John Coltrane: Both Directions at Once: The Lost Album (Impulse)
Don't remember where I bought this, possibly at The Attic used
Do I listen to something from my collection just to write about it? Maybe, sometimes. Based on my previous posting, where I listed all of the artists I've written about here, there are some significant names missing. It's not that I haven't listened to them in the past two or three years, only that I didn't write something.
A few names: Charles Mingus (probably most significantly), Duke Ellington, György Ligeti, John Coltrane, among others.
Who is the greatest saxophonist of all time? It's a flawed question by its very nature. Greatest? This isn't baseball, and even then there can be factors. Shohei Ohtani just set a major record for baseball, 50/50 (fifty home runs, fifty stolen bases). He alone has achieved this. But can this be considered fair, considering the current use of the designated hitter, not having to play a fielding position?
Don't get me wrong, he's amazing. But it's not fair to compare him to, say, Barry Bonds in 1991. Bonds (pre-juicing) fielded and hit, risked getting hit by pitches and probably did now and then.
None of this has to do with playing the saxophone or composing. The larger point being, even in circumstances of cold and hard stats, not everything is so easily defined.
But few, if any, saxophonists were in Coltrane's league. John Gilmore comes to mind. Gilmore said he sounded like Trane before Trane did, and he's not wrong.
John Coltrane does stand apart in general as a musical figure, a saxophonist of staggering ability, while at the same time composing most of his repertoire.
What of this session? It's not the only relatively recent Coltrane discovery, but the last(?) full studio unreleased album?
It's very good but admittedly very similar to other early-to-mid era Impulse sessions for Trane. Pre-Ascension, pre-Pharoah, Alice.
Over its four sides, there are some familiar titles: "Nature Boy", "Vilia" (a favorite of mine), "Impressions", "One Up, One Down". More significant are untitled originals, which was only given some sort of index number "Untitled original 11383" for example). These lean heavily into minor blues.
Worth a listen? Hell yes it is. Essential? Hmm...that would mean putting it nearly at the same level as with A Love Supreme, Coltrane, Ballads, John Coltrane and Duke Ellington, and I just can't do that. It is absolutely worthy of your time, but my suspicion is that if arrangements had been made to release this during his life, much of the material would have been cut.
While there are many LPs of outtake material (i.e Ornette Coleman's Art of the Improvisors and Twins) they wouldn't know the CD format to come in the future and how many unreleased tracks would see public consideration.
All I can say is that I am grateful some of my outtakes are not available. Yeesh, I feel unsatisfied with enough of my recordings I have seen released.
Coltrane, even the outtakes, is always worth the time.
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