Blue Train (Deluxe Edition)

[jlhoots]

2 hours ago, Larry Kart said:

Me too -- certainly of that period. It never gets old. Also, or so I've always thought, there's a palpable sense of special occasion to the date that seems to have felt by all parties and then by us, too. Finally, and Chuck probably can corroborate, at the time it came out it hit most everyone who cared about the music very hard. Each time it takes me back to those initial moments.

There you go & Fuller is more than O.K. with me.

[Larry Kart]

Not to change the subject, but I can recall several other albums from that time that had that special-occasion feel -- "Saxophone Colossus," "Way Out West," and, for me, "The Stylings of Silver." They all felt like, in addition to everything else, the front edge of the music was moving ahead with a good deal of force.
 

[paul secor]

I heard Blue Train after I'd heard almost all of Trane's Impulse recordings, so I don't have the same "sense of time" feelings and impressions that many others here have. It might make my list of top 10 Tranes (I've never thought about doing that), and it might not.

[clifford_thornton]

On 12/14/2017 at 8:41 PM, felser said:

To me, it's more than "darn good" (the title track alone assures that), and less than "desert island".  Not sure it would even make my list of top 10 Coltrane albums (off the top of my heard, "Giant Steps", "Ole", "Plays the Blues", "Coltrane's Sound", "Africa/Brass", "Village Vangaurd". "Impressions", "Coltrane", "Live at Birdland". "Crescent", so I'm already at 10 ahead of it, not even considering Prestige recordings and "A Love Supreme" and beyond).

same, but of course I didn't hear it until the 1990s and that was a very different time from when it was released!

[Big Beat Steve]

Interesting to read these assessments by the "elder statesmen" of this forum. Maybe this description of how it "hit" people describes how it hit me too.
I've never been much of a Coltrane fanatic (and make no excuses for it - if you get into the various styles of jazz somewhat chronologically instead of in "backwards chronology" there is MUCH else out there in jazz). Free jazz never was my cuppa, I did not feel a need to get as deeply into hard bop as into swing, R&B, bebop and WCJ, and as I've had most of the the classic Miles Davis quintet LPs from the 50s for a very long time this covered my immediate Coltrane needs and I held off on others (particularly since his own (Prestige) LPs from the same period permanently seemed to be out there).
Now we had a public TV channel here that filled the late night hours (after the regular programming had ended) with cycles of hour-long previews of the upcoming TV schedules for the week ahead - to the background of late-night jazz and other stimulating "mood" music (i.e. certainly not just "soft" music). One night, a good 15 years ago, I happened to zap into that channel and the music caught my ear. This just seemed to be right, not for this late hour but overall .... This jazz impressed me enough to stay tuned in much longer than I'd normally do for this kind of preview, and eventually the "fine print" of the credits came up and said the music came from the "Blue Train" album. Within a few days I found a newish BN reissue LP of it at one of our two still decently stocked local record stores.
I still haven't added substantially to my Coltrane LPs but this one was a "must have" ...

Edited December 15, 2017 by Big Beat Steve

[Claude Schlouch]

John Coltrane - Blue Train (Deluxe Edition)

 

Universal (Japan) UCCQ9358 (2CD)

 

DISC 1

 

1       Lazy Bird Take 1 - Alternate Take

2       Lazy Bird Take 2 - Alternate Take

3       Lazy Bird Take 3 - Master LP Version

4       Moment’s Notice Take 4 - Alternate Take

5       Moment’s Notice Breakdowns And Studio Chatter

6       Moment’s Notice Take 5a - Alternate Take [Incomplete]

7       Moment’s Notice Take 6 - Master LP Version

8       Blue Train False Start

9       Blue Train Take 7 - Alternate Take

10     Blue Train Take 8 - Alternate Take

11     Blue Train Studio Chatter Leading Into Master Take 9

12     Blue Train Take 9 - Master LP Version

13     Locomotion Master Lp Version (LP)

14     I’m Old Fashioned Master Lp Version (LP)

 

Disc 2 (Mono)

 

1       Blue Train Part 1

2       Blue Train Part 2

3       Moment’s Notice Part 1

4       Moment’s Notice Part 2

[paul secor]

I'll just add that there was a time (15 - 20 years ago and before) when I'd have ordered this in a flash. Now, I'll stick with what I have and enjoy that.

[Kevin Bresnahan]

So disc 2 is simply two 45 rpm singles? What's that like 20 minutes? Why didn't they just make disc 1 be the original LP and disc 2 be the additional material? It makes more sense to do it that way than the way they've done it.

[Stefan Wood]

I'm still holding out for the 23 cd + dvd deluxe box set:

 

[Late]

7 hours ago, Kevin Bresnahan said:

Why didn't they just make Disc 1 the original LP and disc 2 be the additional material? It makes more sense to do it that way than the way they've done it.

Agreed. This particular edition, from looking at the tracklist that Claude posted, doesn't seem like it would be much of a listening experience.

The cat on the other hand ... 

[sidewinder]

18 hours ago, Stefan Wood said:

I'm still holding out for the 23 cd + dvd deluxe box set:

 

 Made me laugh !

 

Edited December 16, 2017 by sidewinder

[aparxa]

I enjoy Blue Train a lot, but it's not near a favorite.
I was surprised (and disappointed) to buy an early pressing with BLP on the cover and the label, but  stamped as RVG Stereo in the wax (I guess I should have checked more in detail). I have read than a few Liberty repressings have used old stocks of labels mislabeledly...

 

[Scott Dolan]

On 12/15/2017 at 6:21 PM, paul secor said:

I heard Blue Train after I'd heard almost all of Trane's Impulse recordings, so I don't have the same "sense of time" feelings and impressions that many others here have. It might make my list of top 10 Tranes (I've never thought about doing that), and it might not.

