Coltrane in rehearsal. Note beer can at his feet. Original source unknown. Reposted from Marc Myers’ JazzWax.com.
I recently read Marc Myers’ post about John Coltrane—”Four Videos of John Coltrane.” In his post he makes the point that there is much to be experienced by watching his live performances. To make his point Myers includes four remarkable videos of live performances, and which I pass on to you.
First a few interesting points I’ve discovered about Coltrane’s continuing popularity.
December 9th of this year will mark the 55th anniversary of John Coltrane’s landmark 1964 recording of A Love Supreme, arguably still one of his most popular albums.
In fact Coltrane may be more popular than ever.
His recent sales of Both Directions at Once: The Lost Album released just a year ago bear this out: The album reached no. 5 on Top Album Sales and No. 1 on the Traditional Jazz Albums charts, resulting in his first top 40-charting album on the all-genre Billboard 200 chart and his fourth No. 1 on the Jazz Albums tally.
Coltrane’s brilliance is well-documented through his surprisingly extensive discography. It’s difficult not to consider how much more music he might have created had he not died 1967 at the age 40.
Miles Davis and John Coltrane onstage in 1960, in Chicago. Photograph by Ted Williams, from The New Yorker.
But Coltrane’s music is also well-documented through videos of his live performances. Thanks to youtube there are numerous videos of his live performances. Trane lovers who have never seen him perform before can now experience his music from a different perspective.
As mentioned above, Marc Myers recently posted four particularly spectacular live performances on his Jazz Wax blog.
The first performance he shares is a 1960 performance of “On Green Dolphin Street,” John Coltrane on tenor, Wynton Kelly piano, Paul Chambers on bass, and Jimmy Cobb on drums. The clip is from the John Coltrane Jazz Icons DVD. The video shows a performance from a 1960 concert in Düsseldorf, West Germany, Coltrane’s first overseas trip as a part of the Miles Davis Quintet. Interestingly, Miles sat out this performance:
Here’s “Walkin'” from the same performance:
Here’s a 1965 performance of “My Favorite Things” during the Comblain-la-Tour, Belgium. This features Coltrane’s hypnotic soprano sax, McCoy Tyner on piano, Jimmy Garrison, bass, and the brilliant Elvin Jones on drums. These are the same musicians Coltrane used a year earlier when they recorded A Love Supreme:
And here is the same band performing “Naima” during the same performance:
And finally, here is one of my favorite Coltrane performances taken from the 1963 Ralph J. Gleason television show Jazz Casual. Gleason hosted a series of shows on jazz music on the National Educational Network (predecessor to PBS) from 1961 to 1968. Coltrane’s A Love Supreme quartet performs “Afro-Blue, “Alabama,” and “Impressions”:
The availability of electrifying live-performance jazz videos like these give even the modest jazz aficionado a rare opportunity to witness for themselves jazz giants performing at the height of their jazz prowess.
Articles referenced in this post:
Zellner, Xander. “The set, recorded in 1963, also notches Coltrane his fourth No. 1 on Jazz Albums.” July 10, 2018. Billboard.
Westervelt, Eric. “The Story Of ‘A Love Supreme.’” March 7, 2012. All Things Considered. NPR.
Brody, Richard. “Listening to Miles Davis and John Coltrane’s Final Tour.” March 5, 2018. The New Yorker.
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