John Coltrane - My Favorite Things: Coltrane at Newport

Extended Impressions Is Worth Price of Admission

All of the music on this collection was previously available except for the 1963 recording of Impressions w/ Roy Haynes (an excerpt was previously available). The recording apparently had some problems with low-end distortion and Jimmy Garrison's bass. Thanks to the digital revolution, the folks at Impulse were able to clean some of it up, but most of Garrison's solo is M.I.A. (you can't hear the edit as far as I can tell).

It certainly is kind of weird hearing Haynes with Trane. Haynes is a very powerful drummer but he still doesn't have that explosiveness we hear when Elvin is behind the kit. Still, it's great stuff. There is an extended duet between Trane and Haynes on the 23+ minute version of Impressions.
My Favorite Things and I Want to Talk About You are also very good with Haynes. Supposedly this particular performance of Favorite Things is a high-water mark. I'm not so certain though. I definitely prefer Elvin behind the kit. It also sounds like the snare (for which Haynes is well known for his technique) is a bit too "hot" in the mix for my liking but maybe it's just a matter of getting used to hearing the rest of the band playing without Mr. Jones.

The tracks from the 1965 appearance at the Newport festival are also available on the Impulse release "New Thing at Newport". That music is just breathtakingly intense. Explosive! and of course, Elvin is on hand for this performance. Archie Shepp's set on that release is not to be missed either. Shepp and Bobby Hutcherson make quite a good creative team. Of course, you don't get that material here, you'll have to by both CDs to get all of the music and you are going to have to duplicate One Down, One Up and Favorite Things from Trane's 65 set at Newport. That's ok, it is worth owning both discs. I already had "New Thing at Newport" but I just had to have this so that I could hear this extended performance of Impressions. It was worth every penny. This is must have for any Trane fan, period. June 17, 2008

triumphs and flaws = masterpiece

I've owned a copy of this disc for about three weeks now and am completely obsessed with it, listening to nothing else. Both Newport sets represented here are masterful.

Others have waxed authoritative here, so I won't attempt that, or to detail the history.

To me the most surprising thing here is the presence of Roy Haynes, who drums for the '63 set. Though his snare sounds like a paper bag or a sheet of bubble wrap (i.e. appalling), his performance is as close to perfection as possible. I associate Haynes more with the bop school, moreso than "the new thing," so this is a cool revelation. His interplay with Coltrane through the '63 set is, if anything, more remarkable than Elvin Jones' work in 1965.

As others have said the take of "Impressions" is phenomenal. There's a six minute McCoy Tyner solo, followed by a real cryin' shame: Jimmy Garrison begins what sounds like promising solo, but we only end up hearing about 30 seconds of it. Why? His bass is so "on mic" that it clips and distorts, and not just a little bit...the first time I heard it I thought I'd blown a speaker, the distortion is that bad. There's no way to clean that up really...so all but the first bit of Garrison's solo is lost to us. Truly a shame. Afterwards, Coltrane re-enters and gradually all the players except he and Haynes drop out. From 10 minutes out the two play off one another in sublime fashion.

The '65 set is comprised of just two numbers. Apparently, things were running late and the quartet was allowed only a half hour. As always, "My Favorite Things" comes off well. "One Down, One Up" is exhaustive and intriquing, though Elvin Jones seems a little lost here and there.

One minor benefit of this disc is the recorded comments of the two emcees and the fact that each insists the audience go home immediately when Coltrane's sets are over! What a different world than we inhabit today. No encores are allowed. Time is up. GO HOME NOW is the unsubtle thinking. The emcee for the '65 set was Father Norman O'Connor. His comments and "personality" are, forty years later, embarassing. He comes off as the kind of annoying "hip vicar" character portrayed so often in 60's British comedy, including the seminal "Beyond the Fringe." It's hard to imagine how, in 1965, you couldn't stop yourself--in public--from using the words "Detroit boy" to describe a black jazz musician (!) and to say Coltrane was, in reference to his band, "master of them all." Master? Does that imply the others are slaves? Oy! Ouch! You just cringe for the guy. Willis Conover, jazz broadcasting veteran, manages to make no such gaffes in 1963.




March 29, 2008

Some epochal 5-star material that includes 1-star piano solos to fast-forward through.

Generally not a fan of constant repackagings of the same material, this disc is perfect for me because the Newport '63 album was one of the very few Coltrane albums I never heard/bought.

The Coltrane & Roy Haynes '63 duo performance of Impressions is why you need to own this album. John's playing is monumental! As with One Down, One Up: Live at the Half Note, this album is largely about John and Jimmy. McCoy is intolerable in '65, and Elvin seems to be trying to hang on. Thankfully Alice and Rashied replaced them later in the year

The Gods seem to smite thee when what is seeming like it's going to be a devastating, aggressive Garrison bass solo is cut because (as the notes say) there was some brutal distortion or choppiness on the tape. DARNIT!! Instead we get every second of every mindnumbing Tyner solo. I feel odd talking about McCoy like this, as I enjoy him so much in earlier years. Here and on One Down One Up though, my god. Were '65 the only year from which I knew his playing, I'd flat-out hate him. By '65 he was only in the band out of a sense of commitment or "family" or something. His playing is painfully out of place. John was changing at a rapid rate, and beginning to push his own limits with daring feats of imagination (though moreso on the One Down discs than on the '65 material here). McCoy comes off as a stagnant, one-trick-pony on most of this disc and on the entirety of One Down. I grew to hate his left hand as time went on, as he approached every song the same way, regardless of mood or melody. To put it bluntly, McCoy got old young.

Still... Impressions (this slays me!) and to a lesser extent the two versions of My Favorite Things make this essential. I prefer these 2 versions of MFT because they aren't faded out and don't have a radio announcer talking over them as they begin to get going. Such is the case on One Down. Get this for John & Jimmy but if you'd like to give someone else a try, if you want to hear A BAND, I recommend getting the oft-overlooked Alphaville Suite . That, my friends, is interactive, listening-based ensemble improvisation. February 16, 2008

Much better than the previous release of the same material

This release is much better in sound quality than the previous release of some of the same material under the title "Newport '63." If you bought that version I would consider rebuying this as an upgrade. You also get the full version of "Impressions" from the '63 set. And almost as a bonus you get the '65 Newport set, and wow Elvin Jones just kills on "One Down, One Up." You also get to see Trane's evolution in just two short years. Overall this is very enjoyable, and easily accessible. February 13, 2008

great live record

great live record by john coltrane, above all the version of impression,
i suggiest this record to everibody.
danilo ravanelli October 21, 2007

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