It definitely would not for me. 

I would take most of his Prestige, all but MFT from his Atlantic period, and all of his Impulse! albums except for Kulu Se Mama over Blue Train. 

That said, his solo on the title track is arguably the most ferocious he ever recorded. The rest of the band sounded outmatched, although many here refuted that the last time I mentioned it. I like Morgan, but his reluctant tooting and tweeting solo on the title track points to just how out of their league Coltrane was, even as early as 1957. 

[felser]

3 hours ago, Scott Dolan said:

It definitely would not for me. 

I would take most of his Prestige, all but MFT from his Atlantic period, and all of his Impulse! albums except for Kulu Se Mama over Blue Train. 

That said, his solo on the title track is arguably the most ferocious he ever recorded. The rest of the band sounded outmatched, although many here refuted that the last time I mentioned it. I like Morgan, but his reluctant tooting and tweeting solo on the title track points to just how out of their league Coltrane was, even as early as 1957. 

Don't disagree, though it is worth pointing out that Morgan was only 19 at the time.  

[Son Of Ice Bag]

Would have been Donald Byrd a better choise ?

You can check this !

I have a small problem with the titel track: It sounds much like Sonny Clark's "Sonny's crib", recorded two weeks before "Blue train". Clark's sidemen were: Byrd, Coltrane, Fuller, Chambers and Art Taylor.

A really great session, too. Certainly no "Blue train" without this predecessor.

By the way: In 1987, they put Coltrane's record on the grave of Blue Note Records Founder Alfred Lion. It was one of his favorite sessions - along with Joe Henderson's "State of the tenor".

[Scott Dolan]

17 hours ago, felser said:

Don't disagree, though it is worth pointing out that Morgan was only 19 at the time.  

Which is a fair point. Tony Williams was quite the aberration. I can’t think of any other teenagers that could hang with a master like that. 

[Brad]

On 12/15/2017 at 11:15 AM, paul secor said:

I'll just add that there was a time (15 - 20 years ago and before) when I'd have ordered this in a flash. Now, I'll stick with what I have and enjoy that.

I will stick with the RVG. 

[JohnS]

17 hours ago, Brad said:

I will stick with the RVG. 

I'm sticking with what I have for now.. I have the Japanese SHM and the Ultimate Blue Train.   If it ever comes out as a budget issue I'll probably jump in.

[erwbol]

On 12/15/2017 at 4:51 PM, Claude Schlouch said:

John Coltrane - Blue Train (Deluxe Edition)

 

Universal (Japan) UCCQ9358 (2CD)

 

DISC 1

 

1       Lazy Bird Take 1 - Alternate Take

2       Lazy Bird Take 2 - Alternate Take

3       Lazy Bird Take 3 - Master LP Version

4       Moment’s Notice Take 4 - Alternate Take

5       Moment’s Notice Breakdowns And Studio Chatter

6       Moment’s Notice Take 5a - Alternate Take [Incomplete]

7       Moment’s Notice Take 6 - Master LP Version

8       Blue Train False Start

9       Blue Train Take 7 - Alternate Take

10     Blue Train Take 8 - Alternate Take

11     Blue Train Studio Chatter Leading Into Master Take 9

12     Blue Train Take 9 - Master LP Version

13     Locomotion Master Lp Version (LP)

14     I’m Old Fashioned Master Lp Version (LP)

 

Disc 2 (Mono)

 

1       Blue Train Part 1

2       Blue Train Part 2

3       Moment’s Notice Part 1

4       Moment’s Notice Part 2

CD Japan's claim: Includes six unreleased takes of "Blue Train" and "Moment's Notice."

The 75th anniversary SHM-CD (TYCJ-81001) contained all these takes of Blue Train except the false start (track 8) and studio chatter (track 11). According to Michael Cuscuna's liner notes takes 7 (then previously unreleased), 8, and 9 were included, with 9 being the master and containing the piano solo from take 8. This means only the two alternates of Moment's Notice are new, and one of them is incomplete, plus one more alternate of Lazy Bird.

Conclusion: very poor value for money.

[felser]

On 12/18/2017 at 1:42 AM, JohnS said:

I'm sticking with what I have for now.. I have the Japanese SHM and the Ultimate Blue Train.   If it ever comes out as a budget issue I'll probably jump in.

I have the Ultimate and the RVG, and not sure I really need the RVG.

[jazzbo]

I've got a lot of copies of this one. The High Fidelity Pure Audio Blu-ray sounds really good. As does the Japanese RVG and the mono Platinum SHM-CD.

[Scott Dolan]

My only version is the 1997 release titled The Ultimate Blue Train, with CD-Rom material on it that stopped being readable several generations of Windows ago! I think the last version that would read that material was Windows 3.1! 

[kh1958]

3 hours ago, Scott Dolan said:

My only version is the 1997 release titled The Ultimate Blue Train, with CD-Rom material on it that stopped being readable several generations of Windows ago! I think the last version that would read that material was Windows 3.1! 

Not even the Penultimate Blue Train.

Edited December 20, 2017 by kh1958

[Scott Dolan]

Well, not now! But man, back in the day...

[JSngry]

And honestly, putting 45 mixes on CDs is maybe well-intentioned (maybe), but fruitless, really. I heard those 45s as 45s on realass jukeboxes, and it's not a replicable experience without both software and firmware of the same nature. Jukebox sound was unique, and those hotass 45 masterings don't work w/out applicable analog playback, be it AM radio or jukebox, or even a home 45 record player. But for full effect, get a jukebox, and listen to an AM radio jazz station before you get to the bar that has it.