John Coltrane Archives - JAZZ IMPRESSIONS

Pete La Roca – Lazy Afternoon

One of the many attractive qualities of jazz, more than any other musical genre, is how the same song can be interpreted in many different ways. Whether this is Bill Evans and Yusef Lateef offering their personal takes on a classic soundtrack, or Ahmad Jamal and Bobby Hutcherson reworking a Herbie Hancock original, the musical freedom that underpins jazz allows its musicians to constantly reinvent and offer fresh perspectives on popular classics. In his last post, Dan wrote on guitarist Grant Green’s version of the ballad ‘Lazy Afternoon’. Whilst Green’s version is excellent, the definitive version in my opinion of this well known standard is found on drummer Pete La Roca’s album Basra, released in 1965 on Blue Note.

Archie Shepp – Le Matin des Noire

1965 was a busy year for the young Bobby Hutcherson, releasing his first album as leader (Blue Note’s Dialogue) and joining the Archie Shepp Quartet, a group at the vanguard of the “New Thing”. Free jazz relinquished the restrictions of song form in order to better express oneself musically, and for Shepp, politically.

Bobby Hutcherson – Black Heroes

Our last post explored We Insist! Max Roach’s Freedom Now Suite (1960), a pivotal work which set the blueprint for many protest records to follow. Bobby Hutcherson’s album Now!, released on Blue Note in 1970, was one of those records which continued to build on the powerful political and musical statement Roach had made ten years prior.

Alice Coltrane – Blue Nile

One of the artists mentioned in the previous post was multi-instrumentalist Alice Coltrane who plays both piano and harp on Joe Henderson’s elemental offering ‘Fire’. This wasn’t their first musical collaboration as they had already worked together on her own cosmic masterpiece, Ptah, The El Daoud, recorded at the Coltrane’s home studio in 1970 and released on Impulse! records.

Pharoah Sanders – Greeting To Saud (Brother McCoy Tyner)

To mark the recent passing of pianist McCoy Tyner, the subject of our last post, the track for today is ‘Greeting To Saud (Brother McCoy Tyner)’ from the live album Elevation by tenor saxophonist Pharoah Sanders, released in 1974 on Impulse! records.

McCoy Tyner – Valley Of Life

Today we pay tribute to McCoy Tyner, whose work from the 1950s right up until his death earlier this month made him “the most influential pianist-composer in modern jazz,” according to the Penguin Jazz Guide. Best known for his work in John Coltrane’s legendary quartet, Tyner was an extraordinary artist in his own right, recording countless classic albums for the likes of Impulse!, Blue Note and Milestone.

Duke Ellington – Money Jungle

Our last two posts focused on Max Roach and Charles Mingus, who (along with Mingus’ wife Celia) founded the short-lived Debut Records, designed to bypass the commercialism of major labels. Both musicians had played with the great Duke Ellington, though Mingus’ stint lasted a mere four days before being fired for – you guessed it – fighting.

John Coltrane – Impressions

It only seems fitting that the first step on our musical journey begins with a track closely connected to the name of our blog – ‘Impressions’ by the great John Coltrane.