MILT JACKSON & JOHN COLTRANE

MILT JACKSON & JOHN COLTRANE
BAGS & TRANE (1959)
320 KBPS

With all the press and discussion that surrounds the album immediately following this one, GIANT STEPS, this cd is all too often overlooked. Big mistake! This is one of my favorite cd's from Coltrane's time with the Atlantic label. I noticed in the previous reviews that a few people referred to Coltrane's sound and style as "harsh" or "attacking". That caught me off guard, I've never considered him to sound harsh on this at all. I could understand people thinking that way about some of his late-period playing but on this cd his playing flows like liquid silk. So many people think of Coltrane only as a harmonic genius but listening to this cd it is impossible to deny his total brilliance and mastery of rhythm. Quite simply, no one felt the pulse of a tune the way Coltrane did. This is not the scouring, searching, peeling away the layers of self to find redemption Coltrane of later years (a Coltrane which I myself love, but some people hate), this is Coltrane in a straight-ahead format, turning phrases inside out and back around into themselves, and doing it with incredible tenor tone. I love the sonic quality of this recording, Coltranes tone is just beyond words on this cd.
For sheer beauty and swinging mastery of melodic improvisation it almost doesn't get any better than what Coltrane does here on tunes like Be-Bop, Bags & Trane, Stairway To The Stars, etc...
And no, I am not forgetting about the rest of the band. Paul Chambers is brilliant on this cd. Milt also shows what he was made of on this cd, and he was made of some very fine stuff. What someone thinks of this cd overall may well depend on what they think of the vibraphone. If you don't like vibraphone then you may wish Milt Jackson wasn't on this, but if you do like it then this really is a classic recording. And quite honestly, if you're just a Coltrane fan this cd is still completely worth it even if you hate the vibraphone. I think this cd has, without a doubt, some of Coltrane's most incredible playing of the 1950's.

1. Stairway To The Stars*
2. The Late Late Blues
3. Bags & Trane
4. Three Little Words
5. The Night We Called It A Day
6. Be-Bop
7. Blues Legacy*
8. Centerpiece*
* bonus tracks