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John Coltrane in 1961

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, Norman Granz organised another tour for late 1961. This would be Trane's first overseas trip with his own band. Appearing on the bill this time would be the John Coltrane Group, headlined by the Dizzy Gillespie Quintet. Coltrane took Elvin Jones, Reggie Workman, McCoy Tyner and Eric Dolphy.

From November 11th to December 2nd they would play 32 concerts in 21 European cities, starting in Britain and finishing in Germany.

L'Olympia in Paris
St Andrews Halls in Glasgow (Destroyed in 1962 by fire)
L'Olympia in Paris would be re-visited, this time the critics, and some fans would understand Trane better than in the previous year. However, like in 1960, not all critics were 100% on side. There were sometimes mixed reviews and even the occasional positive review from trad jazz fans, "I could have taken more of this diet and I'm Trad", from a review of the Glasgow concert. Funnily, during the concert in Glasgow on November 13th, Coltrane was semi-accosted by a Dizzy Gillespie fan backstage. He had not liked what he heard and departed for a few drinks, came back, then took the opportunity to go side-stage and ask Coltrane if Elvin Jones would get down to some serious drumming, and change the second half of Coltrane's set for something better ! "Ah don't know Man" replied Trane.

Cities played in Europe were London, Birmingham, Glasgow, Newcastle, Leicester, Brighton, Paris, Scheveningen, Amsterdam, Copenhagen, Gothenburg, Helsinki, Stockholm, Hanover, Hamburg, Stuttgart, Dusseldorf, Frankfurt, Nuremberg, Munich and Berlin.

British Tour 1961 Programme

Granada Theatre in Walthamstow, London

Concertgebouw in Amsterdam

 Sources : Evening Times (Glasgow), Jazz Journal, other

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