The New Jazz Musings

Ornette Coleman's trio famously recorded over two nights, during a two week stint at Stockholm's Golden Circle (Gyllene Cirkeln) Club in December 1965. Francis Wolff of Blue Note flew to Sweden to supervise and produce the recording, using Rune Andreasson, a local recording engineer. The resulting two albums "At The Golden Circle" vols one and two became Blue Note classic albums. The Golden Circle Club was b ased, from 1962 in the ABF-Huset building, a progressive community building built in 1961 in the centre of Stockholm. Over its seven year life the club hosted many US jazz musicians. Due to its welcoming attitude to foreign musicians, Sweden became home (at times) to jazz musicians such as Sahib Shahib, George Russell, Albert Ayler, Steve Kuhn, Red Mitchell and Don Cherry. See also :  The New Jazz Musings - Albert Ayler in Sweden The Club was on the 1st Floor (unchanged inside) Gyllene Cirkeln Wall Display Original Golden Spiral Staircase Entran...

In a previous blog entry  1965 - A Stellar Year for John Coltrane  I described what a truly productive and transformative year 1965 was for Coltrane. And, ending the year as the first musician to win four awards in DownBeat magazine's Annual Reader's Poll : Hall of Fame, Jazzman of the Year, Record of the Year and Tenor Saxophone. In the same December 30 1965 edition of DownBeat there was an AB Spellman review of Trane + 7 at the Village Gate in NYC. Essentially this was an extension of what Trane had been driving at the Ascension recordings. Archie Shepp, Pharoah Sanders, Carlos Ward and Rashied Ali complementing the (classic) Quartet. Interesting on a few fronts. 1. Shows again Trane's desire to keep certain musicians funded, and to promote them. 2. Sanders as the "damnest tenor player in the English language". 3. Elvin Jones not appearing for the first set and AB Spellman saying that the night was better for it. 4. Clear evidence on how 1966 was shaping up wi...