John Coltrane – Stellar Regions – 1967 (2015, Remastered)
Avant-garde Jazz, Free Jazz, Spiritual Jazz, Hard Bop.
US.
1. Seraphic Light (8:58)
2. Sun Star (6:09)
3. Stellar Regions (3:35)
4. Iris (3:54)
5. Offering (8:23)
6. Configuration (4:05)
7. Jimmy's Mode (6:02)
8. Tranesonic (4:18)
9. Stellar Regions (Alternate Take) (4:41)
10. Sun Star (Alternate Take) (8:06)
11. Tranesonic (Alternate Take) (2:49)
John Coltrane — tenor saxophone
Alice Coltrane — piano
Jimmy Garrison — bass
Rashied Ali — drums
Recorded at the Van Gelder Studio, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey on February 15, 1967.
All selections previously unreleased, except Offering which was originally released on Expression (Impulse AS-9120) and which is included here to make this session complete. The selection entitled "To Be" which also appeared on Expression was originally credited as being recorded on February 15, 1967, but in fact it was not.
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Unreleased gems from the great John Coltrane -- one of those really special sessions that was recorded at a time when he was really pushing forward creatively, but never got issued because of a backlog of recordings! This set didn't see release until the 90s -- and it provided a fantastic chapter for Coltrane fans, and still does now -- as the great one blows beautifully in a quartet that includes Alice Coltrane on piano, Jimmy Garrison on bass, and Rashied Ali on drums. The tracks are free -- but not as free as work on a record like OM -- more in the mode of Ali and Trane's work on the Interstellar Space LP, with this wonderful sense of flow and cohesion. Titles include "Jimmy's Mode", "Tranesonic", "Seraphic Light", "Sun Star", and "Iris".
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This is a major set, "new" music from John Coltrane that was recorded February 15, 1967 (five months before his death) but not released for the first time until 1995. One of several "lost" sessions that were stored by Alice Coltrane for decades, only one selection ("Offering" which was on Expression) among the eight numbers and three alternates was ever out before. The music, although well worth releasing, offers no real hints as to what Coltrane might have been playing had he lived into the 1970s. The performances by the quartet (the saxophonist joined by pianist Alice Coltrane, bassist Jimmy Garrison, and drummer Rashied Ali) are briefer (from two and a half to five-plus minutes) than Coltrane's recordings of the previous year, but that might have been due to the fact that this music was played in the studio (as opposed to the marathon live blowouts with Pharoah Sanders) or to Coltrane's worsening health. Actually Trane is as powerful as usual, showing no compromise in his intense flights, and indulging in sound explorations that are as free (but with purpose) as any he had ever done. Coltrane's true fans will want to go out of their way to acquire this intriguing CD.
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John Coltrane's Stellar Regions is a posthumous CD that consists of tracks recorded during a February 15, 1967 session at Rudy Van Gelder's studios in Englewood Hills, New Jersey, a week before the widely celebrated Coltrane-Ali duets that make up Interstellar Space. The group, featuring his wife Alice on piano, Quartet holdover Jimmy Garrison on bass, and Rashied Ali on drums, is more reflective than "free," as many critics have characterized his post-A Love Supreme work. Coltrane is in an exploratory mode during these sessions, driven in part by Alice Coltrane's harp-like runs on her piano. The first four tracks return to the dirge-like style of "Psalm" from A Love Supreme, but they lack the melodrama of that performance. Coltrane's horn runs are spike-y, but never shrill. It seems as if he's searching for the perfect note to play and not quite reaching it. Midway through "Offering" (which was previously included on his first posthumous album, 1967's Expression), this pattern continues. However, at the mid-way point of the track, Garrison and Alice Coltrane peel away and John Coltrane and Ali indulge in a duet that looks ahead to the next week's Interstellar Space sessions. The playing is more furious, cathartic, more visceral. "Configuration" continues in this vein. "Jimmy's Mode," however, provides a brief respite, as we get to hear Garrison solo using a bow, something he rarely did on a Coltrane record. This sequence ends with "Tranesonic," another powerful blast of free jazz pyrotechnics. However, this version is outdone by the alternate take of it which closes out this set. This more up-tempo take is the clear highlight of the album, and features one of Coltrane's more violent outbursts on the sax. Making the track even more impressive is the fact that his group is with him every step of the way, committing themselves to the painful squawks and bass-y rumbles emanating from his heavenly horn. Coltrane was slowly dying of liver cancer at this point, and though (to my understanding) it was undiagnosed at this juncture, we get the sense that Coltrane's playing is most likely a form of communication in these "stellar regions."