Post by dg on Oct 13, 2023 18:09:52 GMT
The track “Ole´” from John Coltrane’s 1961 Atlantic album OLE´COLTRANE is an outstanding and unusual performance by a magnificent band. It has two bass players, Reggie Workman and Art Davis, pianast McCoy Tyner, drummer Elvin Jones and a front line of Coltrane on soprano sax, Freddie Hubbard, trumpet and Eric Dolphy (listed as George Lane in the original credits) on flute.
I have previously posted two versions of the tune - Coltrane’s own from OLE´COLTRANE and Pharoah Sanders’ from his album HEART IS A MELODY on the Evidence label. I very much like both versions, Sanders’ perhaps being more “intense” and Coltrane’s more varied and artfully arranged.
I have also found two recordings of the tune by alto sax player Noah Howard, from LIVE IN EUROPE (VOL. 1) and BERLIN CONCERT, each with the same band but with an added percussionist in the latter version. Wynton Marsalis and the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra has the tune in its book and there is a version on YouTube - a bombastic performance employing nearly every known Spanish/flamenco cliche. Ravi Coltrane has also played the tune in clubs, at least once with Pharoah Sanders as guest.
In looking through John Coltrane’s discography, I have been unable to find evidence that Coltrane ever recorded the tune again, or even ever played it in concert or club. Does anyone have a citation otherwise?
(EDIT: See response from "dottorjazz" below. He provides evidence that Coltrane played the tune at the Village Gate on 7/23/61.)
Coltrane’s “Ole´” is based on the very old Spanish folk melody “El Vito” or one of the tunes derived from it, such as “El Quinto Regiemento.” It is a familiar melody, one that has a ready association with Spanish folk music, flamenco, bull fighting, Zorro, et alia. Is this familiarity, now marking it almost as a cliche, the reason Coltrane seemed to abandon the tune? There are other possible reasons. Perhaps he favored his arrangement from the album - with two basses and a three horn front line - and of course didn’t usually have this instrumentation readily available. Since OLE´COLTRANE was released only about a year after Miles Davis’ SKETCHES OF SPAIN, some have suggested Coltrane was influenced by that album, and perhaps he didn’t like the association or its implications.
The Phrygian modes have a deep association with what has been alternatively described as a Spanish/Moorish or Arabian/Egyptian sound. They evoke an ominous feel - something is coming! - that has often been exploited in heavy metal music and video game soundtracks. Improvising within the Phrygian, and evocation of the latter “feelings,” is a simple matter, the sax keys easily finding their way under the fingers. But long-term improvising, such as Coltrane favored, can quickly become boring, and moving outside the mode rather jarring.
I have just recently finally obtained a copy of Pharoah Sanders’ HEART IS A MELODY album, recorded at San Francisco’s Keystone Korner in 1982 and released in 1993 on Evidence.
In addition to two Coltane compositions “Ole´ and a beautiful version of “Naima,” it has an excellent performance of Tadd Dameron’s “On a Misty Night,” again with a Sanders’ nod to his mentor, Coltrane. Here, Sanders’ employs a beautiful tenor sax tone and style highly reminiscent of Coltrane’s late 50’s Prestige period and lays to rest any notion that Sanders’ is not steeped in and adept at the classic jazz idiom of the ‘fifties. These three tracks would have made a beautiful little album - a tribute to Sanders’ musical “father.”
Listening to the MATING CALL album again, it struck me that Dameron had a major influence on Coltrane’s own compositional style - and that of many other jazz legends. I have this album as part of (the incredibly inexpensive compiliation) JOHN COLTRANE: THE CLASSIC COLLABORATIONS on Enlightenment Records. It contains albums Coltrane recorded with Paul Quinichette, Red Garland, Milt Jackson, Thelonious Monk, Kenny Burrell, Johnny Hartman and Duke Ellington - 8 albums of wonderful music! Incidentally, MATING CALL also has Dameron’s beautiful tune “Soultrane,” which, strangely enough, did not in fact appear on Coltrane’s own SOULTRANE album.
The three other tracks on HEART IS A MELODY were, for me, a disappointment. Sanders is all over the place on the album, quite the musical chamelion - sometimes it works, such as on “Naima,” “Ole´” and “On a Misty Night” - sometimes it doesn’t - such as the other three tracks on the album.
The title tune - “Heart Is A Melody Of Time” is based on a motif from “The Creator Has A Master Plan” and is performed with a 7-person choir. Sanders’ plays well but the song borders on the sentimental, attempting but, for me, failing to recapture the spirit of the great KARMA album. I found “Goin’ to Africa(Highlife)” unpleasant, with a raspy voice (can this actually be Pharoah?) yelling the title or wordless chants. It attempts to capture the energy and spirit of the great “highlife” music of Western Africa - but Pharoah himself did this better on his REJOICE album (on the Theresa label) with the tunes ”Highlife” and “Nigerian Juju Highlife.” (REJOICE also has an interesting version of one of Coltrane’s most beautiful songs - “Central Park West,” but I wonder if Coltrane would have liked the choir. Me, not so much - but it’s still a gorgeous tune!) “Rise ’N’ Shine,” the last track of HEART IS A MELODY, is a hokey old tune taken at a supersonic pace and begs the question: “Why?” - to show that Sanders could play notes just as fast as Coltrane in his “sheets of sound” phase? John Heard’s bass is especially annoying here - every beat having its own thumping bass note - this is not a “walking bass” but a frenzied, helter-skelter rush to the finish line, which comes as a welcome relief at 15:07.
