The Olatunji Concert: The Last Live Recording

Artist: John Coltrane
Label: Umvd Labels
Category: Music

Average customer rating:

Format: Live
Media: Audio CD
Number Of Discs: 1

UPC: 731458912026
EAN: 0731458912026
ASIN: B00005MAWI

Release Date: 2001-09-25

Related Categories:

Avant Garde & Free Jazz

| Jazz | Styles | Music

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Tracks:

Introduction - Billy Taylor
Ogunde - John Coltrane
My Favorite Things - John Coltrane

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Customer Reviews:

It's not just that it's a poor recording..........2006-11-16

...it's that it is pretty much unlistenable (at least on headphones) because of a high-pitched whine throughout. Add that this is an adventurous performance even by Coltrane's standards and you have a splitting headache for all but the most dedicated completists.

Obviously this is a great pity given the recording's great historical significance.

Pure & brutally honest music.......2006-10-19

Despite the low sound quality, this is some of the most transcending music ever created in my opinion. It's abstract, it's sharp, it's whatever you want it to be. Above it all, it is very pure and brutally honest music performed by someone (John Coltrane) who has gone through many transitions throughout his life, and is simply expressing himself through the art of improvisation by going through any means possible to make his emotions as blatently obvious as he can. He goes beyond the limits of playing the saxophone, but making the instrument a part of himself; body, mind, and spirit.

This album isn't supposed to make you feel comfortable. It's supposed to change how you view life, how you listen to music, and essentially, what your potential can be, as well as your limits. John Coltrane understood that music was to be taken very personally. If at first you don't like this album -- which I can understand -- come back to it some other time. It really is a historical document of music in its purist state.

Way better than I expected in terms of sound quality.......2006-03-13

I waited a while to get this one (this was probably close to the 50th Coltrane CD I have purchased), and I was initially very reluctant to order this, mostly because I had heard negative comments about the recording quality. While it's true that the sound quality is not great, it's really not that bad either. At times the distortion that I hear even complements the music somehow. Pharoah Sanders really doesn't even sound like he's playing tenor, more like an electric guitar combined with human screaming, and he is, by the way, on fire this particular evening. This may be my favorite live recording of this group; it certainly made me fall in love with this era of Coltrane all over again. The two percussionists backing Ali also add to the power of this performance.

This is probably not the place to start if you're just getting into Coltrane, but I would certainly highly recommend this CD to anyone who already feels passionately about the music of John Coltrane.

THE OLATUNJI CONCERT: blazing!.......2005-09-22

many listeners will be put off by the low sound quality of this live concert, but i love it. i think it adds to the raw and fiery performance. i like the fact that drums are beaten so loudly that the sound levels go up a little bit into the red, or when Coltrane's playing soars to the shrieking side of the spectrum, you can almost feel the building shaking. personally, i think this is Coltrane's most important live record ever made. not just because it is the final concert, but because it shows his spirit of exploration and search for a musical truth were values that he never let go of. that fact, and his absolutely stunning and passionate playing on this record are life-affirming confirmation of the stamina and personal triumph of John Coltrane.

Powerful performance, sonic disaster........2005-08-04

"The Olatunji Concert" is one of the last known recordings of John Coltrane, made three months before he died. Peformed at Harlem's Olatunji Center in the spring of 1967, it finds the late Coltrane quintet (the leader on tenor and soprano, Pharoah Sanders on tenor, Alice Coltrane on piano, Jimmy Garrison on bass, Rashied Ali on drums) augmented by percussion (Alige DeWitt on bata and possibly percussionist Jumma Santos) for the show. Before going any further-- this is Coltrane's late period, it should be expected that it is not going to sound anything like the Classic Quartet stuff. Melody and rhythm are far less important than emotion, mood, and power. And it is all of those things.

The performance consists of two songs, each around 30 minutes, "Ogunde", a variation on a traditional piece and Coltrane standard "My Favorite Things". "Ogunde" starts with a delicate, bluesy theme statement before really cutting loose-- Trane takes a brief and fierce solo then turning the preceedings over to Sanders (who performs energetically while being pushed by Ali) and Alice (whose solo is somewhat reminiscent of early Cecil Taylor and is totally absorbed into the piece) before restating the theme and beginning his own extended, exploratory solo. It's Ali who steals the show on the piece though, his fantastic accompaniment encourages and brings home as necessary. Of particular note is when Coltrane begins stating the theme after Alice's monsterous solo, Ali sort of resets the energy with a simple, aggressive rolled figure that really gets Trane freewheeling on his solo.

"My Favorite Things" opens with an extended bass solo, as was tradition by this point. Garrison is particularly lyrical in this performance, experimenting with dynamics, tempo, and mood before fading out to allow Coltrane's theme statement on soprano. Coltrane twists and turns, performing in synthesis of dozens of genres and styles.

The package includes an essay by David Wild about the show's history and with details about the performance and an interview with recording engineer Bernard Drayton. Drayton mentions cutting one of the mics off early in the performance-- sonic evidence indicates its about six minutes into "Ogunde", where suddenly the volume picks up and the balance drastically increases. Prior to that, piano and bass were nearly inaudible, although during fiercer moments, the piano is still subsumed under the drums. Add to that Coltrane tenor sometimes distorting (particularly at the end of "Ogunde" and the beginning of "My Favorite Things") and the whole set becomes a frustrating listen.

The truth is, with the sound quality as degraded as it is, it's hard to rate this much higher than I did, but even on equal sonic footing, I find the performances in Japan better. Still, for the converted, this is a worthwhile recording.

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