In Europe Review

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(More customer reviews)The John Coltrane Box Set "In Europe," is a rare gem. The Material on this set spans between November 61 to July of 65. The amount of musical changes that are represented in this set are grand. The Highlights of the set include the version of "my Favorite Things" with eric Dolphy on flute, the Selections of Standards on Disc 2 and the only known recording of "A Love Supreme" recorded Live that I know of. This performance is complete at 48:00 minutes long and is not included in the new Pablo John Coltrane Europe box set. This set is definately worth the wait.... Here is some information about the box set not included on this page. I hope that it is helpful. Happy Listening and Happy 75th to John!
Number of Discs: 3
Disc 1:
Stockholm Sweetnin'
1.My Favorite Things
2. Naima
3. Blue Train
4. Traneing In
5. Mr. P.C.
6. Spirtual
Traks 1-3 recorded November 23rd 1961 at the Konserthusen in Stockholm
w Eric Dolphy on Flute, Bass Clarinet and Alto Sax and the Quartet with Reggie Workman on Bass
Tracks 4-6 recorded October 22nd 1963 at the same place
w/o Eric Dolphy
Disc 2:
Greatness In Graz
1. Autumn Leaves
2. Bye, Bye Blackbird
3. I want to talk About You
4. Everytime We Say Goodbye
5. My Favorite Things
Tracks 1-5 recorded at the Stefaniensal in Graz Austria on November 28th 1962 with Jimmy Garrison on Bass
Disc 3:
1. Afro Blue
2. Impressions
3-6 A Love Supreme Parts 1-4
Tracks 1-2 recorded in Paris July 28th 1965
tracks 3-6 recorded at the Antibes Jazz Festival July 26th 1965

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Live compilation for one of the 20th Century's most important & influential musicians. Recorded between 1961 & 1965 during several truly memorable European concerts made between 1961 & 1965. The classic performances feature Coltrane in company with McCoy Tyner, Jimmy Garrison & Elvin Jones. On three tracks the legendary Eric Dolphy joins the most famous quartet. Includes 'Naima', 'Impressions' & two contrasting & extended performances of the evergreen 'My Favorite Things', plus an awesome 48-minute performance of Coltrane's undisputed masterpiece, 'A Love Supreme'. Three & a half hours in length. Each disc comes in it's own wallet & come housed together in a compact box.The sets illustrated booklet includes detailed background notes & a re-analysis of these seminal recordings by leading jazz writer & historian Stan Britt, plus a full discography. 2001 release.

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To The One Review

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(More customer reviews)Hailed as a tribute to one of John McLaughlin's biggest heroes, the illustrious John Coltrane, this rather short album (40 min.s)is slightly more jazzy than its predecessor, the excellent "Floating Point".
Recorded with his present band 4th. Dimension it features Mark Mondesir on drums, while the versatile Gary Husband (Allan Holdsworth, Jack Bruce, Robin Trower)shines on keys and drums. With a new stellar bassplayer Etienne M'Bappe, taking over from Hadrien Feraud and Dominique di Piazza, and doing so in finest style.
Lots of fine interplay and fine soloes, the record brimming with inspiration, good chemistry and mutual respect amongst the musicians.
The compositions might not be the most poignant ever from John's creative mind, though the title track is another of those hauntingly beautiful Mclaughlin ballads. Anyway this brilliant release shows that he - like his friend Jeff Beck - just keeps getting better and better. Still dazzling virtuosity, still a deep spiritual undercurrent that certainly can bring Coltrane to mind.


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With his new album To The One, iconic guitarist, composer and 2010 Grammy Winner John McLaughlin looks backwards and forwards simultaneously. The six original songs are hauntingly evocative - with roiling rhythmic swells, modal expanses, and telepathic group interaction echoing the profound influence of John Coltrane's 1965 spiritual jazz masterpiece A Love Supreme. The music of To The One was set down in the studio with very few overdubs, by McLaughlin's current performing outfit, the Fourth Dimension: Gary Husband (keyboards, drums), Etienne M'Bappe (electric bass), and Mark Mondesir (drums). Compositional devices clearly inspired by Coltrane are fused with elements of McLaughlin's own multifaceted approach, all delivered with a group empathy and shared vision that harkens back to Coltrane's fearless mid-'60s quartet of Elvin Jones, McCoy Tyner, and Jimmy Garrison. The effect of Jones' kaleidoscopic approach to rhythm and drumming is especially felt, brilliantly recast and explored via McLaughlin's gift for complex metrical structures.

