John Coltrane – Blue World

Description

Puzzled eavesdroppers on recent jazz gossip might be forgiven for suspecting that the music was something that only happened decades ago, and enthusiastic reports of its current rude health are fake news. Three weeks after Miles Daviss exhumed and embalmed1985 Rubberband releasecomes a previously unknown John Coltrane1960s-quartet sessioncalled Blue World short tracks and alternate takes on early Coltrane originals, recorded for a Canadian movie soundtrack in summer 1964, and never intended for release. John Coltrane: Blue World album artwork

But unlike Rubberband, Blue World even if its movie agenda required simpler, and more lyrically explicit delivery than anything else this enthralling band was doing on the road or on record in 1964 is still Coltrane quartet music to its vibrant core. Commissioned by Canadian director and Coltrane fan Gilles Groulx for a Montreal love story called Le Chat Dans Le Sac, Blue World features two takes of the exquisite 1959 ballad Naima, three of the catchily hooky Village Blues, the Sonny Rollins dedication Like Sonny, a harmonically audacious exploration of the modally stripped-down title track, and a storming ensemble performance on the standout, the mostly-improvised Traneing In. For newcomers to a 20th-century musical giant who transcended genre frontiers, it makes a very attractive sampler. For fans who know that the dark, lamentingCrescentpreceded it, and the legendary and hippy-hypnotisingA Love Supremefollowed, its a fascinating hybrid of Coltranes song-based earlier methods, and his incandescently devotional late period.