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HISTORICAL
by Ted Panken
Coltrane For Hire
With the release of Side Steps (Prestige
PRS-3145, 73:53/79:37/72:28/
77:05/ AAA 1 /2), Concord Records
completes its concordance of John
Coltrane’s Prestige Records output,
following issues that documented
his work as a leader (Fearless
Leader), co-leader (Interplay) and a
key voice in the Miles Davis Quintet
(The Legendary Prestige Quintet
Sessions).
On the set’s 43 tracks, recorded
over a 19-month span, Coltrane
serves as tenor saxophonist for hire
with assembled-for-the-studio units
led by pianists Elmo Hope, Tadd
Dameron, Red Garland and Mal
Waldron, shares the front line with
neophyte tubist Ray Draper on a surrealistically
dicey quintet session,
and locks horns with Sonny Rollins on the
riff blues “Tenor Madness,” a performance
that is legendary in the canon.
Place in the “classic” category
Dameron’s Mating Call, a November 1956
Philly Joe Jones-propelled tenor and
rhythm date on which such Dameron ballads
as “In A Misty Night” and “Soultrane”
spur Coltrane to project every ounce of
inflamed emotion, while swingers like
“Super Jet” and the title track offer him
meaty changes to work through his stillnascent
harmonic concept (Coltrane was a
year into his first tour with Miles Davis at
the time). Ditto Hope’s Informal Jazz, from
May 1956, a crackling bebop blowing date
on which Hope, Paul Chambers and Jones
(an A+ rhythm section if ever there was
one) elicit idea-rich, individualistic solos
from Coltrane and Hank Mobley—their contrasting,
Charlie Parker-influenced
approaches make a stimulating matchup.
Trumpeter Donald Byrd is also in fine form.
On a strong Mal Waldron sextet date
from May 1957 (Mal 2), Coltrane plays the
section function with altoist-baritonist Sahib
Shihab and trumpeter Idris Suleiman. On a
Waldron-arranged, Gene Ammons-led session
in January 1958, he returns to his first
instrument, the alto saxophone, uncorking
idiomatic, counter-signifying solos.
Several months into his legendary tenure
with Thelonious Monk at Manhattan’s Five
Spot in the late fall of 1957, Coltrane—sober
after kicking a heroin habit that spring—is
ablaze on two Red Garland Quintet sessions
that resulted in the albums All Morning
Long, Soul Junction and High Pressure. On
the same wavelength with Garland by dint
John Coltrane:
valuable sideman
of their mutual 18-month employment with
Davis, Coltrane uncorks solos on then-fresh
bop lines like Dameron’s “Our Delight,”
Dizzy Gillespie’s “Woody’N You” and
“Birks’ Works” and Charlie Parker’s “Billie’s
Bounce” that sound like logical extensions
of Parker’s language. On the assortment of
medium-slow blues, ballads and standards
that were Garland’s meat, Coltrane calls on
the experience he had garnered not so long
before with r&b champion Bull Moose
Jackson, and alto sax melody masters Earl
Bostic and Johnny Hodges.
All in all, the proceedings are of varying
quality and interest. But considered in its
entirety, Side Steps demonstrates just how
thorough Coltrane’s apprenticeship was
and how his deep bedrock in the fundamentals
springboarded the efflorescent
musical production of his final decade. It’s
also a reminder of how startling and fresh
Coltrane’s recordings appeared to next-generation
up-and-comers of the time.
The program booklet imparts enough
added value to make Side Steps a compelling
buy—although more for Coltrane
completists than the generalist fan. Coltrane
biographer Ashley Kahn contributes a pithy
liner note and an illuminating interview with
Prestige boss Bob Weinstock. There are
penetrating in-session photographs of the
various participants; reproductions of original
album artwork and original liner notes
by Nat Hentoff, Ira Gitler and Joe Goldberg;
and a chronological sessionography. Vivid
24-bit remasterings capture the surge of the
rhythm sections and the power of
Coltrane’s sound.
DB
Ordering info: concordmusicgroup.com
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March 2010 DOWNBEAT 81