Ascension
Artist: John Coltrane
Community Score: 7.50

Ascension is the single recording that placed John Coltrane firmly into the avant-garde. Whereas, prior to 1965, Coltrane could be heard playing in an avant vein with stretched out solos, atonality, and a seemingly free design to the beat, Ascension throws most rules right out the window with complete freedom from the groove and... Read More

Live in Antibes (1965)
Artist: John Coltrane

Vital, transitional John Coltrane with the quartet near its end; this '65 Antibes concert may have featured familiar material ("Naima," "My Favorite Things," "Afro Blue" and "Impressions" among the five selections), but that was the only thing that linked it with the ensemble's past offerings. Coltrane's tenor was frenetic, as he turned song... Read More

The Major Works of John Coltrane
Artist: John Coltrane
Community Score: 6.00

Over the course of two crucial discs, The Major Works of John Coltrane compiles the saxophonist's most important extended free jazz pieces from 1965. This is the material that made Coltrane a giant of the avant-garde, completely casting off the limits of melody, harmony, and tonality that he'd been straining against. All the performances feature... Read More

Yasmina, A Black Woman
Artist: Archie Shepp
The Way Ahead
Artist: Archie Shepp

The Way Ahead was a turning point for Archie Shepp. For starters, he had looked all over the jazz/improv arena for the proper combination of players -- without a piano. One can speculate that this was because he cut his first teeth with pianist Cecil Taylor and that would perhaps ruin anybody for life. Recorded in 1969, The Way Ahead featured... Read More

Mama Too Tight
Artist: Archie Shepp
Community Score: 10.00

The octet Archie Shepp surrounded himself with in 1966 was filled with new and old faces. The twin trombones of Roswell Rudd and Grachan Moncur III embodied this, but so did bassist Charlie Haden and trumpeter Tommy Turrentine, while familiar figures like drummer Beaver Harris and tubaist Howard Johnson had been part of Shepp's regular band.... Read More

Karma
Artist: Pharoah Sanders
Community Score: 7.50

Pharoah Sanders' third album as a leader is the one that defines him as a musician to the present day. After the death of Coltrane, while there were many seeking to make a spiritual music that encompassed his ideas and yearnings while moving forward, no one came up with the goods until Sanders on this 1969 date. There are only two tracks on... Read More

Jewels of Thought
Artist: Pharoah Sanders

In 1969, Pharoah Sanders was incredibly active, recording no less than four albums and releasing three. The band on Jewels of Thought is largely the same as on Deaf Dumb Blind and Karma, with a few changes. Idris Muhammad has, with the exception of "Hum-Allah-Hum-Allah Hum Allah," replaced Roy Haynes, and Richard Davis has permanently replaced... Read More

Izipho Zam
Artist: Pharoah Sanders

Two years after the death of his mentor and boss, John Coltrane, and just before signing his own contract with Impulse!, Pharoah Sanders finally got around to releasing an album as a leader apart from the Impulse! family. Enlisting a cast of characters no less than 13 in number, Sanders proved that his time with Coltrane and his Impulse! debut,... Read More

Sun Ship
Artist: John Coltrane

Other than First Meditations, which was not released at the time, Sun Ship (reissued on CD by Impulse) was the final studio album by John Coltrane's classic quartet (with pianist McCoy Tyner, bassist Jimmy Garrison, and drummer Elvin Jones) before Pharoah Sanders joined the band on second tenor. At this point in time, Coltrane was using very... Read More

New Thing at Newport
Artist: John Coltrane

The classic John Coltrane Quartet made one of its final appearances at the Newport Jazz Festival in 1965. The tension among band members is evident on the advanced versions of "One Down, One Up" and "My Favorite Things." Coltrane's performance is moving...yet weary. It's apparent the saxophonist wasn't getting the sound he wanted and by the end... Read More

Live in Seattle
Artist: John Coltrane

This double CD features John Coltrane at a concert in Sept. 1965 with his expanded sextet (which included pianist McCoy Tyner, bassist Jimmy Garrison, drummer Elvin Jones, Pharoah Sanders on tenor and Donald Garrett doubling on bass clarinet and bass). Coltrane experts know that 1965 was the year that his music became quite atonal and, with the... Read More

First Meditations
Artist: John Coltrane

Not released initially until 1977, the music on this 1992 CD was the last recording made by the classic John Coltrane Quartet; other slightly later records found the group augmented by additional musicians. Four of the five movements on this release (which are augmented by a lengthier second version of "Joy") would become part of the... Read More

Concert in Japan
Artist: John Coltrane
The Best of Pharoah Sanders
Artist: Pharoah Sanders

This out-of-print double-LP has some of the most rewarding Pharoah Sanders performances for the Impulse label. Spanning a four-year period (although all but one number is from 1969-70), Sanders is heard at his best on such selections as the two-part "Creator Has a Master Plan" with singer Leon Thomas, "Let Us Go into the House of the Lord" and... Read More