I have previously posted two versions of the tune - Coltrane’s own from OLE´COLTRANE and Pharoah Sanders’ from his album HEART IS A MELODY on the Evidence label. I very much like both versions, Sanders’ perhaps being more “intense” and Coltrane’s more varied and artfully arranged.
I have also found two recordings of the tune by alto sax player Noah Howard, from LIVE IN EUROPE (VOL. 1) and BERLIN CONCERT, each with the same band but with an added percussionist in the latter version. Wynton Marsalis and the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra has the tune in its book and there is a version on YouTube - a bombastic performance employing nearly every known Spanish/flamenco cliche. Ravi Coltrane has also played the tune in clubs, at least once with Pharoah Sanders as guest.
In looking through John Coltrane’s discography, I have been unable to find evidence that Coltrane ever recorded the tune again, or even ever played it in concert or club. Does anyone have a citation otherwise?
(EDIT: See response from "dottorjazz" below. He provides evidence that Coltrane played the tune at the Village Gate on 7/23/61.)
Coltrane’s “Ole´” is based on the very old Spanish folk melody “El Vito” or one of the tunes derived from it, such as “El Quinto Regiemento.” It is a familiar melody, one that has a ready association with Spanish folk music, flamenco, bull fighting, Zorro, et alia. Is this familiarity, now marking it almost as a cliche, the reason Coltrane seemed to abandon the tune? There are other possible reasons. Perhaps he favored his arrangement from the album - with two basses and a three horn front line - and of course didn’t usually have this instrumentation readily available. Since OLE´COLTRANE was released only about a year after Miles Davis’ SKETCHES OF SPAIN, some have suggested Coltrane was influenced by that album, and perhaps he didn’t like the association or its implications.
The Phrygian modes have a deep association with what has been alternatively described as a Spanish/Moorish or Arabian/Egyptian sound. They evoke an ominous feel - something is coming! - that has often been exploited in heavy metal music and video game soundtracks. Improvising within the Phrygian, and evocation of the latter “feelings,” is a simple matter, the sax keys easily finding their way under the fingers. But long-term improvising, such as Coltrane favored, can quickly become boring, and moving outside the mode rather jarring.
I have just recently finally obtained a copy of Pharoah Sanders’ HEART IS A MELODY album, recorded at San Francisco’s Keystone Korner in 1982 and released in 1993 on Evidence.
In addition to two Coltane compositions “Ole´ and a beautiful version of “Naima,” it has an excellent performance of Tadd Dameron’s “On a Misty Night,” again with a Sanders’ nod to his mentor, Coltrane. Here, Sanders’ employs a beautiful tenor sax tone and style highly reminiscent of Coltrane’s late 50’s Prestige period and lays to rest any notion that Sanders’ is not steeped in and adept at the classic jazz idiom of the ‘fifties. These three tracks would have made a beautiful little album - a tribute to Sanders’ musical “father.”
Listening to the MATING CALL album again, it struck me that Dameron had a major influence on Coltrane’s own compositional style - and that of many other jazz legends. I have this album as part of (the incredibly inexpensive compiliation) JOHN COLTRANE: THE CLASSIC COLLABORATIONS on Enlightenment Records. It contains albums Coltrane recorded with Paul Quinichette, Red Garland, Milt Jackson, Thelonious Monk, Kenny Burrell, Johnny Hartman and Duke Ellington - 8 albums of wonderful music! Incidentally, MATING CALL also has Dameron’s beautiful tune “Soultrane,” which, strangely enough, did not in fact appear on Coltrane’s own SOULTRANE album.
The three other tracks on HEART IS A MELODY were, for me, a disappointment. Sanders is all over the place on the album, quite the musical chamelion - sometimes it works, such as on “Naima,” “Ole´” and “On a Misty Night” - sometimes it doesn’t - such as the other three tracks on the album.
The title tune - “Heart Is A Melody Of Time” is based on a motif from “The Creator Has A Master Plan” and is performed with a 7-person choir. Sanders’ plays well but the song borders on the sentimental, attempting but, for me, failing to recapture the spirit of the great KARMA album. I found “Goin’ to Africa(Highlife)” unpleasant, with a raspy voice (can this actually be Pharoah?) yelling the title or wordless chants. It attempts to capture the energy and spirit of the great “highlife” music of Western Africa - but Pharoah himself did this better on his REJOICE album (on the Theresa label) with the tunes ”Highlife” and “Nigerian Juju Highlife.” (REJOICE also has an interesting version of one of Coltrane’s most beautiful songs - “Central Park West,” but I wonder if Coltrane would have liked the choir. Me, not so much - but it’s still a gorgeous tune!) “Rise ’N’ Shine,” the last track of HEART IS A MELODY, is a hokey old tune taken at a supersonic pace and begs the question: “Why?” - to show that Sanders could play notes just as fast as Coltrane in his “sheets of sound” phase? John Heard’s bass is especially annoying here - every beat having its own thumping bass note - this is not a “walking bass” but a frenzied, helter-skelter rush to the finish line, which comes as a welcome relief at 15:07.
