Both Directions At Once: The Lost Album

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This long-buried studio session, found among John Coltrane’s holdings by the family of his first wife, Naima, offers a bounty of unheard material by the saxophonist’s classic quartet at a creative peak in 1963. His quartet with pianist McCoy Tyner, bassist Jimmy Garrison, and drummer Elvin Jones was cranking out records for Impulse! at the time, some with an attempted commercial bent (this session was recorded just one day before the vocal classic <i>John Coltrane and Johnny Hartman</i>). Though <i>Both Directions at Once</i> somehow didn’t make the grade, it provides a new glimpse of the group at its most explosive and forward-thinking. “All these musicians are reaching some of the heights of their musical powers,” Coltrane's son, Ravi, who helped prepare the album, told the <i>New York Times</i>. “On this record, you do get a sense of John with one foot in the past and one foot headed toward his future.”

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