The John Coltrane Quartet Plays
Occupation
- Tenor Saxophone / Soprano Saxophone: John Coltrane
- Piano: McCoy Tyner
- Bass: Jimmy Garrison
- Bass: Art Davis (3, 5 & 6)
- Drums: Elvin Jones
The John Coltrane Quartet Plays is a jazz album by John Coltrane, recorded by Rudy Van Gelder in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey on May 17, 1965 and February 17 and 18 and released on Impulse! Records.
The album
The first recording of the studio album The John Coltrane Quartet Plays were taken in May 1965, only two months after completion of the A Love Supreme album. John Coltrane's intention was to re- record a album with standards - material; also Coltrane's compositions " Brazilia " and "Song of Praise" began to compete with - but as the recordings in May were complete, is - besides the Disney classic " Chim Chim Cheree ", " Feelin 'Good " and " Nature Boy " their anthemic character already refers to the late work of the saxophonist. Coltrane played Brazilia for the first time at his concerts at the Village Vanguard in November 1961; "Song of Praise" had already been provided in a head- Arrangement for the A Love Supreme preceding Crescent album, but was not included in it.
According to jazz critic Richard Cook and Brian Morton showed Listens album - despite a noticeable burn out after the Love Supreme recordings - even in new directions. The recordings of the first meeting on February 17, 1965 were not all the way to the original disk. It was here that a first version of the title " Feelin 'Good " and also of "Nature Boy" in the quintet (with two bassists ); the following day the master version of "Nature Boy" was recorded, which was used on the later album. Same here two other versions of " Feelin 'Good ", which were not released on the original LP emerged. Also on this day played with Art Davis as an additional bassist. It was only on May 17, 1965, the remaining tracks were recorded; in the meantime, had played live ( without Davis) " Nature Boy " on March 28, 1965 at the New York jazz club The Village Gate Coltrane Quartet.
The obligatory "Show title " of the album was " Chim Chim Cheree " from the then-current movie musical Marry Poppins, with Coltrane on the soprano saxophone. The treatment of the currently Oscar-winning songs reminiscent of Coltrane's version of the Broadway classic My Favorite Things; Coltrane plays it in high registers and creates melodic lines, so that you forget the mundane topic, write the Coltrane biographer and Filtgen Except Bauer.
The original composition " Brazilia " starts with a drum roll of Elvin Jones, in which Coltrane blows his introduction. " Coltrane's solo contains ecstatic blowing technique to quiet runs everything only he could play inimitable. " Impressive is for the authors that match took place at the McCoy Tyner with saxophonist in his chordal playing. Drummer Elvin Jones drummed during the second solos Coltrane rhythmic figures, some of whom had ritual voodoo character, and trailed off with thundering drum rolls the piece. In the play " Nature Boy " worked Coltrane - as with the Village Vanguard concerts 1961 - with two bassists here with the classically trained Art Davis, which contrasts with his bow playing with the medium-fast rhythm game from Elvin Jones and Jimmy Garrison. About this sound fields Coltrane put his powerful tenor saxophone playing.
The last track on the original LP, "Song of Praise", opens with a long bass introduction Jimmy Garrison, reminds the Filtgen / Except Bauer flamenco guitarist. Coltrane plays even then " a solo by bursting intensity ".
The John Coltrane Quartet Plays was the last album on which John Coltare used foreign compositions, and the last album of the classic John Coltrane Quartet, which was published during the lifetime of saxophonists.
Album Review
Richard Cook and Brian Morton, who awarded the album in their Penguin Guide to Jazz the highest rating, describe it as a great and very important album. In the second edition of her book, the authors talk to the simple title "Plays " the suggestive that the band would have again gone down after the " sky stormy game of A Love Supreme in a more basal jazz playing style, themes, choruses, standard Title. " Despite the occasional divisions in theme and solo play, the quartet already play in the direction of collective experiments of Coltrane's last years. It leads from the massive "Song of Praise" a line to the previous " Psalm " (on A Love Supreme); the addition of a second bassist interpret Coltrane's quest to break the conventional role of the rhythm section as a simple time keeper. The writer and critic LeRoi Jones spoke to the subversive role of John Coltrane, in which he material of mass culture ( such as " Chim Chim Cheree " on this album, My Favorite Things (initially on the eponymous album of 1960) or " The Inch Worm " on the album Coltrane ) modified by radical improvisation and deconstructed.
The title
- John Coltrane Quartet - The John Coltrane Quartet Plays ( Impulse AS 85/254 619-2/051214-2 )
- The title 5-6 first appeared in publication of the CD; of Title 7 had already been published on the plate The New Wave In Jazz ( Impulse A 90 ) with contributions of other musicians from the same concert. The cover photograph was by Lee Tanner