Search Results for "Miles Davis"

John Coltrane – Standard Coltrane (1990) [Analogue Productions 2002]
PS3 Rip | SACD ISO | DSD64 2.0 > 1-bit/2.8224 MHz | 34:39 minutes | Scans included | 1.39 GB
or FLAC(converted with foobar2000 to tracks) 24bit/88,2 kHz | Scans included | 652 MB

John Coltrane had yet to move into his modal post-bop phase in 1958 when he recorded a session for Prestige Records on July 11 with trumpeter/flügelhornist Wilbur Harden, pianist Red Garland, bassist Paul Chambers, and drummer Jimmy Cobb, the results of which were issued in 1962 as Standard Coltrane. His groundbreaking modal work with Miles Davis on Kind of Blue was still a few months into the future, which makes this set more historical than vital or transitional, although it’s pleasant enough, featuring Coltrane on several standards, including a ten-plus-minute version of “Invitation.” Other Coltrane material from this 1958 Prestige era ended up on the albums Stardust (1963) and Bahia (1965), and all of it, including these four tracks, has been collected on The Stardust Session from Prestige Records, which is probably the way to go.

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John Coltrane – Standard Coltrane (1962) [Analogue Productions 2019]
SACD Rip | SACD ISO | DSD64 2.0 > 1-bit/2.8224 MHz | 34:53 minutes | Front/Rear Covers | 1,4 GB
or FLAC Stereo (converted with foobar2000 to tracks) 24bit/96 kHz | Front/Rear Covers | 776 MB

Standard Coltrane consists of tracks recorded in 1958 but only released in 1962 to capitalize on Coltrane’s growing popularity throughout the 60s. The material on the album consists of well known music from Broadway or films, mostly ballads, recorded with the bulk of the Miles Davis band of the day: Wilbur Harden on trumpet and flugelhorn, Red Garland on piano, bassist Paul Chambers and drummer Jimmy Cobb. This is a prime example of Coltrane in the middle of his signature “sheets of sound” period.

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John Coltrane – Soultrane (1958) [MFSL 2003]
PS3 Rip | SACD ISO | DSD64 2.0 > 1-bit/2.8224 MHz | 39:56 minutes | Scans included | 1,61 GB
or FLAC(converted with foobar2000 to tracks) 24bit/88,2 kHz | Scans included | 855 MB

In addition to being bandmates within Miles Davis’ mid-’50s quintet, John Coltrane (tenor sax) and Red Garland (piano) head up a session featuring members from a concurrent version of the Red Garland Trio: Paul Chambers (bass) and Art Taylor (drums). This was the second date to feature the core of this band. A month earlier, several sides were cut that would end up on Coltrane’s Lush Life album. Soultrane offers a sampling of performance styles and settings from Coltrane and crew. As with a majority of his Prestige sessions, there is a breakneck-tempo bop cover (in this case an absolute reworking of Irving Berlin’s “Russian Lullaby”), a few smoldering ballads (such as “I Want to Talk About You” and “Theme for Ernie”), as well as a mid-tempo romp (“Good Bait”). Each of these sonic textures displays a different facet of not only the musical kinship between Coltrane and Garland but in the relationship that Coltrane has with the music. The bop-heavy solos that inform “Good Bait,” as well as the “sheets of sound” technique that was named for the fury in Coltrane’s solos on the rendition of “Russian Lullaby” found here, contain the same intensity as the more languid and considerate phrasings displayed particularly well on “I Want to Talk About You.” As time will reveal, this sort of manic contrast would become a significant attribute of Coltrane’s unpredictable performance style. Not indicative of the quality of this set is the observation that, because of the astounding Coltrane solo works that both precede and follow Soultrane — most notably Lush Life and Blue Train — the album has perhaps not been given the exclusive attention it so deserves.

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John Coltrane – My Favorite Things (1961) [Reissue 2013]
PS3 Rip | SACD ISO | DSD64 2.0 > 1-bit/2.8224 MHz | 40:45 minutes | Scans included | 1,7 GB
or FLAC(converted with foobar2000 to tracks) 24bit/88,2 kHz | Scans included | 898 MB

Although seemingly impossible to comprehend, this landmark jazz date made in 1960 was recorded in less than three days. All the more remarkable is that the same sessions which yielded My Favorite Things would also inform a majority of the albums Coltrane Plays the Blues, Coltrane’s Sound, and Coltrane Legacy. It is easy to understand the appeal that these sides continue to hold. The unforced, practically casual soloing styles of the assembled quartet — which includes Coltrane (soprano/tenor sax), McCoy Tyner (piano), Steve Davis (bass), and Elvin Jones (drums) — allow for tastefully executed passages à la the Miles Davis Quintet, a trait Coltrane no doubt honed during his tenure in that band. Each track of this album is a joy to revisit. The ultimate listenability may reside in this quartet’s capacity to not be overwhelmed by the soloist. Likewise, they are able to push the grooves along surreptitiously and unfettered. For instance, the support that the trio — most notably Tyner — gives to Coltrane on the title track winds the melody in and around itself. However, instead of becoming entangled and directionless, these musical sidebars simultaneously define the direction the song is taking. As a soloist, the definitive soprano sax runs during the Cole Porter standard “Everytime We Say Goodbye” and tenor solos on “But Not for Me” easily establish Coltrane as a pioneer of both instruments.

