First Meditations (For Quartet)

Occupation

First Meditations (For Quartet ) is a jazz album by John Coltrane, which was taken on September 2, 1965. It contains the first version of Coltrane's suite meditation; the session was posthumously 1977 Impulse! Records. It is the last recording of the classic John Coltrane Quartet.

The album

After returning from a European tour and a few days after the recordings for the also posthumously released album Sun Ship John Coltrane went on September 2, 1965 back into the studio to record a religiously inspired suite. The compositional material used took Coltrane then a second time for its (final) Meditation amended on 23 November 1965 ( Impulse! AS 9110 ) on, but with a different lineup. While he had played at the September session even with his " classic quartet " ( McCoy Tyner, piano Jimmy Garrison, bass, and Elvin Jones, drums), he expanded for the 1966 released album Meditations his band with Pharoah Sanders and Rashied Ali sextet. First Meditation and Meditation mark therefore the transition from his quartet lineup towards the more open game forms of late-stage Coltrane and his final break with the bop idiom.

According to Filtgen / Except farmer builds the suite " in their subject matter and in their anthemic representation of the deep religiosity of John Coltrane on, since they A Love Supreme in the foreground of his work " state. Coltrane's choice of album title Meditations obvious result of profound reflection; the spiritual undertones reflect the religious self-examination, from which this music draws its sources. When John Coltrane was asked by Nat Hentoff, the extent to which this expression religious consciousness had him bound in his album A Love Supreme, the saxophonist replied:

Both versions of the suite include the sets Love, Compassion, Consequences and Serenity; Coltrane as the suite grossed the second time, he completed the Introduction The Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost, followed by Compassion, Love, Consequences and Serenity. The album begins with the First Meditation " swelling line " of Love; " There is a meeting of energy outside the interval [ gambling ] Freedom of Love towards the solid rhythms of the [ following ] waltz Compassion".

Love is the simple meditative recitation of a song -like rhythmic theme, whose intensity increases. Coltrane's increasingly more varied and energetic repetitions of motivic phrases increase with support from the rhythm section, before returning in a meditative mood and the set leads to a motif that recalls the opening theme of Ascension. After three minutes, McCoy Tyner has his solo; at 4:42 Coltrane begins with a coda. After eight minutes, the title ends with a decrescendo drumroll.

Compassion in the medium - pace is a Spiritual similar theme; between Coltrane's first ( 2:00 to 3:57 ) and second solo ( 6:30 to 8:35 ) improvising pianist Tyner, accompanied by Jones at the Mallets. A Drum Roll by Elvin Jones again forms the transition to faster Joy theme. With Consequences, a simple, consisting of two or three notes issue, the intensity increases. At 2:36 Coltrane finished his solo; Tyner plays repetitive riff - figures. Coltrane first introduces the Serenity motif quiet; Garrison plays it arco phrases, Tyner adds shimmering arpeggios. John Coltrane returns at 3:40; Jones and saxophonist put then on to a quiet ending of the sentence.

The title

  • John Coltrane Quartet - First Meditations ( Impulse ASD 9332 )

All compositions are by John Coltrane

Editorial notes

David Wild speculates in the liner notes of the first LP 1977 issue, the publication was probably not rejected during the lifetime Coltrane, but given the additional expenses incurred in the summer of 1965 music simply forgotten and been displaced by the urgency of the later, stylistically modified statements.

The CD release from 1992 contained a further and longer Take Joy, who turned twenty days later, recorded during a tour on the West Coast at Coast Recorders Studio in San Francisco. This version was - provided with numerous overdubs - first published in 1970 ( Infinity, Impulse AS 9225 ). The unmodified version of the live recording was released in 1978 on the compilation Coltrane Feelin 'Good - The Mastery of John Coltrane, Vol 1

Reception Album

Shortly after its release, the album debuted in February 1978 at # 37, the American jazz charts.

Richard Cook and Brian Morton awarded the Penguin Guide to Jazz the album the highest rating and said that " for the sake of beauty " was preferable of the two versions, the first version of September 1965, although this music no longer represent what Coltrane with this group wanted to portray and he should try out with his album Ascension then.

Scott Yanow awarded the album four stars from Allmusic wrote:

David Wild said in the liner notes of 1977, the rediscovery of First Meditations give " us the suite to their original beauty in a more conventional format that Coltrane soon offered on it ." The session manifest not only powerful solos and take another look at a group whose work has changed the direction of art, but also an alternate view of a larger of Coltrane compositions. This view was in some respects superior to the first published version. The five parts of the suite of Firsts Mediations are in the performance by the quartet better than compositions noticeable and also Coltrane's intentions as a composer were in this less overloaded context rather recognizable.

Record label Impulse! Records Genre Bob Thiele Rudy Van Gelder Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey Bebop Waltz (music) Overdubbing Richard Cook (journalist) Brian Morton (Scottish writer) Ascension (John Coltrane album)
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