The John Coltrane Quartet - Africa/Brass (1973 Japanese Impulse! Vinyl LP Gatefold)

The John Coltrane Quartet - Africa/Brass | Vinyl LP Gatefold - 1973 Japanese Impulse! Reissue (IMP-88090, Toshiba EMI)

By 1961 Coltrane had come into his own. He had recorded Giant Steps and My Favorite Things, left Atlantic, and signed with the newly formed Impulse! label, which had the backing of ABC Records and offered him the scope to try something ambitious. Africa/Brass is what he did with that freedom, and it's unlike anything else in his catalogue. He initially approached Gil Evans to arrange the large ensemble, but nothing came of it, so he turned to Eric Dolphy and McCoy Tyner. The instrumentation was Coltrane's idea. He wanted brass, baritone horns, that mellow, powerful low-end sound, and Dolphy and Tyner orchestrated his and Tyner's ideas for a 21-piece band. The title track fills side A: 16 minutes built on a two-chord modal vamp, the massed horns creating a droning, hypnotic foundation over which Coltrane plays with an intensity that points directly toward the spiritual explorations of A Love Supreme three years later. Reggie Workman and Art Davis both play bass on the title track, thickening the bottom. Elvin Jones drives the whole ensemble. The piece was recorded during a period when many African nations were gaining independence, and African music and art were entering American awareness, a context that gives the title its weight.

Side B opens with "Greensleeves," the English folk ballad that Tyner arranged, played in the same keening, major/minor modal style Coltrane had used to turn "My Favorite Things" into a hit the year before. "Blues Minor" closes the album, the most straightforward piece, Coltrane and Dolphy adapting Tyner's voicings for the orchestra. Dolphy's presence throughout is central: he was appearing with the quartet live during this period, and the two men were pushing each other to expand what was possible. The album's unusual instrumentation (French horns played by Julius Watkins and others, euphonium from Julian Priester and Charles Greenlee, tuba from Bill Barber) baffled critics at the time, who gave it poor reviews based on expectations set by Coltrane's work with Monk and Miles Davis. Later commentators recognised it as a key work for understanding where Coltrane's music was heading.

This is the 1973 Japanese pressing on Impulse! IMP-88090, manufactured by Toshiba EMI, in a gatefold sleeve with Japanese liner notes.