due to the fact that this music was played in the studio (as opposed to the marathon live blowouts with Pharoah Sanders) or to Coltrane's worsening health. Actually 'Trane (who sticks exclusively to tenor here) is as powerful as usual, showing no compromise in his intense flights, and indulging in sound explorations that are as free (but with purpose) as any he had ever done. Coltrane's true fans will want to go out of their way to acquire this intriguing CD.

:::Review by Scott Yanow:::

John Coltrane - Stellar Regions (1967)

1. Seraphic Light 8:54
2. Sun Star 6:05
3. Stellar Regions 3:31
4. Iris 3:50
5. Offering 8:20
6. Configuration 4:01
7. Jimmy's Mode 5:58
8. Tranesonic 4:14
9. Stellar Regions (Alternate Take) 4:37
10. Sun Star (Alternate Take) 8:05
11. Tranesonic (Alternate Take) 2:48

Credits
Bass - Jimmy Garrison
Drums - Rashied Ali
Piano - Alice Coltrane
Producer, Composed By, Saxophone [Tenor] - John Coltrane