One Down, One Up (Live At The Half Note)

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In his review for The Village Voice, music critic Robert Christgau gave the album an "A-" and said that, although it is overpriced and underrecorded to some degree, its selling point is the title track, which features the longest Coltrane solo ever recorded. Bass – Jimmy Garrison Drums – Elvin Jones Piano – McCoy Tyner Tenor Saxophone, Soprano Saxophone – John Coltrane Recorded 1965 at the Half Note, New York City: Disc One on March 26; Disc Two on May 7. 2005 was a watershed year for unreleased music by John Coltrane. First there was the unbelievable Thelonious Monk with John Coltrane Live at Carnegie Hall. Now Impulse offers this double CD of radio broadcasts in One Down, One Up: Live at the Half Note. It was recorded in March and May of 1965 by DJ Alan Grant for radio broadcast; while recording for broadcast, many hosts would usually just drop in on a session and tape the band for under an hour and take no note of catching a performance from the beginning. That rule applies here. The first disc was recorded on March 26. Grant's introduction begins during Jimmy Garrison's solo. The band had already been playing the title cut for 35 minute. Coltrane steps in a couple of minutes in and blows hard for nearly 28 minute. Trane had already released A Love Supreme and was seeking to expand the harmonic reaches of his sound, exploring every avenue available to him. The band astonishes too. Here McCoy Tyner, Garrison, and Elvin Jones push the limit, swinging hard and fast (Jones' playing is especially outrageous). Tyner's big block chords play toward ascending Coltrane's scale, not trying to keep up but expanding the chromatic palette with a fury. He drops out around the ten-minute mark and it's Trane and Jones forcing each other into unknown corners before breaking out of them into new dimension. Garrison's attack is not content to try to keep it grounded but provide enough of an anchor for the intervallic exploration to be limitle. Garrison drops out as well and it's a duet near the end of the track, Jones matching Coltrane measure for measure with a breathless intensity before Tyner and Garrison reenter to take it out with the modal head coming back in a completely different form. What's remarkable is that Trane avoided his sheets-of-sound approach entirely here. His solo is focused and the restraint is harmonic, but it results in a performance of expansive force and muscular taste. And it nearly i. Despite a few near washouts in the sound, Trane's capability to continue to build a solo is simply astonishing. After a minute of announcement, the band kicks into "Afro Blue." This cut, a mere 12 minute, is a tour de force for the band (Tyner's solo in particular). .

via Last.fm

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