Dave Brubeck - Adventures in Time

I must have been about 13 years old. I'd been playing drums since I was about 8 or 9 (can't remember). My Grandmother gave me this Dave Brubeck record. I didn't really appreciate it at first. In fact, it wasn't until a few years later when I saw Dave Brubeck on TV - it was a concert from the 80's on PBS - not the classic quartet, but still Dave kicking ass regardless. That was when I "got it". Watching the interplay between the musicians, the skill and exciting spontaneous nature of the music-making - THEN I went back to this record.

Funny - this was not a "proper" release from the heyday of the classic Columbia-era quartet, but a compilation album with some live tracks in place of the more popular studio versions of songs. The unifying theme to the record (released in 1972 as a double LP) was to focus on tracks featuring odd time-signatures. "Take Five" was perhaps the most famous example of Brubeck stretching beyond the usual pulse of 4 or 3 (the composition's title referring to the meter of 5/4 the song moves in). But "Take Five" was merely the tip of the iceberg - how about tunes in 7/8, 9/8, 10/4? How can those odd meters possibly even swing? Well, the whole group does indeed swing, but special mention must go to the great drummer Joe Morello. Just even thinking about Joe Morello's superb style of playing makes me smile.

Adventures in Time, being a double record, had a great inside panel of liner notes with the right time signatures listed by each song. In one case, a nifty suggestion was added next to "Blue Rondo a-la Turk" in 9/8 - how to count this? Try one-two/one-two/one-two/one-two-three. It follows the melody perfectly. This blew my mind! Really helped me to understand how to approach unusual time signatures as I imagine it did for a lot of people, actually.

I know most folks reference the studio versions of "Take Five" and "Blue Rondo a-la Turk", but on this album live performances are used (no credits about when or where these took place). For me, these are the definitive versions - the studio cuts sound TAME in comparison. The versions on this record are rollicking and extended with all sorts of great interplay - and much quicker tempos! This collection has never been issued on CD (as far as I know) - maybe the live cuts have been added to CD reissues? I wouldn't know - sorry to admit I don't own much Dave Brubeck on CD. In fact, I really need to add more titles to my shamefully small collection - at some point I will profile another Dave Brubeck Quartet favorite - "Jazz Impressions of Japan".

For now, though - this album is still the tops for me. I even like the quasi-psychedelic cover art. In fact, here's the back cover:

Man, I could keep going off on how much I dig Dave Brubeck, Joe Morello, Paul Desmond and Eugene Wright - but do yourself a favor and check some of the great vibrations these guys put down for us all!

Move over Smiley, a new SMILE has arrived!

Note: This is my "official" ode to SMILE - and I don't even own the new box set yet! Someday..........

With the newly released Smile Sessions treasure-trove, Beach Boys fans are given another opportunity to re-evaluate the meteoric rise and spectacular crash of California’s greatest myth-makers. If the group’s only contribution was to set the California Dream to music, as their early car and surf hits did so well, the Beach Boys would still be considered a major cultural force of the 1960s. Add to this the great myth-within-the-myth of “The Greatest Unreleased Album of All-Time” and you’ve got a truly special situation on your hands. Smile’s failure to launch in 1967 has given rise to all manner of theory and armchair psychology – predictions about what could have been if only the record was finished and released on time to compete with the Beatles’ “Sgt. Pepper” album. Many hold the opinion that Smile would have wiped the floor with Pepper in terms of artistic achievement, which could very well have been the case.

 But I really wonder if it would have made that big of a difference. It is very likely that Smile would have been a critical favorite, yet a commercial flop much in the way Pet Sounds was perceived as such in those days.  And it certainly would have been nearly impossible to perform this music live. (Listen to period performances of Good Vibrations – they sound anemic. The Beach Boys didn’t really figure out how to do the song justice in concert until about 1968 when they started augmenting their basic lineup with backing musicians to beef up the sound). What is so alluring about Smile is what it came to represent – the unattainable peak of the frustrated artist cruelly cut down in his prime – stymied by primitive technology, lawsuits and infighting – not to mention the dangerous side-effects of mind-bending chemicals. A tragic fall from grace. Smile’s non-appearance also marked the beginning of the general dispersal of the throngs away from the Beach Boys’ lure. Plenty of great music would follow, but not with the magical qualities that had been the group’s trademark sound under the leadership of Brian Wilson.

