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Live Trane (Pablo/Fantasy) is a 7-CD wonder, a collection of
John Coltrane's European (there is already a dispute on-line among Trane afficionados as to whether at least one session is mislabeled and actually is from New York's Birdland) recordings, many previously commercially unreleased. Abundant in exceptional music, it spans the years 1961 to 1963, when the Coltrane sound was linked to structured compositions (pre-"Ascension") but taken to the extreme simply by the tenor's far-reaching solos.
The collection serves a number of purposes, one of which is to rekindle debate about Trane's mythic power and his potency as an improviser. Two of the discs have Trane paired with Eric Dolphy, and beyond the remarkable nature of their interplay is the vivid difference between their approach to improvising. Coltrane attacks the music, overwhelming it with power; Dolphy incisively dissects and remakes it. Coltrane was the more commanding force; but Dolphy can be argued to be the more cogent creative musician.
A further rethinking of the Coltrane Quartet mythos comes from the extended opportunity to hear McCoy Tyner. Beautifully rhythmic, and grounded in the post-bop tradition, McCoy sounds out of synch, or left behind, gifted but on a different track than the tenor.
A virtue is the opportunity to hear similar sets of music—"Naima" (four versions), "Impressions" (five versions), and "My Favorite Things" (four takes) - performed by the Dolphy quintet or the historic quartet and made with different approaches: a crowd-pleasing, showy set of drumming by Elvin Jones, or a more "inside" approach to "My Favorite Things" where Trane's assaying of the melody is simplified, almost playing scales at times or basic step-series of notes. "Traneing In," on disc 4, begins in a bop piano meander until, minutes later, Trane jumps in and burns a fearsome path.
On one or two of the discs the sound is sub-par, with that echoey back-of-the hall ambience of a poor concert taping. But mostly the audibility is first rate, and one can absorb it time and again without ever losing the enchantment that was the magic/music of John Coltrane.
— Jules Epstein, November 2001
Release Date: 23 October 2001
Live Trane: The European Tours (Pablo)
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last update 6 November 2001