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John Coltrane – My Favorite Things (1961) [Japanese SHM-SACD ‘2011] – MONO
PS3 Rip | SACD ISO | DSD64 2.0 > 1-bit/2.8224 MHz | 40:54 minutes | Scans included | 1,69 GB
or FLAC(converted with foobar2000 to tracks) 24bit/88,2 kHz | Scans included | 692 MB

Although seemingly impossible to comprehend, this landmark jazz date made in 1960 was recorded in less than three days. All the more remarkable is that the same sessions which yielded My Favorite Things would also inform a majority of the albums Coltrane Plays the Blues, Coltrane’s Sound, and Coltrane Legacy. It is easy to understand the appeal that these sides continue to hold. The unforced, practically casual soloing styles of the assembled quartet — which includes Coltrane (soprano/tenor sax), McCoy Tyner (piano), Steve Davis (bass), and Elvin Jones (drums) — allow for tastefully executed passages à la the Miles Davis Quintet, a trait Coltrane no doubt honed during his tenure in that band. Each track of this album is a joy to revisit. The ultimate listenability may reside in this quartet’s capacity to not be overwhelmed by the soloist. Likewise, they are able to push the grooves along surreptitiously and unfettered. For instance, the support that the trio — most notably Tyner — gives to Coltrane on the title track winds the melody in and around itself. However, instead of becoming entangled and directionless, these musical sidebars simultaneously define the direction the song is taking. As a soloist, the definitive soprano sax runs during the Cole Porter standard “Everytime We Say Goodbye” and tenor solos on “But Not for Me” easily establish Coltrane as a pioneer of both instruments.

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John Coltrane – Lush Life (1961) {1957-58 Recordings} [Fantasy Remaster ‘2003]
PS3 Rip | ISO | SACD DSD64 2.0 > 1-bit/2.8224 MHz | 36:33 minutes | Scans included | 1.53 GB
or FLAC(converted with foobar2000 to tracks) 24bit/88,2 kHz | Scans included | 433 MB

When he recorded Lush Life, John Coltrane was rapidly gaining recognition for his innovations in jazz soloing. As a member of the Miles Davis Quintet, he had become known far beyond a small circle of jazz insiders. Coltrane’s development as a soloist came at a pace and an intensity seldom witnessed in jazz. It was immeasurably aided by two factors: He jettisoned his drug and alcohol habits and, during a hiatus from the Davis band, he worked with Thelonious Monk. The boldness and daring that began to characterize Coltrane’s playing during the Monk period are evident here in three pieces on which he is accompanied only by bass and drums. Freeing his astonishing creativity from the imposed harmonies of a piano, he employs his massive technique to put into standard song and blues forms nearly all that they could contain. In two pieces with pianist Red Garland, his colleague from the Davis group, Coltrane is scarcely less inventive. The clarity and definition of SA-CD technology make the intimacy of Coltrane’s style seem even more conversational.

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John Coltrane – Giant Steps (1960) [Japanese SHM-SACD ‘2011] – MONO
PS3 Rip | SACD ISO | DSD64 2.0 > 1-bit/2.8224 MHz | 37:34 minutes | Scans included | 1,56 GB
or FLAC(converted with foobar2000 to tracks) 24bit/88,2 kHz | Scans included | 705 MB

History will undoubtedly enshrine this disc as a watershed the likes of which may never truly be appreciated. Giant Steps bore the double-edged sword of furthering the cause of the music as well as delivering it to an increasingly mainstream audience. Although this was John Coltrane’s debut for Atlantic, he was concurrently performing and recording with Miles Davis. Within the space of less than three weeks, Coltrane would complete his work with Davis and company on another genre-defining disc, Kind of Blue, before commencing his efforts on this one. Coltrane (tenor sax) is flanked by essentially two different trios. Recording commenced in early May of 1959 with a pair of sessions that featured Tommy Flanagan (piano) and Art Taylor (drums), as well as Paul Chambers — who was the only bandmember other than Coltrane to have performed on every date. When recording resumed in December of that year, Wynton Kelly (piano) and Jimmy Cobb (drums) were instated — replicating the lineup featured on Kind of Blue, sans Miles Davis of course. At the heart of these recordings, however, is the laser-beam focus of Coltrane’s tenor solos. All seven pieces issued on the original Giant Steps are likewise Coltrane compositions. He was, in essence, beginning to rewrite the jazz canon with material that would be centered on solos — the 180-degree antithesis of the art form up to that point. These arrangements would create a place for the solo to become infinitely more compelling. This would culminate in a frenetic performance style that noted jazz journalist Ira Gitler accurately dubbed “sheets of sound.” Coltrane’s polytonal torrents extricate the amicable and otherwise cordial solos that had begun decaying the very exigency of the genre — turning it into the equivalent of easy listening. He wastes no time as the disc’s title track immediately indicates a progression from which there would be no looking back. Line upon line of highly cerebral improvisation snake between the melody and solos, practically fusing the two. The resolute intensity of “Countdown” does more to modernize jazz in 141 seconds than many artists do in their entire careers. Tellingly, the contrasting and ultimately pastoral “Naima” was the last tune to be recorded, and is the only track on the original long-player to feature the Kind of Blue quartet. What is lost in tempo is more than recouped in intrinsic melodic beauty.

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