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Tour De Force Review

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(More customer reviews)"Tour De Force" finds Sonny Rollins playing some of his fastest and most forceful tenor saxophone. It is no surprise that Sonny is joined once again on the kit by Max Roach (with Kenny Drew and George Morrow also in the band), because few drummers could keep this pace going on the album's smokers, the aptly named "B. Swift," "B. Quick," and "Ee-ah," and the only slightly slower (normal hard bop speed) "Sonny Boy." "Tour" also features two tracks with vocals by Earl Coleman, the tender ballads "My Ideal" and "Two Different Worlds." While it's not "John Coltrane and Johnny Hartman" (even though this pre-dates 'Trane's session by five years), it's pretty good. However, the disparity between the "speed bop" and the ballads is so great, it causes "Tour De Force" to feel schizophrenic. There is great material here, but I only give it four stars because the album doesn't flow together very well.

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European Tour Review

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(More customer reviews)If you can't get enough of the Classic Coltrane Quartet (like me), then this album is for you. This is one of several recordings released on Pablo (posthumously) that capture 'Trane, McCoy, Jimmy G., and Elvin live during a tour of Europe. The appropriately titled "The European Tour" begins with one of my all-time favorite 'Trane tunes, "The Promise." The song begins with McCoy stating the theme and soloing, and Coltrane doesn't join in until the melody is repeated at the end. "I Want to Talk About You," a staple during 1963 tours, is next followed by the gorgeous ballad "Naima." The album concludes with an extended "Mr. P.C." (18-plus minutes), though not as long as the version on "The Paris Concert." My reason for withholding a fifth star is that while the sound is excellent (the piano is refreshingly audible), it doesn't match that of Coltrane-approved live recordings like "Live at Birdland" or the Village Vanguard recordings. That being said Coltrane fans should have no reservations in purchasing this disc.

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Live Trane: The European Tours Review

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(More customer reviews)The "Classic" John Coltrane Quartet, 1961 thru '63, live in Paris, Stockholm and West Berlin (in transfers vastly improved from previous issues) and in a more sympathetic setting than their "home base."
Now, it's true that there has been some "flap" between various Coltraneologists and Pablo, over apparently incorrect dates for some of the earlier tracks in this box..."Is it Paris or is it Stockholm?" Three selections, allegedly air-checks from Birdland in NYC (not the European tours) have sound quality that is distinctly inferior to all the other tracks; whatever their origin, they were probably NOT recorded with equipment belonging to Norman Granz (who produced these European tours).
Still, Pablo is to be applauded for 1) negotiating royalties with the Coltrane Estate and the surviving musicians, so that much of this material is legitimately released for the first time, and "de-bootlegged." 2) The SOUND, people, the SOUND of these tracks (at least the ones which have been heard previously) is better than it's ever been...For example, the former "drop-outs" in the Berlin "Favorite Things" are gone- and even those "Birdland" tracks are truly LISTENABLE for the first time.
Dive into this box, and when you come out of it you'll realize what's been lost since 1963: a fresh sense of adventure, somehow married to lucidity...a "phase" which cannot always be sustained in either a society as a whole, or even within the work of any one artist (not even Trane ! ). Certainly, the November 2, 1963 "Favorite Things" is the greatest of all surviving versions, for its poise on the razor's edge of supreme spiritual risk-taking and sweet, almost Greek-classical lucidity...And all this before a series of audiences for whom this combination was as natural as the air they breathed...Such an atmosphere does not and cannot exist, today.
And, of course, you could hardly "do it again" within this idiom. It wasn't just record-company greed and commercial pressure that led Carlos Santana and his generation to funk, fusion, and paths other than acoustic post-bop...Because Trane had very nearly exhausted this idiom, the next generation HAD to explore elsewhere...Nevertheless, Santana and others were emboldened by Trane's risk-taking and "purity of intention" (to borrow a phrase from Thomas Merton, who also loved Coltrane).
By immersing yourself in this 7-CD box, you'll very nearly get it all "back," then forward...I remember when I first took this set home- tired and mentally worn down after a day-from-hell-at-the-office, intending just to sample a few tracks...Within ten minutes, something more than just adrenaline began to kick in..."Holes" were "punched" in my fatigue, the mind began feeling "toned up," and a sense of possibilities began to surface...In about two hours, the wild stream of life was flowing again, and I forgot all about being "worn down"... What (in LETTERS TO OLGA) Vaclav Havel calls Being, turned toward me and I toward Being...Whether or not it sounds "strange," I'll sign off with this : It's in this music, I'm telling you it's HERE.

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