John Coltrane
One Up
One Down: Live at the Half Note
Impulse
One Up
One Down: Live at the Half Note is a 1965 performance by the classic
John Coltrane Quartet recorded for radio and now captured on two thrilling
discs.
The group (McCoy Tyner, piano; Elvin Jones, drums; and Jimmy
Garrison, bass) was near the end of its four-year duration. As a result its
playing is as tight as it gets. In recordings made after 1965, Coltrane grew
increasingly experimental in both his compositions and his saxophone solos.
This recording finds him balancing right on the edge between expressionism and
abstraction, melody and dissonance.
Because at this stage in his career Coltrane would routinely
take 10-, 20-, or 30-minute solos, only four tunes are included. But each is an
exquisite journey. The title tune has no particular theme,
it simply takes off and doesn’t return to earth until 27 minutes later. “Afro
Blue” begins more traditionally, but soon also enters the stratosphere.
Coltrane’s playing is trance-like on “Song of Praise,” while Tyner, Jones, and
Garrison provide an unsettled foundation that keeps the tension high.
The album ends with Coltrane’s best-known interpretation,
“My Favorite Things.” But in this incarnation the Richard
Rogers-composition morphs into a tour-de-force of model improvisation with both
Coltrane and Tyner stretching out on breathtaking solos.
— Ron Netsky
Sound Directions
The Funky Side of Life
Stones Throw
“New tunes with an old soul” is how I would describe the new
release from startup group Sound Directions. The album, The Funky Side of Life, lives up to its
name, funking you up with the full essence of
’70s-style soul.
Crank up the phonograph and let the disc rip, as your skip
button lays to rest and rewind gets a workout. Veteran
producer-arranger-musician extraordinaire Madlib put
together this group of session players, and each one has a musical repertoire.
From the instant classic “Play Car” (one of the few tracks with any vocals),
where you hear instruction to give the drummer some; to “One For J.J.
(Johnson)” with its ability to make even a monk get to head-noddin’;
to “The Horse” and “Theme For Ivory Black,” both of which could easily be the
score to any Blaxploitation film: This album brings you
back to an era of musicianship where funk was the swagger that tipped Fred
Sanford’s hat to the side.
Sound Directions has found a way to make a full-scale time
machine in less than 33 minutes of aural delight. Complete with the bare-breast
pics on the cover, the only thing missing from this
record is the popping and hiss of playing vinyl, and about six minutes more per
song.
— jaythreeoh
This article appears in Dec 14-20, 2005.
