JOHN COLTRANE

LIVE IN JAPAN

 Disc one:
  1/  Afro Blue                                  (Santamaria)                  38.49
  2/  Peace On Earth                             (J. Coltrane)                 26.24

 Disc two:
  1/  Crescent                                   (J. Coltrane)                 54.34

 Disc three:
  1/  Peace On Earth                             (J. Coltrane)                 25.04
  2/  Leo                                        (J. Coltrane)                 44.51

 Disc four:
  1/  My Favorite Things                         (Rodgers,Hammerstein)        57.19

          Discs I and II recorded at Shinjuku Kosei Nenkin Hall in Tokyo on
            July 11, 1966
          Discs III and IV recorded at Sankei Hall in Tokyo on July 22, 1966
          Reissue produced by Michael Cuscuna
          Mastered by Michael Landy and Joseph Doughney at the Review Room, NYC

John Coltrane: soprano saxophone, alto saxophone, tenor saxophone, percussion; Pharoah Sanders: alto saxop[hone, tenor saxophone, bass clarinet, percussion; Alice Coltrane: piano; Jimmy Garrison: bass; Rashied Ali: drums.

          1973 - Impulse! Records (USA) (2x12")
          1991 - Impulse! Records (USA), GRD-4-102 (4CD)

Note: The original 1973 release only contained disc III.

REVIEWS :

I just noticed that the COMPLETE LIVE AT THE VV RECORDINGS 4-disk set is ranked 5,000 and that this 4-disk set is ranked 43,000 as far as purchases from this site. This set certainly does not deserve to be so much lower than other similarly-priced Coltrane cd's. The playing in this set is beautiful, ruthless, and exploratory. This isn't the "classic quartet" but this group made music of awesome power and beauty. For my money, Alice Coltrane is one of the most overlooked pianists in jazz history and I don't know why. She is fantastic throught this set. This is Coltrane at some of his scariest, the only way this set could be better is if it were 10 cd's.

Zenobios@aol.com (courtesy of Amazon.com website)

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This very interesting four-CD set contains two sets of music by the 1966 John Coltrane Quintet, recorded in Tokyo, Japan. Most of the music had not been released in the United States until 1991. Coltrane (heard on tenor, soprano and alto) engages in some ferocious interplay with Pharoah Sanders (on tenor, alto and bass clarinet), pianist Alice Coltrane, bassist Jimmy Garrison and drummer Rashied Ali; fans of Trane's earlier records may not like these atonal flights. However listeners who enjoy avant-garde jazz will find many stirring moments among the very lengthy performances. The shortest piece is the 25-minute version of "Peace on Earth" and "My Favorite Things" goes on for over 57 minutes.

Scott Yanow (courtesy of All Music Guide website)

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While this isn't my favorite Trane album, you really have to give it 5 stars. What else can you say about an album with 2 60+minute tunes? Sometimes everything doesn't click, true, but the fact that these musicians had the grapefruits to explore and let their music unfold for 60 minutes deserves the highest accolades. I, personally, find this period of Trane's playing to be his best. He was searching for a higher meaning in his life, and you can hear it in his music. Not always clean and perfect technique, but always a beautiful sonic landscape is created for us, the listeners. This is definately not for the casual jazz listener or beginning Coltrane fan. It IS for the hardcore Coltrane junkie, or for those who want to be shocked, and have their ideas of what is traditional jazz challenged.

Papakwanzaa (courtesy of Amazon.com website)