John Coltrane POLLstumous Releases

Stellar Regions is my absolute favorite of 40+ jazz discs i've picked up this year.

so, that one.

Expression is really good too

First Meditations is fantastic. MIght even be as good as A Love Supreme.

Wow ilxor! That is a *statement*! I love it too. I have to say, the man is rewarding my completist instincts in a big way. Every new title I find I think to myself "do I really need this one too?". I take it home and inevitably come to the conclusion that I indeed make a wise decision.

Case in point: picking up an old copy of Selflessness. Did I need another version of My Favorite Things and I Want To Talk About You? Probably not, but the title track, which I hadn't heard or seen elsewhere, is astoundingly awesome.

The Olatunji Concert is pretty sublime.

i guess the thelonious monk w/coltrane at carnegie hall doesn't count. i still haven't heard those alternate takes of 'a love supreme' either.

Aw man...I shoulda included the Carnegie Hall release. I guess I limited it to non-compilation Impulse! titles. Forgot the bonus A Love Supreme stuff too.

love supreme alternates are worth hearing, but they aren't revelatory or anything.

the live love supreme on the deluxe love supreme is great though.

Just today I found a copy of the controversial Infinity. Controversial b/c it's the one where Alice overdubbed additional string parts to existing tracks. The cover art is garish and great! Excited to hear it.

First Meditations is fantastic

Sure is. Never heard "Stellar Regions", have to check it out.

Selflessness Featuring My Favorite Things (1968)

This means he likes to share his favourite things! what a dude.

What about Complete Live at the Village Vanguard and One Up One Down?

I went with Interstellar Space, the record that launched a thousand tenor/percussion duos.

hard to choose between sun ship and first meditations but went with the latter. expression is just behind those two for me

also live in japan was intimidating to me at first but i picked it up as 2xlp 'concert in japan' recently and was knocked out

Infinity is actually pretty great. I'm kinda torn between Interstellar Space and the 4CD Live in Japan box, which is a fucking endurance test, but has moments of almost miraculous awesomeness (and even without taking Coltrane into consideration, it's worth owning just to hear Jimmy Garrison's 15-minute bass solos opening "Crescent" and "My Favorite Things").

Live in Japan - its all about that last group (and all the tensions within). Really fascinating.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

voted First Meditations

big fan of Live in Seattle

voted stellar regions and then felt bad about not considering live in japan

Been looking for a used copy of Live in Japan for a few years now.

it's out of print?!

I don't think so, I just never see it used in the shops for whatever reason.

i guess people who pay full price for four discs of live late-period coltrane know what they're getting into.

big fan of Live in Seattle

― Mark, Wednesday, April 6, 2011 12:03 AM (10 hours ago) Bookmark

This is way underrated. Love the tension between Coltrane/Sanders/Garrett and Jones/Tyner/Garrison. Tyner's solos sound defiant at times, like, "What the fuck am I even doing here? Fuck it, I'm doing my thing."

i've never heard live in seattle ... i probably should get it. is it true that jones and coltrane dropped acid before the show, or is that just urban legend?

I heard that they took LCD before recording OM, which was never quite varied either, didn't hear that about Seattle as far as I can remember.

er, LSD!

yeah, some quick googling seems to suggest that the whole band was tripping during the OM sessions. which I can believe.

Pretty sure that Live in Seattle was recorded the night before the OM sessions. John and Pharoah's Wild'n'Wacky Acid Bender!

Recently found a copy Infinity. And just ordered a copy of Cosmic Music from Dusty Groove. Live in Seattle and Live in Japan are pretty much the only one's I have left to hear. But as noted above, used copies are not easily found.

Noone else voting for Sun Ship? Oh well

Sun Ship is pretty great. It always feels really compressed and disciplined to me, like that quartet was a star that sucked all its energy inward before exploding.

