John Coltrane "Live Trane - The European Tours"

[king ubu]

I've been listening to Coltrane chronologically for several weeks now, and being at the Nov/Dec 1962 European tour, I'm spending some time with the chaotically edited Fantasy/Pablo box for the second time with in some days...

David Wild has a new website, and his chart with correct information is up again here:

http://www.wildmusic-jazz.com/livetrane.htm

There is no proper thread about this box (probably because it came out in the ol' BNBB days), so I thought I'd open this one here, for future reference.

For my own use, i made this small inlay to have the info sorted in a more handy way - I guess it might be of use to some of you here, too:

JohnColtrane - LiveTrane_TheEuropeanTours_inlay.pdf

If you discover any mistakes or have any additional information, let me know and I'll gladly correct and re-up.

Edited June 14, 2010 by king ubu

[Guy Berger]

While the discographical snafus in the box were unfortunate, there's no denying there is plenty of amazing music here (particularly on the last 3 or 4 discs.)

Guy

[king ubu]

While the discographical snafus in the box were unfortunate, there's no denying there is plenty of amazing music here (particularly on the last 3 or 4 discs.)

Guy

Oh yes!

Though I'd be happier to get some complete concerts (which would have meant a box for each of the three tours, I guess). There's some more with Dolphy that I love!

[Kyo]

Thanks, ubu! I'd never gotten around to adding this to my iTunes library and with your nice overview I just grouped all tracks from a specific date together as one album ("Live Trane - Paris '63" etc.). It'll be nice to rediscover this music, it's really been a while since I've played the CDs!

[DMP]

Thanks for bringing this subject up again, and for the inlay. Time to bring out the box!

[GregK]

one of my favorite boxes, even with the dicosgraphical errors and the sometimes-poor sound.

[king ubu]

Btw, as with all the Trane boots around, some tracks of the box seem to run at wrong speed... I can't provide details about that, however - my ears aren't sharp enough to tell, usually.

[Adam]

Thank you for the inlay! Very nice of you.

[erhodes]

If you discover any mistakes or have any additional information, let me know and I'll gladly correct and re-up.

Not a mistake as such but the disk 7 "Impressions" is definitely not Stuttgart. No one seems to know where it comes from but the Stuttgart performance has been widely circulated and this isn't it.

[king ubu]

If you discover any mistakes or have any additional information, let me know and I'll gladly correct and re-up.

Not a mistake as such but the disk 7 "Impressions" is definitely not Stuttgart. No one seems to know where it comes from but the Stuttgart performance has been widely circulated and this isn't it.

Yes, that's being taken care of in the note at the end of my little inlay - the "Coltrane Reference" puts it with the preceding material of the box, 63-11-02 Berlin.

The session notes there say:

According to research (thanks to Fred Canté for his assistance), titles [a.]-[g.] [CD6#2-5 and CD7#1-3 of the "Live Trane" box - ku] probably were recorded in Berlin, November 2, 1963, but this is not sure. It's also uncertain whether "Impressions" [h.] is from this concert, but it seems likely, based on both aural evidence and a contemporary review indicating that the concert lasted about 2 hours and ended with a long Coltrane-Jones duet (see the Chronology, Nov. 2, 1963). (It's definitely not from Stuttgart, 63-1194, as listed in Pab 7 PACD-4433-2).

~ Coltrane Reference, p. 697

In the November 2, 1963 entry of the chronology (pp. 289-290) there's a shortened reprint of a concert review, in which it says about "Impressions": "Nevertheless: to fulfill himself he perhaps needs an opponent like Jones; this might be inferred from the almost endless duel he had with the drums at the end - while Tyner and Garrison watched the fight of the two masters with noticeable pleasure. At first it seemed as if both exhausted themselves completely, like drummers and dancers in the blackest Africa who only stop when they lie on the ground - foam at the mouth. But thank God they finished civilized, and amid the applause they left the stage as relaxed as if they had been through a conference, not an orgy. As I said, rationality is called for." ("Black Dionysos: John Coltrane and his quartet at the Freie Universität," by "G.G.," in Der Tagesspiegel, Nov. 6, 1963 - quoted from "Coltrane Reference", pp. 289-290).

I love these contemporary reviews with all their flaws and prejudice! They're great documents to capture the mood of those bygone times when this music still had the power and force to shock people (even music lovers and critics).