Those magical qualities are to be found on the Smile tapes – as odd as the music is in many respects, that “magical quality” is still present. Only in a very few isolated circumstances would that magic reappear on future Beach Boys releases (best heard on the classic track from 1971 “Till I Die”). But it would never return in full force. This is what is most apparent to listeners who hear the original Smile Session tapes. Yes, the music is weird, but not in an unfamiliar way – in fact, the effect is quite brilliant and not unlike the style that Brian Wilson pioneered on the “Good Vibrations” single. Are there any “hit songs” on the record? Well, maybe not (aside from the obvious inclusion of “Good Vibrations”). But the material does have obvious CLASS and artistic merit – something that is not immediately apparent on what was sent out as the replacement in September of 1967.

The old story of how Smile was too weird to lay on the Beach Boys fans – as being a legitimate reason for its non-appearance in June 1967 – can’t be taken very seriously if one gives even a cursory listen to the record that came out in its place. If Pet Sounds was deemed “too weird” by the car and surf set, I cannot begin to imagine the outright indignation Beach Boys fans must have felt when playing Smiley Smile for the first time. How the group ever convinced Capitol Records to release that album is beyond my understanding. And, for the official record – I like Smiley Smile a whole lot. On its own terms it’s an interesting and rewarding album to listen to. But it does stand alone in the Beach Boys catalog as being the Mystery Turkey from Mars.

The overall listening experience of Smiley Smile is so weird – it’s actually a bit unsettling. Fans at the time must have been either convinced that it was a terrible joke or that something seriously wrong happened to these guys. The record was so out of step with the hitherto-accepted Beach Boys image (and sound) it could be argued that it was as rebellious as the Beatles Butcher Cover fiasco in its own way – perhaps WORSE since the release of Smiley Smile derailed the group’s popularity in a way that baby dolls and butcher meat certainly didn’t for the English fabs. The Beatles’ surrealistic psychedelia was, for the most part, whimsical – the Beach Boys psychedelia (as presented on Smiley Smile) was………kinda disturbing, really.

However, I have a theory about Smiley Smile that I’ve never encountered from any of the Beach Boys experts (at least the ones I’ve read). I think it was a gross miscalculation on the part of the Beach Boys in terms of how the record would be perceived by their fans. Consider this pattern:   From the album Surfin’ Safari up through Pet Sounds, there were some, for lack of a better expression, “off the cuff” releases the Beach Boys set loose on their fans in those years:  Beach Boys Concert, Beach Boys Christmas Album, Beach Boys Party! – these were all quickly thrown-together affairs tossed out onto the market in between the “serious” productions. And consider all the wacky moments found on the “serious” albums :  Brian and Mike Love having a scripted mock-fight in the studio, Our Favorite Recording Sessions, Bull Session with the Big Daddy? Remember these little nuggets of weirdness? What were they doing on those records? Are they supposed to be funny? Were they ever? Hmmmmm.

Could it be that the Beach Boys just figured Smiley Smile would be accepted by the fans as a “Beach Boys Pot Party” record? Did they even know just how wacky the record really was? Were they too close to it – in the way the Beatles were too close to the in-jokes in the Magical Mystery Tour movie to notice how incomprehensible it was to the general public? Although the Beatles movie was pretty obscure and impenetrable for most folks to appreciate – at least they were not known for being film-makers. And the music on the MMT album did not sound out of place with the rest of the Beatles catalog up to that point. Smiley Smile was a sore thumb – and there was no logical excuse for this coming from a group known for giving much more care and effort into their work for the most part. To expect the fan base to embrace Smiley Smile – especially as some sort of “sane substitute” to the Smile album! – was, I think, a bit much to ask on the Beach Boys’ part. It cost them dearly.