I voted Sun Ship, but mainly b/c it was the gateway to my Coltrane obsession. I could have easily gone with several others though (Transition, Expression, Stellar Regions).

Live in Seattle and Live in Japan are pretty much the only one's I have left to hear. But as noted above, used copies are not easily found.

Reminds me of a funny story: a friend of mine bought a subwoofer system for his car, and a few days later found a used copy of Live In Japan. So he drove around Chicago blasting the Garrison solos out of his car, to deeply perplexed looks (and a few shocked thumbs-ups).

omg, hero

I have been way digging into this period recently, acquiring most of these on vinyl and enjoying every step of the way. Not sure I can give an answer, though. Also, what is this: "Dear Old Stockholm (1978)" Is this on vinyl? I see the GRP cd, but no vinyl.

Don't think "Dear Old Stockholm" was released on vinyl. The cd reissues from the 90's presented a kind of revisionist history where they attempt to group recordings by date or some other criteria. In the case of "Stockholm" they combine two dates where Roy Haynes subbed for Elvin Jones (one from 1963 and one from 1965). Kind of a weird approach, but it's a good record that you be able to track down used copies of pretty easily (assuming you're open to non-vinyl).

Living Space would be another you won't find on vinyl, if I'm not mistaken.

Yeah, I wish they wouldn't have done the re-group the albums by date/personnel thing...makes things confusing. In the poll I guess I'll choose "The Other Village Vanguard Tapes." I love both versions of Spiritual on that.

yeah, holy shit, "spiritual" is so immense and heavy. i know it from the complete vanguard box set thing. if that was on here i'd have to vote for it.

I saw that Complete Village Vanguard set recently for $20 and stupidly passed on it. Should've known better, but at the time, I thought to myself "how many versions of these songs does one need?" Having subsequently heard the three different versions of My Favorite Things, I now know the answer is "all of them". I've fallen into a rather deep well here!

Easy to do with Coltrane:).

I have that set in my truck right now for driving-around listening, really loving it. Esp Dolphy.

yeah it is worth $20! xp

Poorly worded...I realize there are no renditions of My Favorite Things on the various Village Vanguard comps. There *is* one on the Live At The Village Vanguard Again album, as well as Selflessness. Both are awesome, and I know there are more out there (ie, Live in Japan). I also wouldn't want to do without *any* of the renditions of "I Want To Talk About You" that I've heard. So yeah, I kinda want it all.

And the funny thing is I haven't picked up *any* of the Prestige records yet! I'll get there soon enough, I'm sure.

those three box sets of the prestige stuff are good, obv a different thing from his 60s stuff. weird to read about a lot of those sessions -- i guess prestige would just round up a lot of players, drive them out to the studio and say, ok, make a record, dudes. which makes for some great music, but also some very pedestrian music.

I've said before that I prefer Prestige-era Coltrane to Atlantic-era Coltrane.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

not familiar with every one of these, but Africa Brass 2 is KILLER. expression was the first JC album i ever bought and it's very good, too, fwiw.
i think i voted innerstellar space

Huh. I voted for Sun Ship but really didn't think it would win.

I love the opening track of that record so much.

Oddly I just bought Infinity yesterday, never listened before tonight, and I like it. Slightly odd to hear some of these familiar Coltrane tracks in this setting but the strings are v. cool IMO.

That opening track on Sun Ship is one of the pivotal moments in the existence of that quartet, but rarely seems to be recognized as such.

As with all versions of 'Leo', it's the standout track on Infinity.
xpost

it's weird that there are, like, a lot of songs on 'stellar regions', i have a hard time keeping in mind that they are individual, distinct compositions.

Is it just my ears or is Coltrane playing alto on one of those "Stellar Regions" tracks? (can't remember which one at the moment, sorry)

I didn't realize that there was a Complete Sun Ship Session released in 2013 until just now

It was ILM that alerted ME back in April!

"Peace On Earth" live in Japan. Twice! Heavenly.