The New Jazz Musings

Africa/Brass from 1961 1961 was another signature year for John Coltrane. Creed Taylor signed him to Impulse Records (Am-Par), giving him a significantly better deal than he had with Atlantic. He recorded and released Africa/Brass (A-6/AS-6), and in early November recorded the tracks that would comprise Live at the Village Vanguard (A-10/AS-10). On the live scene that year, despite having played the major concert halls of Europe's major cities the year before with Miles Davis, Coltrane was back to the normal US small club jazz scene. Typical for Trane in early 1961 was the Welcome Inn in Cleveland, the Half Note and Village Gate in NYC, the Mardi Gras in Kansas City and the Zebra Lounge in LA. In September however, his band did play the Monterey Jazz Festival in CA. JATP 1961 UK Tour Following the success of the JATP tour of Europe the previous year, the year of the "infamous" John Coltrane appearances at the Olympia Theatre in Paris with Miles Davis' group...

Jazz Magazine Janvier '62 Much has been written about John Coltrane's obsession with self improvement, including obsessive practising with his instruments. In Philapdelphia, young musicians who would later become established artists, would sit across from Coltrane's home to listen to him practice. He would practice during band breaks and would often prefer to practice in his hotel room, and eat a couple of apples from a store, rather than eat in a restaurant. One of the main reasons Bob Thiele of Impulse wanted the joint recording with Duke Ellington, was to try to show Coltrane the Duke's regular one-take recording philosophy. Often-times it wouldn't get any better. Jimmy Heath, horn player and Trane's longtime friend did say that his own heroin addiction forced deep concentration. He imagined that during Trane's addiction, despite the terrible curse, it would have driven him to increasing concentration on practising tenor lines. Frank Tenot was a...