JOHN COLTRANE — The John Coltrane Quartet Plays (review)

JOHN COLTRANE — The John Coltrane Quartet Plays album cover

Album · 1965 · Avant-Garde Jazz

4.5/5 · 2011-10-10
Matt

"The John Coltrane Quartet Plays" is number eleven album that John Coltrane released on Impulse Records in late 1965 not long after his masterpiece a "Love Supreme". Once again John Coltrane has picked a composition that one would not associate with Jazz and like his previous choices of "My Favourite Things" and "Greensleeves" he has taken the Mary Poppins tune "Chim Chim Cheree" but this time as well he has placed the composition in an Avante Garde context but not that out there that one does not recognise it but definately more abstract than the previous two mentioned. The Quartet is here still with McCoy Tyner on piano, Elvin Jones drumming, Jimmy Garrison on bass and on the one tune only being "Nature Boy" we have Art Davis on bass as well as Jimmy. Make no mistake that this album is Avante Garde but like all great music from this idiom there still remains structure and a recognizable tune by that I mean that the theme is always stated in its original form and the band work off those parameters and there will never be a better musician than John Coltrane do to precisely that. The great tenor saxophonist Lester Young once said that to play any song ,"learn the words" and John Coltrane would have known how to sing these two compositions on the album that he did not compose himself as when one listens even in the most out there part of his solos he will flash back to the original tune and one can place the lyric phrase straight in. "Nature Boy' is the best example of this within the albums structure. As well we have two Coltrane originals "Brazilia" and "Song of Praise" with both being prime show pieces of the power that this man could blow through his saxophone with hair raising introductions that makes the listener immediately attentive for what is to come on just another jaw dropping effort in modern Jazz from the John Coltrane Quartet.

Mary Poppins is first being "Chim Chim Cheree" and for my tired old ears this is another delight from the most unlikely source in song selection that one could think of for Jazz but after John Coltrane has got through it your appreciation for the song will be forever changed. The theme is played beautifully with clarity at the begining with John on soprano saxophone and then he works from there and then he plays to those twisted rapid heights and when one thinks he can't get much higher he keeps it coming. McCoy Tyner does have a shot with a great solo but the saxophone of John Coltrane just tramps it towards the end when he comes back in with the soprano literally screaming and back to the theme as smooth as silk on this wonderful improvised version of that show tune. "Brazilia" is the longest piece on the album and is just another of those stunning compositions that he was penning at the time that are a delight from start to finish with Coltrane soloing first with his usual drive and power but here McCoy Tyner who follows perhaps puts his best piano passage down in the album with a superb solo and John on tenor with Elvin Jones on drums follow to finish of the composition in an unconventional abstract manner. The third composition is the standard "Nature Boy" with Trane just opening the piece by playing the theme for the tune and when McCoy on piano joins him things start to change but only in a gradual fashion with the tune still quite recognizable and then the solo from Trane commences on tenor being extremely "Out There" as we say in Jazz but in all those rapid key changes and high notes he still with the odd flash inserts a small section of the original melody which though towards the end is totally discarded when the 2nd bassist for the tune joins in by playing with a bow creating a chaotic ending. Superb stuff and an old standard was given a great kick up the arse in this unforgettable version. The last track is the spiritual "Song Of Praise" and perhaps the best track with another of those stunning introductions from John Coltrane's tenor. Elvin Jones the drummer is such an important component for the composition as he is more an offset to Tranes slow tempo solo where every note that emanates just fills the room.

John Coltrane crossed many fields in Jazz and at this point in time he was only two years off from dying of liver cancer and although he had long stopped playing Bop his roots still remained there as every composition starts in a Bop manner which is never completely discarded but placed as the foundation to build this Avante Garde album on. If I was asked by somebody who had never heard John Coltrane which album to buy first, this would not be it. Complicated music that requires a bit of work from you the listener but the reward is there and like a lot of John Coltrane's albums they are not just music as for some reason one feels like a rabbit caught at night that cannot take it's eyes from the light.