Monday, March 27, 2006

Awake on the Trane

Like Monk CDs, I keep wondering when I will hit my limit on Coltrane CDs and say "that is sufficient." But I had been meaning to pick up "Newport '63," Impulse, for some time now and when I saw it recently for a bargain price at the wondrous Jazz Record Mart in Chicago, on a stop before attending a Donald Harrison performance at the Jazz Showcase, I bit and I'm glad I did.

Elvin Jones is missing (Roy Haynes drums instead, hardly a terrible imposition) but the rest of the great quartet with Jones, Coltrane, McCoy Tyner and Jimmy Garrison is there for three extended live cuts, including a version of "My Favorite Things" where Tyner really shines and Coltrane plays the song with noticeable differences from the famous Atlantic disk where it's the title tune. Coltrane makes a memorable run through “Impressions” on “Newport” as well. The final track, “Chasin’ Another Trane,” comes from a Village Vanguard session with Reggie Workman substituting on bass and Eric Dolphy added on alto. The two horns, as you can imagine with Coltrane and Dolphy in tandem, are an improvisational feast. Great music to help me keep awake through the jet lag from my London foray.

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