And if it were only that one record it could have been a different story. Yet – the shift away from that “glorious Brian Wilson sound” was, essentially – a permanent one. Now, of course, there’s no way the Beach Boys would have been selling as many records in 1969 if they put out something that sounded, sonically, like “California Girls Part Two” – the sound of popular music had changed (the shift to stereo being one example). Whether or not Brain Wilson would have been able to lead the group through the stylistic changes of the late 60s and early 70s – in an obvious commercial way – is, I believe, quite debatable. My point is – Smile was not simply abandoned by the Beach Boys on purely artistic issues alone. The path the group took – as a more democratic unit, as opposed to following Brian Wilson’s lead – would never yield either the artistic or the commercial appeal of those golden years between 1962 and 1967.

A major question remains for me : How much were the Smiley Smile, Wild Honey, Friends, 20/20 albums a reflection of democratic decisions on the part of the Beach Boys as a whole or were they still the reflections of Brian Wilson’s artistic choices? All of those records were released with production credits assigned to “The Beach Boys” instead of “Brian Wilson”. Yet, it has been argued that some of the sonic change was attributed to Brian Wilson’s ideas – the out-of-tune piano on Wild Honey, the snarky organ sounds on Smiley Smile. These abrasive kinds of textures would re-appear on later Brian Wilson-led records (The Beach Boys Love You album is the premier example of this).

It seems to me that when Brian Wilson pulled the plug on the Smile sessions it was a conscious decision to lay aside the familiar trademark sound he became known for – that glorious, warm “Phil Spector” approach. If we can argue that Smiley Smile was the result of purposeful artistic choices (instead of simple laziness), what has to be confronted is the proposition that Brian Wilson made a conscious decision to embrace a sort of avant-garde minimalism approach to his music. Was it commercial? Oh, hell no. Interesting? You bet. Just not AT ALL what anyone would have expected from a Beach Boys release – and certainly not as a logical successor to Pet Sounds.

Finally, with the official release of the Beach Boys version of Smile, fans can get a glimpse of what could easily have followed in the wake of Pet Sounds and Good Vibrations, at least from a musical point of view. And maybe after sifting through the many discs of Smile pieces, outtakes, sessions – we, as listeners, might be able to feel ready to move on – just as Brian Wilson did – to consider the merits of all the records from Smiley Smile forward on their own terms. Because, in the end – had Smile actually arrived on schedule in 1967 it is still likely that we would have had Wild Honey, Friends, 20/20 and Sunflower anyway. Maybe without any of the Smile-castoff tracks perhaps, but I would reckon in very similar form nonetheless. It’s just a hunch, but I suspect that Brian Wilson would have liked to conclude his “golden-sound period” with the bang of what Smile promised to be instead of unveiling a new and decidedly less-commercial musical style (in very raw form) as the substitute. I’m glad he’s finally gotten the chance to give listeners the opportunity to hear the results of all that hard work. It’s what we’ve been waiting for all along. Amen.

Warning: Mindless Hippie Music ahead!

        For people who know me, yes – I have a soft spot for some gen-u-ine good ol’ psychedelic type hippie rock music once in awhile. There are some great psychedelic groups to plunder – KAK, Silver Apples, The Peanut Butter Conspiracy, The Thirteenth-Floor Elevators. One psychedelic unit that brought the genre to the masses was the Jefferson Airplane. Maybe they weren’t the weirdest of the bunch, but they did have the biggest psychedelic hit records this side of “I am the Walrus”. Hit records can buy a little record company respect. Just before the Airplane morphed into the Starship in the early 70s, they designed and ran their own boutique record imprint distributed through their longtime corporate label RCA. Kinda like how the Beatles had Apple, the Airplane had GRUNT. Grunt records became the home for the Airplane, later the Jefferson Starship and all the off-shoot groups from Hot Tuna to Marty Balin’s Bodacious BF (actually a great record if you can find it!). To kick off their launch of GRUNT in 1971, the Airplane hosted a now-legendary party to showcase the various acts they had signed to their label who were soon to be releasing product. This was mainly for the (still barely) underground press who, if the recollections from Lester Bangs himself are to be believed, essentially went wild for a few days on the expense account of said Airplane.
    As could be expected, GRUNT never really produced hits for any acts besides the Airplane/Starship. Some records were more commercially appealing than others, but there was at least ONE (heh) record that could very well be considered the poster child for why the HIPPIE ERA NEEDED TO END. Ironically, this group was called ONE (or the number “1” – it’s hard to say). At this point I will defer to the author of the “official” Jefferson Airplane biography Jeff Tamarkin (his book is called “Got a Revolution” and is great reading actually!). He has a website devoted to extended anecdotes of stories told in the book, but in greater depth. YOU MUST READ THE ENTRY FROM HIS WEBSITE ABOUT THIS RECORD BEFORE YOU ATTEMPT TO HEAR THE ACTUAL MUSIC!!  (start now……….)

