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| Track list: 1. Blue Train 2. Moment's Notice 3. Locomotion 4. I'm Old Fashioned 5. Lazy Bird Running time: 42 minutes Released: 1957 |
A jazz classic next. I used to be really hot on saxophones but I got won over by the trumpet. I don't think I've ever really given Coltrane the same sort of chance I did Miles Davis, for instance. It will be good to actually give this a real, knowing, chance.
The opening refrains are iconic, but I could never have placed them by name. Instantly recognisable when they hit my ear, I feel like a dunce for not being able to call to mind the sounds of this album. Admittedly it does not take long for the tune to extend beyond the limits of my familiarity, but that start is so strong. It has been a busy week, out or engaged every night except Monday. Saturday now, and it has been a pleasingly lazy day. I feel like I really ought to have found the time for this earlier in the day, but there's no real reason for that kind of self-demeaning attitude.
I find Coltrane's horn a little over-eager. The structure created by the bass and drums, and reinforced by the soft background keys, is a nice slow and steady one for the most part and yet the sax is frenetic in places - a nervous energy and pace about it that makes it hard to love. When he plays at the same tempo as the support, the quality of the tune grows and it shines. Oh, sure - you can denigrate it as "trad jazz" if you don't like the form - but to my mind one of the things about the true jazz classics is that they are accessible to a fault. Far from the ridiculous stereotypes of performers disappearing up their own behinds (which no doubt happened for some, as it does with some modern musicians) in their pretentiousness, the best and most well received, long lasting, jazz is easy to relate to rather than built around incomprehensible time signatures and self-absorbed solos.
The first couple of bars of Moment's Notice are equally very recognisable. Could it be that I have heard the openings a lot and skipped the rest? Possible. For as much as I just said the best jazz is accessible, I do find that as a rule it fits in a shuffle less well than most other forms. Here there is more urgency to the drumming and so the fast pace of the saxophony (no, I know that's not a word, although apparently it is a group; hello one-tag wonder!) is more appreciated here. I don't feel the same affiliation to these tracks as I did (and maybe will again) with those on Kind of Blue, there isn't that same instinctive connection with Coltrane's melodies. I suppose it would be fairer to compare like with like, and reference other saxophonists, but the truth is that whilst I have a best of Charlie Parker I don't really have much else driven off the power of sax. I have to say I do like the way Coltrane book-ends Moment's Notice though, the return to the same theme that opened the tune making a nice and neat closure to the track.
I suppose we should expect a track titled Locomotion to be pretty pacy, and Coltrane does not disappoint us there. I think his sax is upstaged by the trumpet with which it divides early melody duty, but I think that probably just reflects my post-teen shift in appreciation. Nevertheless this is, for me, a more engaging track. I find myself really liking the rhythm and pulse of this one, as opposed to more distantly appreciating the prior two tunes. Despite it being 7 minutes long, this is all I find the time and presence of mind to type before it ends (perhaps I was enjoying it too much to type? Lets go with that) and we shift down the gears for I'm Old Fashioned, which is - or rather was - apparently a standard. This has a nice laid back atmosphere to it which I appreciate here, and the horns are appropriately dulled and subdued. It's making me a little sleepy, but I wouldn't call that a bad thing at all. This, again, is the accessibility of great jazz all over. The pattern is instantly hooked in, the mood is consistent and supported by all parts. You could say that should be true of most music, and you'd probably be right to. It is the kind of tune I can see people not getting into, but at the same time I can't find anything objectionable about it at all.
The opening refrains are iconic, but I could never have placed them by name. Instantly recognisable when they hit my ear, I feel like a dunce for not being able to call to mind the sounds of this album. Admittedly it does not take long for the tune to extend beyond the limits of my familiarity, but that start is so strong. It has been a busy week, out or engaged every night except Monday. Saturday now, and it has been a pleasingly lazy day. I feel like I really ought to have found the time for this earlier in the day, but there's no real reason for that kind of self-demeaning attitude.
I find Coltrane's horn a little over-eager. The structure created by the bass and drums, and reinforced by the soft background keys, is a nice slow and steady one for the most part and yet the sax is frenetic in places - a nervous energy and pace about it that makes it hard to love. When he plays at the same tempo as the support, the quality of the tune grows and it shines. Oh, sure - you can denigrate it as "trad jazz" if you don't like the form - but to my mind one of the things about the true jazz classics is that they are accessible to a fault. Far from the ridiculous stereotypes of performers disappearing up their own behinds (which no doubt happened for some, as it does with some modern musicians) in their pretentiousness, the best and most well received, long lasting, jazz is easy to relate to rather than built around incomprehensible time signatures and self-absorbed solos.
The first couple of bars of Moment's Notice are equally very recognisable. Could it be that I have heard the openings a lot and skipped the rest? Possible. For as much as I just said the best jazz is accessible, I do find that as a rule it fits in a shuffle less well than most other forms. Here there is more urgency to the drumming and so the fast pace of the saxophony (no, I know that's not a word, although apparently it is a group; hello one-tag wonder!) is more appreciated here. I don't feel the same affiliation to these tracks as I did (and maybe will again) with those on Kind of Blue, there isn't that same instinctive connection with Coltrane's melodies. I suppose it would be fairer to compare like with like, and reference other saxophonists, but the truth is that whilst I have a best of Charlie Parker I don't really have much else driven off the power of sax. I have to say I do like the way Coltrane book-ends Moment's Notice though, the return to the same theme that opened the tune making a nice and neat closure to the track.
I suppose we should expect a track titled Locomotion to be pretty pacy, and Coltrane does not disappoint us there. I think his sax is upstaged by the trumpet with which it divides early melody duty, but I think that probably just reflects my post-teen shift in appreciation. Nevertheless this is, for me, a more engaging track. I find myself really liking the rhythm and pulse of this one, as opposed to more distantly appreciating the prior two tunes. Despite it being 7 minutes long, this is all I find the time and presence of mind to type before it ends (perhaps I was enjoying it too much to type? Lets go with that) and we shift down the gears for I'm Old Fashioned, which is - or rather was - apparently a standard. This has a nice laid back atmosphere to it which I appreciate here, and the horns are appropriately dulled and subdued. It's making me a little sleepy, but I wouldn't call that a bad thing at all. This, again, is the accessibility of great jazz all over. The pattern is instantly hooked in, the mood is consistent and supported by all parts. You could say that should be true of most music, and you'd probably be right to. It is the kind of tune I can see people not getting into, but at the same time I can't find anything objectionable about it at all.
Just like that I am on to the last track. Lazy Bird picks up the pace again and this time I feel that it strays into bland background filler territory. I am not sure why, but I fail to perceive the same craft here that was obvious through the prior tunes. Maybe it is the glass or two of wine that has gone to my head or the jolt out of the relaxed mood the alcohol and music, in combination, had achieved by the end of I'm Old Fashioned, but this tune feels far more generic at the start, and then when it devolves into "everyone needs a solo" - including bass and drums - I feel my ties to the track slipping. That said, the 7 minutes is over in a flash!
Either I was blanking out (and honestly I have not had anywhere near enough to drink for that!) or actually this album is a masterful example of sucking you in. The relatively sparse comment on at least 2 of the tracks despite them being twice the length of your standard pop song confirms my ear was pretty much hooked, and my mind with it. I rather enjoy that, even if I can't say that the album consciously stands out and shines for me. Would listen again.
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