John Coltrane Revisited

Michael L. Maliner

If the newly issued collection of John Coltrane's complete Atlantic recordings is proof of anything, it is that John Coltrane was a jazz musician beyond categorization. The collection, released by Rhino and entitled "The Heavyweight Champion", contains not only every album Coltrane recorded for the Atlantic label, but also every existing alternate take and outtake.

The seven disk collection is not organized chronologically by album as one might expect, but rather chronologically by recording session. Far from a minor point, hearing these classic Coltrane tracks within the context of the session in which they were recorded offers a fresh perspective on these staples of the jazz listener's library.

The fifteen sessions and eight albums Coltrane recorded for Atlantic are thought by many to be Coltrane's most important body of work. "Giant Steps", Coltrane's first record on the Atlantic label, was the first album ever to feature Coltrane as a band leader and composer. "My Favorite Things", released by Atlantic in 1961, was Coltrane's biggest commercial success, and was the first album on which Coltrane was featured playing the soprano saxophone as well as the tenor. This album also marked the point at which Coltrane began to break with the Be-Bop tradition by experimenting with more open harmonic structures and longer, more flowing melodic lines. Coltrane's final album with Atlantic, "The Avant-Garde", released in 1966, marked yet another milestone in Coltrane's musical development. With the great trumpeter Don Cherry, on this album Coltrane ventured into the less structured, and often dissonant improvisational sounds for which he was both reviled and canonized.

Included with the seven CD's in "The Heavyweight Champion" collection is a 72 page, hardbound booklet containing photos, articles, and interviews, as well an exhaustive sessionography/discography of Coltrane's Atlantic years. A particularly nice touch was the packaging of the CD containing the outtakes in a box that is a facsimile of the original box in which the original tape reel was stored (replete with hand written notes on the back). All in all, "The Heavyweight Champion" is a beautifully presented, and well deserved retrospective of one of the century's most important musicians.