Track Listing

1. Ole
2. Dahomey Dance
3. Aisha
4. Original Untitled Ballad (To Her Ladyship)

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #40117 in Music
• Released on: 2003-09-01
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .14 pounds

CD Description
Having explored all sorts of country cousins of the blues, John Coltrane evokes the spirit of mother Africa and MoorishSpain on this, his final Atlantic recording. Fellow crusaders McCoy Tyner and Elvin Jones are joined by Reggie Workman as well as fellow bass virtuoso Art Davis, while Trane's newfront-line collaborator Eric Dolphy and trumpeter Freddie Hubbard give him an immense sonic canvas upon which to reinvent jazz. OLE COLTRANE extends the forms, anticipating the freedom and far reaching spiritual pilgrimages of the Impulse!years. Miles' KIND OF BLUE and the music of Ornette Colemansuggested new improvisational possibilities. For Trane, they represented a way out of his harmonic labyrynth, a pursuitof simpler, more expressive modalities--offering even greater rhythmic/melodic complexity. "Ole" is electrifying, one of Coltrane's greatest collective achievements. Elvin Jones' hypnotic six-beat cymbal pulse, the strummed ostinatos of Workman and Davis, and Tyner's murmuring chordal drone form a syncopated wall of sound--equal parts Iberian dance, desert sirocco and evening raga. Coltrane's soprano emerges to enunciate the meditative theme, and with each successive solo--Dolphy's flute, Hubbard's toreador song, Tyner's impassioned strumming, the bassists' flamenco reverie--the rhythm becomes darker and more impassioned. Then Trane re-enters on his magic carpet, his soprano ablaze in a song of praise. Coltrane follows with "Dahomey Dance", a tippling blues in the manner of "Freddie Freeloader". Tyner's ringing accompaniment and lyric thunder clothes Elvin's triplet-inflected swing in vibrant raiment, as Hubbard's bumblebee trumpet and Dolphy's tangled bass clarinet yelping answer Coltrane's garrulous tenor in kind. Tyner's "Aisha" is an intricate romantic ballad, moving from a waltzing repeated figure to an evocative 4/4groove bathed in Jones' luminous brushwork. The way Tyner anticipates each horn's lyric design and echoes Elvin's rhythms, the manner in which he orchestrates single-note melodiesand immense two-handed harmonies into song-like choruses, all mark him as the decade's most dominant piano stylist.

Customer Reviews

Thank you Atlantic!
Thank you Atlantic for re-releasing this classic! One of my favorite Trane albums. Teaming with legends like Hubbard, Tyner, Art Davis and Elvin Jones, Coltrane produces one of the most rip roaring, cosmic soaring jazz records of the century. From the opening bass riff on ole, we are taken on a ride to another galaxy, where electricity flows at dangerous levels in our veins. We continue to head down many an abyss before another spine-tingling solo comes to take us up another mountain. Just imagine seeing this act live!

Pedigree Chum
It's great to hear Coltrane playing not only with Eric Dolphy but also Freddie Hubbard at this stage in their musical evolution. The playing throughout this album is vital; the band plays like one scary but beautiful black hexapus.

Reggie Workman (bass) stands out as his simultaneous bowing and plucking unearths the voodoo in even the most androgenous of specacled librarians. Elvin Jones (drums) ebbs and flows in his polyrhythmic orchestra while McCoy Tyner (piano) can be both tympany drum and sparkling water spring.

Freddie Hubbard is an epileptic snake, writhing and thrashing his limbless body around the open harmony and when Eric eats a banana... Eric Dolphy is a master of his 3 horns: alto, flute and bass clarinet, the lattter of which can be heard live with Coltrane at the village vanguard 1961 - listen to his solo on "Naima". John Coltrane, although outshadowed somewhat by his wife Alice and later their son Derek (only joking) plays with strength, vitality and a glossy coat.

To compare, listen to any of his quartet recordings (eg A Love Supreme, Ballads...) and then to larger groups. Afro Brass has a wonderful large brass group playing McCoy Tyner style harmony arranged by Eric Dolphy. Ascension (The Major Works of John Coltrane) is a very free but still musical recording with the regular quartet but also Archie Shepp and Pharoah Sanders (tenors) Freddie Hubbard (trumpet) and multiple bassists and percussionists. It is really what Ornette Coleman tried to do with Free Jazz but here you can really hear the musicians listening and responding to what is going on. Sing along if you know the words.

Pedigree Chum
It's great to hear Coltrane playing not only with Eric Dolphy but also Freddie Hubbard at this stage in their musical evolution. The playing throughout this album is vital; the band is one great thrashing six limbed beast.

Reggie Workman (bass) stands out as his simultaneous bowing and plucking unearths the voodoo in even the most androgenous of specacled librarians. Elvin Jones (drums) ebbs and flows in his polyrhythmic orchestra while McCoy Tyner (piano) can be both tympany drum and tinkling water spring.

Freddie Hubbard is an epileptic snake, writhing and thrashing his limbless body around the open harmony and when Eric eats a banana... Eric Dolphy is a master of his 3 horns: alto, flute and bass clarinet, the lattter of which can be heard live with Coltrane at the village vanguard 1961 - listen to his solo on "Naima". John Coltrane, although outshadowed somewhat by his wife Alice and later their son Derek plays with strength, vitality and a glossy coat.

To compare, listen to any of his quartet recordings (eg A Love Supreme, Ballads...) and then to larger groups. Afro Brass has a wonderful large brass group playing McCoy Tyner style harmony arranged by Eric Dolphy. Ascension (The Major Works of John Coltrane) is a very free but still musical recording with the regular quartet but also Archie Shepp and Pharoah Sanders (tenors) Freddie Hubbard (trumpet) and multiple bassists and percussionists. It is really what Ornette Coleman tried to do with Free Jazz but here you can really hear the musicians listening and responding to what is going on. Sing along if you know the words.