New York, NY (Top40 Charts) "There are so many things to be considered in making music",
John Coltrane told an interviewer during his first European tour as a bandleader in the autumn of 1961. "Many things on which I don't think I've reached a final conclusion."
Indeed, the music Coltrane made on this trip took audiences to the very cutting edge, leaving many questions unanswered, even for the saxophonists most ardent fans. For some he had taken the fundamentals of modern jazz to breaking point, thrusting it into "the realms of higher mathematics", as one bewildered journalist put it.
To others, Coltrane was the voice of progress, bravely reasserting the exploratory nature of jazz, daring to push his core repertoire through a process of continual reinvention, taking himself, his fellow players and those who flocked to hear him on an impassioned journey of discovery, night after night. Coltrane's performances were now akin to opening Pandora's Box. "There are all sorts of moods involved", wrote one partisan jazz writer of the tenorists playing during the tour: "deep power...warmth...gracefulness...so many things."
The impact of Coltrane and his regular quartet sidemen - pianist McCoy Tyner, bassist Reggie Workman and drummer Elvin Jones - was made doubly controversial by the leaders last-minute decision to add the formidable multi-instrumentalist Eric Dolphy, a musician who Coltrane regarded as a true kindred spirit but whose introduction the European audiences was to prove equally divisive.
Playing over 30 concert appearances in under three weeks, the band criss-crossed the continent from France to Finland, taking its message to far larger crowds than could be squeezed into its club sets back in the US.
These recordings have since acquired almost legendary status and have previously only been available in sporadic fashion, but for the first time ever, this new release collates tapes made by the quintet in Paris, Copenhagen, Helsinki and Stockholm, creating a truly sundering anthology of this short-lived band at its peak.
Newly remastered for optimum sound quality, along with examples of Coltrane's landmark compositions Naima and Impressions, this collection also includes the saxophonists only recording of Victor Young's theme
Delilah and, as a bonus, a stunning rare "second house" performance of Coltrane's transformational anthem My Favourite Things taped in Stockholm.
This release features photographs, concert memorabilia and press clippings, and comes complete with an extensive booklet essay by award-winning British saxophonist and writer
Simon Spillett.
John Coltrane (tenor and soprano sax)
Eric Dolphy (alto sax, bass clarinet, flute)
McCoy Tyner (piano)
Reggie Workman (bass)
Elvin Jones (drums)
CD 1:
L'Olympia, Paris, November 18th 1961 (First House)
1. Blue
Train (Coltrane)
2. I Want To Talk About You (Eckstine)
3. Impressions (Coltrane)
4. My Favourite Things (Rodgers, Hammerstein)
L'Olympia, Paris, November 18th 1961 (Second House)
5. I Want To Talk About You (Eckstine)
6. Blue
Train (Coltrane)
CD 2:
L'Olympia, Paris, November 18th 1961 (Second House, cont.)
1. My Favourite Things (Rodgers, Hammerstein)
Falkconercentret, Copenhagen, Denmark, November 20th 1961
2. Announcement
3.
Delilah (Young)
4. Everytime We Say Goodbye (Porter)
5. Impressions (Coltrane)
6. Naima (Coltrane)
CD 3:
Falkonercentret, Copenhagen, Denmark, November 20th 1961 (cont.)
1. My Favourite Things (false starts)
2. Announcement by John Coltrane
3. My Favourite Things (Rodgers, Hammerstein)
Kulttuuritalo, Helsinki, Finland, November 22nd 1961 (Second House)
4. Blue
Train (Coltrane)
5. I Want To Talk About You (Eckstine)
6. Impressions (Coltrane)
7. My Favourite Things (Rodgers, Hammerstein)
CD 4:
Konserthuset, Stockholm, Sweden, November 23rd 1961 (First House)
1. Blue
Train (Coltrane)
2. Naima (Coltrane)
3. Impressions (Coltrane)
4. My Favourite Things (Rodgers, Hammerstein)
Konserthuset, Stockholm, Sweden, November 23rd 1961 (Second House)
4. My Favourite Things (Rodgers, Hammerstein)
