The New Jazz Musings

This is an iconic Coltrane cover from Britain's Jazz Journal, however, where's Coltrane inside ? The December 1961 issue had the annual Jazz Record of The Year poll feature. Coltrane was 18th in the top twenty Jazz records of the year with Giant Steps. Demonstrating where Jazz still was in 1961, Billie Holiday topped the poll with a re-issue, and Pee Wee Russell was 2nd. Nineteen critics provided their top ten records of the year, with a few having Coltrane mid-table. Steve Voce had Trane one and two, Giant Steps and Coltrane Jazz. Africa/Brass hadn't yet been released in Britain (more of that below), unlike e.g. France that had it on the Vega label (IMP 3). Modern Record of the Year was one of six categories, with Giant Steps coming third in the category. Critic Steve Voce, in his two page column, talked about Coltrane's 1961 visit to Britain, and explained a little bit why Impulse records were late to hit the market in Britain. I've noticed this trend, even...

F or this blog entry I thought I would extract some further 'nuggets' from one of the Jazz publications I've researched and purchased for these blogs. Jazz Journal from November 1966 was the source for a previous blog entry "Coltrane & Coleman - a Critical View from 1966", in which Martin Williams comes up to speed on A Love Supreme to Ascension, Coleman's At the Golden Circle records and The Avant Garde - Coltrane and Don Cherry playing Coleman numbers. The publication has some other articles and reviews, which at the end of 1966, is interesting given the time in the evolution of the "New Music". The British Jazz critic Stanley Dance in his two page entry of notes of wisdom includes a couple of contemporary quotes from two sides of the debate, from two well known musicians. "But I don't want to hear pleasant music today. I want to hear screaming and hollering and picking and biting. That's what the world's about today. An...