Coltrane Plays the Blues

Coltrane Plays the Blues is an album of music by jazz musician John Coltrane, released in July 1962 on Atlantic Records.[1][2] It was recorded at Atlantic Studios during the sessions for My Favorite Things, assembled after Coltrane had stopped recording for the label and was under contract to Impulse Records. Like Prestige Records before them, as Coltrane's fame grew during the 1960s, Atlantic used unissued recordings and released them without either Coltrane's input or approval.

Coltrane Plays the Blues
Studio album by
John Coltrane
ReleasedJuly 1962 (1962-07)[1][2]
RecordedOctober 24, 1960
StudioAtlantic (New York City)
GenreJazz
Length41:07 original LP
LabelAtlantic
SD 1382
ProducerNesuhi Ertegün
John Coltrane chronology
Live! at the Village Vanguard
(1962)		 Coltrane Plays the Blues
(1962)		 Coltrane
(1962)

On September 19, 2000, Rhino Records reissued Coltrane Plays the Blues as part of its Atlantic 50th Anniversary Jazz Gallery series. Included were five bonus tracks, all of which had appeared in 1995 on The Heavyweight Champion: The Complete Atlantic Recordings.

Reception
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[3]
DownBeat[4]
The Encyclopedia of Popular Music[5]
The Penguin Guide to Jazz[6]
The Rolling Stone Jazz Record Guide[7]

Coltrane biographer Ben Ratliff wrote: "Coltrane Plays the Blues... turned out to be one of the great records in jazz. It was nevertheless overshadowed by other material he recorded during the same sessions..."[8]

Coltrane biographer Eric Nisenson remarked: "It is not known if Coltrane intended to make what is now known as a 'concept' album, but listening to these six tracks is like a journey through the blues, from the most primitive to the 'world beat' blues... there is nothing atavistic in Coltrane's playing; as deeply funky as it is, it is still searching new music, as personally Coltranesque as anything he ever recorded, simultaneously old, thoroughly modern, and perfectly beautiful... On Coltrane Plays the Blues the saxophonist had clearly made the heady discovery that the blues had some vital connection with music from exotic places all over the world, all of which had been created through a similar need of the heart."[9]

In a review for AllMusic, Richie Unterberger commented: "Coltrane's sessions for Atlantic in late October 1960 were prolific... My Favorite Things was destined to be the most remembered and influential of these, and while Coltrane Plays the Blues is not as renowned or daring in material, it is still a powerful session. As for the phrase 'plays the blues' in the title, that's not an indicator that the tunes are conventional blues (they aren't). It's more indicative of a bluesy sensibility, whether he is playing muscular saxophone or... the more unusual sounding (at the time) soprano sax."[3]

The authors of The Penguin Guide to Jazz wrote that the album is "often overlooked", and stated: "Much of the interest lies in Tyner's withdrawal from some of the numbers, a first experiment with a pianoless trio since Prestige days. Here once again simplicity of statement and sophistication of harmonic structure lie in fertile balance."[6]

Writing about the Rhino reissue for All About Jazz, Mike Perciaccante stated: "This is one of the least well known Coltrane albums, partly because it is an all blues format and partly because it was released at the end of his association with Atlantic records... It is the beginning of his work with Tyner and Jones in quartet form. For that alone this recording would be important... Long-time Coltrane fans will fall in love with the clean, crisp sound. New fans will be afforded a great opportunity to be introduced to the master's work on this timeless album."[10]

Track listing

Side one
No.TitleWriter(s)Length
1."Blues to Elvin"Elvin Jones7:53
2."Blues to Bechet"John Coltrane5:46
3."Blues to You"John Coltrane6:29

Side two
No.TitleWriter(s)Length
1."Mr. Day"John Coltrane7:56
2."Mr. Syms"John Coltrane5:22
3."Mr. Knight"John Coltrane7:31

2000 reissue bonus tracks
No.TitleWriter(s)Length
7."Untitled Original (Exotica)"John Coltrane5:22
8."Blues to Elvin" (alternate take 1)Elvin Jones11:00
9."Blues to Elvin" (alternate take 3)Elvin Jones5:59
10."Blues to You" (alternate take 1)John Coltrane5:35
11."Blues to You" (alternate take 2)John Coltrane5:36

Side Two track 2 recorded during the evening of October 24, 1960; the remainder during the night of the same day.[11]

Personnel

Production personnel

References
  1. DeVito, Chris; Fujioka, Yasuhiro; Schmaler, Wolf; Wild, David (2013). Porter, Lewis (ed.). The John Coltrane Reference. New York/Abingdon: Routledge. p. 595. ISBN 9780415634632. Retrieved 2 January 2020.
  2. Editorial Staff, Cash Box (July 21, 1962). "July Album Releases" (PDF). Cash Box. New York: The Cash Box Publishing Co. Retrieved 2 May 2020.
  3. Coltrane Plays the Blues at AllMusic
  4. Down Beat: October 11, 1962 vol. 29, no. 26
  5. Larkin, Colin (2007). The Encyclopedia of Popular Music (4th ed.). Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0195313734.
  6. Cook, Richard; Morton, Brian (2008). The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings (9th ed.). Penguin. p. 286. ISBN 978-0-141-03401-0.
  7. Swenson, J., ed. (1985). The Rolling Stone Jazz Record Guide. USA: Random House/Rolling Stone. pp. 46. ISBN 0-394-72643-X.
  8. Ratliff, Ben (2007). Coltrane: The Story of a Sound. Farrar, Straus and Giroux. p. 55.
  9. Nisenson, Eric (1993). Ascension: John Coltrane and his Quest. Da Capo. pp. 94–96.
  10. Perciaccante, Mike (June 7, 2002). "John Coltrane: Coltrane Plays The Blues". All About Jazz. Retrieved April 22, 2021.
  11. Jazz discography


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