Album Reviews

One of the events covered most by the music press in the last few months has been that a “lost” John Coltrane album has been found and finally released. The original session tape vanished when Impulse moved from New York City to Los Angeles, the label having dumped many tapes of unreleased material in the process. The music was thought to be lost forever, but the family of Trane’s first wife, Naima, found the “take home” session copy in 2004. The story of its discovery is sure to captivate many fans, making it the perfect marketing tool for this new archival release.

Coltrane, at the time of this March 6, 1963 session, was clearly in the midst of a musical transition. While this release suggests that the band was evolving to a freer style, the album John Coltrane & Johnny Hartman recorded the next day features slower, more melodic sax playing with bassist Jimmy Garrison and drummer Elvin Jones sounding as if they were just “phoning it in.”

On that record (Coltrane’s only recorded collaboration with a vocalist), it feels as if pianist McCoy Tyner is serving as the group’s main backbone. The previous year’s collaboration with Duke Ellington showed Coltrane and Ellington challenging each other, but not yet pushing their limits. 1962’s Coltrane is most similar to this new release as it points to certain future explorations. When listening to all this material, one thing is for sure: Coltrane’s many styles on these albums show that he wasn't sure in which direction he ultimately wanted to go. While it's great to finally hear these recordings, at the end of the day, they aren't significant or important. They simply exist. That’s it.

“Untitled Original 11383” is arguably the highlight of the album. It begins with chatter between Coltrane and producer Bob Thiele; Thiele announcing the beginning of the take, Trane confirming that the song was an original. An energetic soprano number, “11383” features solos from Coltrane, Tyner, and Garrison. This composition makes for essential listening - ear candy for those who enjoy the “classic quartet’s” later, freer work.

The cover of Eden Ahbez’s “Nature Boy,” famously sung by Nat “King” Cole, has an innovative bass line and is in a different key than the rendition on The John Coltrane Quartet Plays. While the performance on Both Directions At Once is entertaining, it is nothing really special.

Another soprano piece, “Untitled Original 11386” is an album highlight. The standard edition includes only this first take while the deluxe edition adds takes 2 and 5. It's great to finally hear this song after all these years, and like “11383,” it's an essential listen for fans of the group’s later work. Next on the standard edition comes take 3 of “Vilia.” Take 5 of “Vilia” is on the deluxe edition’s second disc, but in my opinion there are no major differences between takes (take 5 had previously been released on the Live At Birdland CD).

There are four takes of “Impressions” on the deluxe edition. The significance of the differences between them really depends upon the listener. The variations might be important to fans that set up a quadraphonic system to listen to each take in a different channel because none of the takes sync up and you might as well be listening to Ascension at that point. But for a normal, sensible human being who is not academically studying this material, the differences are hardly noticeable. Take 2 is the least energetic of the bunch. THE other takes sound almost identical. While the solos are different among the takes, there aren't any glaring changes in tempo, rhythm, or the song’s general sound. “Slow Blues” is just what it says it is; a slow blues that lasts for 11 minutes. Nothing more, nothing less.

Coltrane, Tyner, Garrison, and Jones each get a solo opportunity on “One Up, One Down.” While this is a great demonstration of their individual talents, other quartet recordings such as A Love Supreme and 1962’s Coltrane better demonstrate this. Yes, this album demonstrates the chemistry between the members of the band, but it is displayed in a stronger fashion on their other albums. This isn’t a bad album, but it's not as exceptionally good as many are making it out to be. I have not stumbled upon John Coltrane material that I would consider to be truly awful, but neither is all of it amazing.

The release of this new material might be great news for Coltrane historians, scholars, and completists. But hiding behind all the hype and expensive advertising is the fact that this album is just okay. It was recorded during the time that the quartet had a residency at Birdland, and the music was shelved in favor of releasing the Johnny Hartman collaboration. That had the (unrealized) potential to bring commercial success, plus there really isn't anything special about this newly-released session. I have a feeling that if it was released shortly after it was recorded, it would not have become as highly regarded as A Love Supreme, Ascension, Blue Train, or even the 1962 self-titled Impulse album. Instead, it would have been lost in the sands of time, forgotten and not to be mentioned often á la Crescent or Kulu Sé Mama.

Because of this, Both Directions At Once feels like a cash grab that Impulse happened to release at the perfect time. These recordings are nice to hear if you want to continue piecing together Trane’s full musical evolution, but why didn't they release this 14 years ago when the tape was found? Do we need to hear the bonus alternate takes on disc 2 that are almost the same as the takes on disc 1? This is decent material, but it feels like Coltrane’s label and estate are just scraping the bottom of the barrel for releases at this point. 2015’s deluxe edition of A Love Supreme only contained nine unheard tracks including alternate takes and false starts, but did we really need to hear the “mono reference tapes” for the second side (which was essentially a fold-down with more tape hiss)? This release is in the same vein as that; nice to have, but unnecessary.

The sound of this release is of the same quality as the music itself. Not bad, not amazing, but good. There are minor tape dropouts, which is to be expected from a 55-year-old tape. If you enjoyed the sound of other recent Coltrane releases put out by Universal, you will love the mastering on this. However, compared to audiophile-targeted reissues of other Van Gelder-recorded material, this just sounds average.

(Note: To be more exact, I would have given the music a score of 7.6/11. However, I don’t like this album enough to round the score up to an 8).