John Coltrane - Ballads (1980 Japanese Impulse! Gatefold LP)

John Coltrane Quartet - Ballads | Vinyl LP - 1980 Japanese Impulse! Stereo Gatefold (VIM-4606, Victor Musical Industries, Inc.)

Bob Thiele had an idea. Coltrane was known for his intensity, for his long, searching improvisations. What would he sound like on ballads? The answer, as Gene Lees described it in the original liner notes, was that the quartet arrived with music-store sheet music and worked out the changes before each take. Eight standards, nearly all in a single session on November 13, 1962, with the quartet at its most settled: McCoy Tyner on piano, Jimmy Garrison on bass (Reggie Workman substitutes on "It's Easy to Remember," from the December 1961 session), Elvin Jones on drums. Coltrane's tenor plays without urgency. "You Don't Know What Love Is," "Too Young to Go Steady," "I Wish I Knew," "What's New" — each is taken slowly, the melody stated fully, the phrasing unhurried. Jones plays brushes throughout. Tyner supports rather than solos. The effect is of a different Coltrane from any other record of the period, without being a lesser one.

The album was released in January 1963 and immediately attracted comment. Some listeners who had followed Coltrane from the Atlantic recordings found it too placid; others heard it as proof that his range was wider than his most challenging work suggested. Rudy Van Gelder's engineering on the 1962 Englewood Cliffs sessions is close and warm. This 1980 Japanese MCA Impulse! pressing (VIM-4606) was manufactured by Victor Musical Industries, Inc. in Tokyo with a gatefold sleeve, obi strip and Japanese liner notes.