         http://www.gotarevolution.com/reality.htm


…okay – now that you’re primed to want to hear this silly album so badly, click on the youtube link below. Do not have any potable liquids in your mouth when listening to the music on this link since it could create a violent gush from your nose accompanied by maniacal laughter. Ready? Go ahead…………..

      There you go – I swear, no matter how bad my day is, if I hear this stupid song I cannot help but laugh like the village idiot. Thank you Paul Kantner for whatever reason you had to get behind this crazy record – whether intended to be funny or not, it hits SO MANY marks for me on the stupid-o-meter I can’t stand it. This is so dumb not even Cheech and Chong could have scripted something like this. Really – just the first 30 seconds of this track have me doubled-over with tears rolling down my cheeks guffawing like a galloping calliope down Shakedown Street with a band of multi-colored bearded whole-grain munching tree-huggers. It’s like : “Get the robes – get the sacred candles – prepare the holy Kool-Aid and get ready to meet the FINAL DESTINY !!” HAHAHAHAHAHAHA – only in California, right? Cult madness. But what’s really scary about this record is that the music was created by a large number of very competent musicians who decided that joining some group fronted by a guy named Reality D. Blipcrotch was a REALLY GREAT IDEA. I could be at the most serious occasion imaginable – I could be ready to meet the Pope and if I stop and think to myself about this song I would be fighting to suppress a giggle fit of monumental proportions.

         As funny as this record is to me, there’s a genuine creepiness about it that’s hard to deny. So creepy that I haven’t been able to sit through the whole thing at one shot. I can only deal with it in small doses. I really wonder if Kantner didn’t go out of his way for this wacky band for no other reason but to prove that there were indeed weirder people than him on the planet. Anything he’s ever done before or since looks positively sane and commercial next to Mr. Blipcrotch. I have to confess – I don’t actually own an LP copy of this record. I’ve only ever heard the tracks off u-toob. Scarier to confess that I would probably snap the record up in a heartbeat if I ever ran into it at a shop or record show.

        Speaking of which – this could be a motivating force to get me down to the WFMU record fair this weekend in NYC. I haven’t been there in ages and it’s one of the last great vinyl events to speak of in these dark times. Well, wherever you find reality – just remember you are …… ONE  of a kind!

In praise of the 45 RPM 7-inch single!

In the days before the mp3 download, the most popular format for people to have their favorite hit songs at their disposal was the 7” vinyl 45 RPM single. Well, at least from about 1955 to about 1999 or so. Many singles had unique information on them – often quite different from the same songs as they might appear on a 331/3 LP. Some of it had to do with timing (the radio edits would be shorter to accommodate the time constraints of AM radio play – something that wouldn’t really be challenged until the Beatles’ “Hey Jude”) – many times it had to do with mixing – especially in the MONO era. Until the 1970s, the mono single mix was the HIT mix. AM radio was mono – stereo 45s wouldn’t make sense until stereo FM radio broadcasts were more common by the early 1970s.

Singles were also a relatively inexpensive investment. I have some old 45s with stickers on the sleeves with price tags of 49 cents on them – not bad. However, depending on the record company – your 45 single might not last through repeated plays because – there was also a prevailing attitude towards popular music of the time – that it was * gasp * DISPOSABLE. Yes, folks – some record companies argued the point that since singles were a reflection of popular tastes which were bound to change – the fans would only play the songs so many times before getting sick of song A and moving onto song B for the next few weeks and so on. Because of this idea – some record labels pressed their singles not on nice durable vinyl compound, but on something much less durable called STYRENE. This material is very brittle and can only withstand so many plays before it starts decaying. And when that happens the sound gets all fuzzy and yucky and you gotta find another copy! Of course styrene was a much cheaper alternative for the record companies to expensive vinyl compound – you get the drift.

