Newport '63 [Best of, Live]

The album starts with Eckstine's ballad "I Want To Talk About You" where Coltrane plays tenor and ends with soloing alone for a couple of minutes before the band hits the last chord on cue - something he also did on the "Impressions" bonus track "Dear Old Stockholm" - Works every time! Great communication within the band, but the following track really takes the price; this is the best version I've ever heard (and maybe will have ever heard) of "My Favorite Things". It should have gotten and should get as much attention as the work on Blue Train & Giant Steps. The musicianship is extraordinary! Coltane playes soprano sax throughout. McCoy Tyner's piano really comes through on this one. The whole band (that by the way consists of Tyner, Jimmy Garrison and Roy Haynes on tracks 1 to 3) do a great job! I've listened to the song at least fifty times, and every time I listen I'm amazed how a band can play a song like this for nearly 18 minutes and keep it interesting every second from start to finish. I can without doubt say that it's better than the studio version from 1960 and that this is the highlight of this album. Followed by this masterwork is "Impressions", the last track on the album from Newport '63, perhaps a bolder version than the original recording; Tyner and Garrison accompany Coltrane until his solo really takes off. From there he plays with only Haynes for ten minutes. Nicely done is the least one could say! The album rounds off with the blues "Chasin' Another Trane" - recorded live at the Village Vanguard in 1961 with a different line-up: Reggie Workman on bass, Elvin Jones on drums (credited as Roy Haynes on the CD) and ERIC DOLPHY on alto sax, but all he playes on the track is a three minute solo. Maybe not the best work he has done, but it is Dolphy alright! Only the sound of his alto is the perfect intermission from Coltrane's solos. The quality of the recording is not as good as on the Newport tracks, but still very good considering it's recorded over forty years ago!
Deeply recommended for anyone who likes any other Coltrane album!

This recording ought to be the first recommended audio literature for a course on "How to play live jazz". I still get blown away listening to tracks two and three: "My Favorite Things", and "Impressions". Although his studio recordings are legendary, it's obvious from this recording and others (such as "Live at the Village..." and "Live at Birdland") that Coltrane lived for the moment of the live set.

I do agree however, with a previous reviewer who lamented the absence of Sir Elvin Jones on this recording. Not so much that I do not like Haynes's drumming (although yes he may have hit his snare drum one too many times on occassion), but just the degree to which Jones, Tyner, and Coltrane make such an organic whole in that it sometimes seems hard to tell where one musician ends and the other begins. Had Jones been available for this set, I no doubt believe this recording would have taken on the legendary status as "Live at the Village Vanguard" has, but none the less a classic anyways.

This version of My Favorite Things takes me back to my high school years when I first discovered Trane. This was when I discovered a music that was power and grace and best things of the imagination. For me, it was the music that took me past the music of Adolescence, the state which rock and roll seems to keep many adults forever stuck in a perpetual state of.

But I digress... Like all the other reviewers, this is one of the best My Favorite Things. You also get to hear Roy Haynes, who really was special with Coltrane.

For another great MFT, check out Live At Village Vangard Again.