#Coltrane my favorite things live free#

Most of all there appeared to be the desire to invoke a tribal-like, collective and cacophonous ambiance in the band. (OrnetteвЂ™s Live at the Golden CircleВ is another monumental recording from 1965.) It was as if Trane needed to be free, going technically further on the tenor sax, extending his already complex harmonic concepts while at the same time finding a way to break from conventional eighth note rhythmic lines, steady pulse and tradition cadential points. There was also the looming presence of Ornette Coleman and Cecil Taylor who by that time had established other ways to improvise, freeing the music from pre-conceived harmonic and rhythmic agendas while raising the significance of sound and color per se.

#Coltrane my favorite things live free#

One could certainly hear that Trane was affected by the burgeoning avant garde movement happening in New York, lead by saxophonists Pharaoh Sanders, Archie Shepp and Albert Ayler, to name a few of the major free jazz protagonists. Within a few months of this Antibes performance the groupвЂ™s personnel would change with only Jimmy Garrison remaining on. TraneвЂ™s restless creative spirit was already well established from 1957, but at no time was this energy more apparent than in the music he made in this year under discussion. It is mind boggling to observe how the group evolved considering the stylistic evolution from ColtraneвЂ™s initial вЂњhitвЂќ album, My Favorite ThingsВ (1961) through A Love SupremeВ released in early 1965, acknowledged contemporaneously as a masterpiece for the ages. The group had been together since approximately 1961 and from what Elvin Jones told me, they worked 40 to 45 weeks a year, mostly three sets a night (or more) for six or seven nights at a clip. Sun Ship, Transition, First Meditations, Live in SeattleВ and the aforementioned Live at the Half NoteВ evidence a growing musical divide among band members McCoy Tyner, Jimmy Garrison and Elvin Jones, who comprised what is now referred to as the Classic Quartet. Both the official released recordings from 1965, specifically Ascension, Meditations, the John Coltrane Quartet PlaysВ as well as subsequent posthumous datesвЂ¦. Therefore the relationship between a recordingвЂ™s release and the bandвЂ™s live performances would likely be noticed not discounting occasional вЂњone-offвЂќ exceptions, such as in TraneвЂ™s case his recordings of ballads, and in combinations with vocalist Johnny Hartmann and Duke Ellington. Traditionally, an artist like Coltrane being signed to a major label like Impulse had a several record per year commitment. One can feel a sense of urgency as if time was running out, which in retrospect it was as he passed on two years later at the young age of forty. The intensity and number of both studio and live recordings is remarkable even by TraneвЂ™s prolific standards. This present Antibes performance is another example from 1965 as is ColtraneвЂ™s concert a few days later in Belgium, already released on a previous jazz icons DVD.ДЇor Coltrane, 1965 was a pivotal year that marked both an end and a new musical beginning. The recordings I am referring to feature Wayne Shorter with Miles Davis Live at the Plugged Nickel Sonny Rollins in various chordless trio configurations from Europe, particularly Live at Ronnie ScottвЂ™s ClubВ and ColtraneвЂ™s Live at the Half Note. Pianists like Herbie Hancock and McCoy Tyner in particular were able to incorporate these sounds while still providing a comfortable carpet over which the more advanced horn players could improvise. (Mention should be made that in ColtraneвЂ™s case he added modality to the mix.)Д«y this time the harmonic innovations of the 20 thВ century contemporary classical world towards more dissonance had permeated jazz for at least a handful of artists. Common language means the standard repertoire stemming from the American song book and/or original compositions with similar and predictable harmonic movement, rhythmically set in 4/4 or 3/4 with a swing eighth note feeling. This is a few years before the upheavals of the 1960s when fusion, world music, electronics, and the lingering effects of free jazz began the fragmentation process of the common language of jazz, a trend still firmly in place. 1965 was the end of an era in jazz, marked by several exemplary live recordings set in a club atmosphere (best to realize an artistвЂ™s true exploratory spirit), featuring three of the greatest saxophonists playing in the jazz tradition as it had evolved to that time.