Unfortunately some pretty big companies used this trashy garbage to press their 45s on. Columbia, CBS, Epic, London are just a few that cut their costs using styrene. That means records by the Byrds, Simon and Garfunkle, the Dave Clark Five and The Rolling Stones are usually found in secondhand shops in totally burnt and useless condition. Even looking at them doesn’t always prove if they’re good or not. They might not be scratched, but if played with heavy stylus pressure a few good times – it’s a goner. This can make collecting 45s very frustrating indeed. Ah, but when the unthinkable happens and you score a good sounding copy of a hit record you love – it almost wipes out all the transgressions and headaches these little beasts can cause you.


It’s been a long time since I dragged out my 45s, but it happened again last night. I wish I could invite you all over to hear just how freakin’ amazing 45 rpm vinyl can sound when the planets align and you find a great specimen to illustrate the point. There’s almost no logic when it comes to 45s. I’ve purchased 45s that looked mint and played like poop and conversely some real shaggy dogs I’ve taken a chance on that can leave you sitting in front of the stereo with your mouth open and you’re thinking “How can this thing sound THAT GOOD?”. Yes – it took me three good attempts at buying different copies of original pressings of Sly and the Family Stone’s “Hot Fun in the Summertime” to finally find …THE ONE. And when it plays – look out! The great 45 RPM experience is, invariably, a MONO experience. Punchy, bassy, ballsy in-your-face goodness is what a sweet mono 45 disc can deliver as ONLY a mono 45 can deliver, people.

So here’s a list of some knee-kocking, socks-rocking, “Oh, Hare Krishna is this a GREAT sounding record!” 45s as you’re ever gonna hear:

1. Rolling Stones  - Tumbling Dice – 1st issue mono 45. There is only one way to feel the glory – LOUD!!

2. Tommy James and the Shondells – Crimson and Clover – mono 45.
You..have..not..lived…until…UNTIL…you..hear THIS MIX on the 45. Really….really.

3. Hot Fun in the Summertime – Sly. Why, for the love of God did they issue this on the Greatest Hits album in re-channeled fake stereo? The 45 is a religious experience.

4. The Beatles – She Loves You – on the SWAN label. No issue, analog, digital, British, Chinese, Japanese, I don’t care what it is – this track never sounded better than on this US pressing. Whoever cut this record from the master tape deserves a medal at least. Listening to any digital version of this song is like playing the game of “Lets count all the edits, kids!”. Not the 45. Why? I DON’T KNOW!!! AHHHHRRGGGH! Buy up every copy you find before they’re all GONE. Only pressed in 1964……if only the original Capitol 45s sounded this good. And, er….they didn’t – had to wait for the 70’s and 80s reissues for better Beatle sound.

5. I Can See For Miles / Mary Anne With the Shaky Hand – The Who – US Decca 45. The A-side is a stone groove in mono. The B-side has this unbelievably crisp and ringy finger-cymbal hit that comes smacking out of the grooves so hard you’d swear it was none other than Allen Ginsberg risen from the dead and playing (with unusual restraint) in your very living room! Its like outta NOWHERE and wham! Where’d that friggin’ thing come from? – wow! Ah, the song itself is kinda wimpy – ah well. Better head back to the A-side……..

6. (I Just Wanna) Testify – The Parliaments – mono 45 on Revilot (that would be the record label – never heard of it? Well, by the stamp in the deadwax it appears that the record was pressed by CBS and you guessed it – styrene! But for some dumb reason it’s not a problem on this record – NO LOGIC I tells ya!). My copy looks like hell and is sooooo sweet and PHAT sounding – oooh. This is the sound of the FUNKA…before the DELIC!

