John Coltrane - Ole & Africa/Brass

[Eric]

So I have owned both of these forever, but never given either much of a chance.  Perhaps I have never warmed fully to the long-ish opening tracks of each.  But for whatever reason, I listened to both other the weekend, focusing on the other tracks, including the unissued stuff from both.

Wow - what a discovery for me.  Lots and lots of great music and playing, by basically the same group.  Looking at Coltrane's discography, I discovered the two records were both made in May 1961, more/less contemporaneously.  I am just on cloud nine, even made a playlist that begins with some of the unreleased songs, To Her Ladyship, Song of the Underground Railroad and The Damned Don't Cry.

So curious what others think!

[Pim]

For me they have always belonged to my favorite Coltrane records. But there’s a lot of records by Trane that I count among my favorites. I fell in love with both of these the first time that I heard them. I remember the title song of Ole made a huge and lasting impression on me with that eastern influenced modal feel.

[felser]

Love them both.  Africa/Brass was the second Trane album I ever heard, in 1972, and blew me away.

[JSngry]

Whatever happened to Georg Lane? 

[jlhoots]

Great records!!

[Ken Dryden]

1 hour ago, JSngry said:

Whatever happened to Georg Lane? 

I suspect that you already know the answer to your query about George Lane. 😁

[JSngry]

He was Lois' older brother, right?

But seriously, those are two great sessions. When the came out with the extra Africa Brass cuts, it was major, because the original album just had those three cuts. Fleshing out the whole thing like that...wow.

Ole kind of took a back seat for me for a little while, but that was wrong and I got over it. 

[sonnymax]

1 hour ago, JSngry said:

He was Lois' older brother, right?...

Nah, you're thinking of her brother, Memory. George Lane was Penny's husband.

[Ken Dryden]

The one thing that might have made Africa / Brass more interesting would have be featuring other soloists. It is a masterpiece, in many case.

[Guy Berger]

Contrary to the original post I think the best stuff on these sessions are the lengthy opening tracks. (Obviously just my own preference not a blanket statement!)

[Milestones]

"Africa" (16:29) is an absolute classic.

 

 

[Eric]

1 hour ago, Guy Berger said:

Contrary to the original post I think the best stuff on these sessions are the lengthy opening tracks. (Obviously just my own preference not a blanket statement!)

Yes, freely admitting my previous impatience and look forward to digging into these as well.

[soulpope]

The opening track "Ole" also revolutionary for the prominent use of two bassists aka  Art Davis and Reggie Workman .... as good as it gets ....

[Pim]

12 hours ago, soulpope said:

The opening track "Ole" also revolutionary for the prominent use of two bassists aka  Art Davis and Reggie Workman .... as good as it gets ....

Yeah that definitely works out great. 

 

21 hours ago, JSngry said:

He was Lois' older brother, right?

But seriously, those are two great sessions. When the came out with the extra Africa Brass cuts, it was major, because the original album just had those three cuts. Fleshing out the whole thing like that...wow.

I thought he was his younger. Never liked his playing. Sounds like a Eric Dolphy copycat to me.

Anyway, what I like about the extra stuff on Africa/Brass is that every extra song and take is so much worth it. It should have been released all in once, at least with The Damned Don’t Cry and The Song of the Underground Railroad.

[Eric]

3 hours ago, Pim said:

Anyway, what I like about the extra stuff on Africa/Brass is that every extra song and take is so much worth it. It should have been released all in once, at least with The Damned Don’t Cry and The Song of the Underground Railroad.

Could not agree more.

Here is a dream reissue - Acoustic Sounds releases the Complete Africa/Brass in the Acoustic Sounds Series.  Way too radical for that series, unfortunately. 

[Pim]

7 hours ago, Eric said:

Could not agree more.

Here is a dream reissue - Acoustic Sounds releases the Complete Africa/Brass in the Acoustic Sounds Series.  Way too radical for that series, unfortunately. 

It’s really a shame that Chad leaves the full Impulse! catalogue untouched for the fact that he’s not into the more adventurous kind of jazz. The new list struck me with absolute boredom.

[Eric]

9 hours ago, Pim said:

It’s really a shame that Chad leaves the full Impulse! catalogue untouched for the fact that he’s not into the more adventurous kind of jazz. The new list struck me with absolute boredom.

Agree 100% - it really is a shame.

[Steve Gray]

I well remember the review of Ole in Jazz Journal in, I guess, 1962

The reviewer unfavourably compared the playing of "George Lane" to Boyce Brown.

Of course in those days we didn't know definitively who "George Lane" was and I am not sure that the reviewer had heard any of Eric's records.