eMusic Review 0
Coltrane's Sound is Atlantic's third helping from the October 1960 sessions for My Favorite Things and Coltrane Plays the Blues, but there was still plenty of meat on the platter. In contrast to those all-standards/all-blues albums, it's a smorgasbord of contemporary Coltrane approaches: a snapshot of his music at the moment his mature concept was coming together. There are two standards ("The Night Has a Thousand Eyes, "Body and Soul"), a steeplechase over tricky, fast-moving harmonies ("Satellite," for trio minus piano), and a tune where he riffs off eastern modes like the ones found in his study bible, Slonimsky's Thesaurus of Scales and Melodic Patterns. That's "Liberia," whose repetitive phrases sound like an invitation to prayer. "Central Park West," later memorably covered by Jack DeJohnette, is one of his loveliest, most original ballads, and the one tune where Trane plays soprano instead of tenor sax. The brooding modal blues "Equinox" is a moan from a wooden church across the fields, far from Central Park. By now two-thirds of his classic quartet's rhythm section had been assembled; pianist McCoy Tyner and drummer Elvin Jones, plus Philadelphia bassist Steve Davis on his final Coltrane sessions. You can hear… read more »