7. Pictures of Matchstick Men – Status Quo – the mono Cadet Concept 45. Lots of groovy phasing only on the mono 45. My copy looks even worse than my Parliaments 45 and is like Psychedelic GOD on record! Go figure.

8. I’ll Try Anything – Dusty Springfield – UK mono Philips 45. Wicked-deep bass. This record packs a whollop and, yes she may be long gone now, but Dusty’s voice still makes me swoon. Blimey!

9. Psychotic Reaction – The Count Five – I went out of my way to find a mint original copy on the Double Shot label for this. The best Yardbirds copy record ever. And a very hot-cut record it is too, but in a good way. The drums just gallop out of the speakers and knock you right over. Great psych-punk rave-up music!

10.  Where’s the Playground Susie – Glenn Campbell – ha ha, just kidding. Yes I own this record, but I think only Ceriello will get the joke here. I can note that my copy features the rare Capitol “target” label design with the ultra-rare Capitol dome-logo printed on it – a very rare combination that lasted for only a few months in the year 1969. If you have any Beatles 45s on this label variation you can send them to me since they’re not worth as much as Justin Bieber CDs……heh heh heh!

Get in the Waaay-Back machine!

How far back can we go? 1800's? 1700's? Renaissance? Medieval chanting? I like to see how far my ears can stretch - time-wise, genre-wise, tonality-wise. So I have this ongoing thing about so-called "Classical" music. I don't know what it is. I'm just as likely to listen to Theolonious Monk, The Beach Boys or even Black Sabbath. But there's a lot of other vibrations out there. So that's where I've been placing my ears a bit lately. I know I put some of those vibrations here, but I decided to create a whole new space for that bag and here it is if you're so inclined to check it out:

http://hyperprism-sounds.blogspot.com/

I'll still be whippin' some other grooves on you here too - so check in at both places if the spirit moves you. Bright Moments!

Tonight's Jazz Forecast calls for Weird Noises

Few things get music buffs more worked up than the controversy over the word JAZZ. I once had a teacher in high school tell me that anything recorded after the Original Dixieland Jazz Band wasn't really jazz music (I think he was serious!). Charlie Parker was called "Anti-Jazz". So was John Coltrane. Now, as far as I'm concerned - the real "anti-jazz" goes by the name of Kenny G and if your haven't read the now-classic editorial on that guy by Pat Metheny you haven't lived. You can dig it up on the net somewhere - it's a hoot!

Anyway - jazz gets a bum rap even, inadvertently, from some of its biggest supporters. Maybe that explains the poor attention this beautiful American art form gets in its own country. One of the last great exponents of jazz in the 20th Century took the music to the world stage, both literally and figuratively. Unfortunately too many folks these days lazily lump the efforts of the various members of Weather Report into either the dreaded "Fusion" category or - worse still - try to blame these guys for pushing the music closer to that evil cousin of real jazz - SMOOTH JAZZ. (Now I happen to believe Mavis Staples when she says "The Devil don't HAVE no music." But I think, if push came to shove, the guy with the pitchfork and horns would probably pick "smooth jazz" as the soundtrack to his environment!)

So, I'm going to shout it for the world to hear:  WEATHER REPORT is NOT "Smooth Jazz"!! Good melodies? Yup. Commercial appeal? It their time, yep. Smooth? No way. In fact, if musicians tried to do today what Weather Report did in the 70s they'd never get as much attention. Josef Zawinul, Wayne Shorter and company were serious sound freaks. They were constantly searching, trailblazing and just plain throwin' it down night after night. Witness the clip below from Montreaux 1976. Zawinul is at the helm of a bank of analog keyboards AND an antique thumb-piano AND running sped-up tapes of what sounds like indigenous chanting from......who KNOWS where.

So - is it World Music then? I don't know. I just know it cooks and it ain't smooth. Lots of Weather Report albums can be had for cheap - some more interesting than others. None should be ignored. If you ears can dig the sounds from the clip - watch the rest of the concert. Dig that young punk on the bass - Jaco had just joined the band and was a few years away from becoming engulfed by his personal demons - he's at the peak of his badness here.

Do the voices you left behind still hear YOU?

Guitarist John McLaughlin once wrote a piece of music in memory of John Coltrane called "Do You Hear the Voices You've Left Behind?". When it was released in 1977 on McLaughlin's "Electric Guitarist" solo album - John Coltrane had been departed for ten years. Yet his influence on music was arguably at an all-time high - perhaps moreso than in his own lifetime. My question, of course, intends to bring the issue up to date.......

My own appreciation of John Coltrane and jazz in general started as more of a calculated pursuit. Essentially,  I came to jazz as an outsider. There was a little appreciation of “swing” music from my folks – Benny Goodman and the like. Actually, my Grandmother gave me my first Dave Brubeck record (her brother John was a pretty decent clarinet player so I’ve been told), but that’s for another entry. Serious jazz is something that I read about first and then went out of my way to explore on my own. A huge influence on me in my formative years was a little monthly magazine my folks gave me a subscription to called Musician Magazine. From about 1984 ‘til it folded in the early 1990’s I read this religiously. Popular artists could be on the cover (Michael Jackson), but just as easily the cover might be graced by the likes of Miles Davis or even …………………………………………..………………………JOHN COLTRANE.

    For the July 1987 issue, Musician Magazine put Coltrane on the cover with a long feature story in memorial to the anniversary of his passing 20 years earlier in July 1967.  That article, complete with remembrances from Coltrane’s peers and contemporaries, made a deep impression – enough for me to rush out and grab the first available piece of Coltrane I could find. It just so happened that, at the time of publication, Coltrane CDs had not yet been issued (they were about to be…) so I checked out the vinyl bins at the local mall chain store (still stocking vinyl in those days) and came up with

……..EXPRESSION – the very last of Coltrane’s recordings on the planet. I had no idea what I was going to hear when I brought that thing home. In retrospect, I’m glad it wasn’t something even more OUT like “OM” or “Interstellar Space” – Expression was OUT, but actually kinda gentle if that makes any sense. Even still – I think I must have sat in front of the stereo with my mouth wide open. It was like getting a great novel and reading the last chapter first – I had to claw my way back to the beginning to figure out what the heck was going on in this music – FAST!

    Inside the record jacket was a little insert from MCA records (MCA owned the Impulse catalog in the 80s) with a listing of other jazz records available. The Coltrane list was ENORMOUS. This guy put out all these exotic sounding records………Africa Brass, Kulu Se Mama, OM, Meditations, Interstellar Space, Sun Ship……on and ON! And that was just his Impulse output (he cut records for other labels too – WHEW!!!). This was going to be a lifelong journey (and it still is).

    Once the CDs were released – it was like sonic potato chips for me. Thank goodness I was working part time and the discs were given budget prices (since they were reissues, basically).  Coltrane became my first jazz obsession. I immediately dug his tone – clear, strong – a little biting, but oddly warm. Got to hear some of the classics – A Love Supreme, My Favorite Things, Giant Steps – all the while I had this sense of urgency about the music. Coltrane was a “no BS” artist – every record was an important musical message – not in a preachy or even philosophical way, but in an intuitive, abstract way. Listening to Coltrane opened me up to lots of other music – jazz and otherwise.

    Here’s a link to the first track off the Expression album I mentioned above.

Although there’s a lot of free blowing going on, there is a really beautiful melody that the piece is based on which is stated at the opening of the track and later at about 1:26. Coltrane left a lot of music behind for all to hear, but there’s something bittersweet about the music on Expression. I don’t know if I’m projecting my own ideas on the music, or if its something Coltrane himself felt – there’s a sadness amidst the searching. I guess the music makes me wonder if Coltrane knew he wasn’t going to live much longer beyond these sessions.

    From what I can gather, it seems that there was quite an appreciation for all things Coltrane in the years after his death well into the 1970s. Even today, I would imagine that many tenor players still feel his influence even if indirectly. It’s kind of like Hendrix and guitar players – impossible to escape the influence even if you have a totally different and unique style. But I wonder how many young folks are digging into the Coltrane catalog anymore. There was a lot of media attention in the 80s and 90s with the CD reissues. Will Coltrane still be heard in the Age of the Download?