Evolutionary Revolutionary

It's a shame I don't have the time to dedicate towards a deeper musical analysis to this incredible box set. But these albums have probably been analyzed to death by more knowledgeable and educated people than me, so I don't have a whole lot new to add. Most rabid Coltrane fans would probably already have most of the recordings included in this set. After all, the name of this box set is The Classic Quartet: Complete Impulse! Studio Recordings, and all these recordings are considered classics. But I would still recommend this set to the completist as well as the Coltrane novice ready to jump in with both feet.

There are a few things to note. This 8 CD set only contains seven never before released tracks, all grouped together on the 8th CD. The recordings are presented in chronological order, though the fairly impressive 100 page booklet does contain the original order found on the albums if you should wish to program your CD player to play the original sequence. The music has been remastered in 20-bit resolution, so the sound is terrific, and the sound here is superior to many of the older GRP/Impulse! CD reissues that came out in the early 90's.

This box set only contains the studio recordings of Coltrane's classic quartet: Coltrane on tenor and soprano sax, McCoy Tyner on piano, Jimmy Garrison on bass, and Elvin Jones on drums. There are a few tracks where Roy Haynes has substituted for Elvin Jones during periods when Jones was unavailable perhaps due to narcotics problems. The Coltrane albums proper that this set includes are Coltrane, Ballads, Crescent, A Love Supreme, Plays, Transition, First Meditations, Sun Ship and Living Space (the last four being posthumous releases). Also included are the quartet studio contributions to the albums Impressions, Live at Birdland, and Kulu Se Mama. The balance of these albums are made up of either live cuts or larger groups, and so those cuts are not included in the box set. Not included are material from the albums Coltrane cut with Johnny Hartman, Duke Ellington, or any of the extended groups like the ones that recorded Africa Brass, Ascension, or Meditations.

Michael Cuscuna, who is no stranger to reissue, compilation, and box set production, is the producer, and perhaps his reasoning behind the choice to limit the material to only the quartet material recorded in the studio was so that the listener could have a continuous picture of the evolution of this musical unit. Additionally, this also keeps the set down to 8 CDs, and a "reasonable" price (all things being relative). A "complete" set of Coltrane's music on Impulse would require many more CDs and keep it out of the range of affordability of many music fans. Nevertheless, when this project was first announced, the completist in me was hoping it would contain all the Impulse recordings -- I was planning on figuring out if my local record store would take installment payments!

Perhaps the most important thing about this set is the way it presents the evolution of Coltrane's most famous group. It starts off with the beautiful standards and ballads from Coltrane and Ballads. The group is immersed in tradition at this point, and it was thought that Impulse wanted to present Coltrane as a more traditional jazz musician and not necessarily one of the leaders of the "new wave". Also, some commentors have noted that Coltrane may have been suffering embouchre problems at the time (maybe due to his sweet tooth), so the slower pace of ballads may have let him rest up his chops. Though Coltrane is not known as a ballads specialist, he plays these familiar tunes beautifully in his own style with terrific comping behind him.

The band evolves into the unit that recorded the underpraised and moody Crescent and the suite that some consider the pinnacle of Coltrane's spiritual output, A Love Supreme. It's amazing to hear over the span of three discs the development from a bit of a goofball tune "The Inchworm" to the melancholic musings of "Alabama" to the deep spirituality of "Psalm". The modus operandi of the quartet was evolving to a point that was highly original, and they had a sound all their own consisting of the leader's imagination on sax, Tyner's block chording on piano, Jones's heavy polyrhythmic swing on drums, and Garrison's sturdy undergirding on bass.

Plays is often seen as a bit of a step back, but it does contain a beautiful theme on the track "Brasilia". The music which follows is somewhat transitional in nature (and some of it was even collected into the posthumous album titled Transition) but I would argue that the more fitting term would be evolutionary. "Transitional" sounds like "limbo", and if anything, this group was constantly playing and recording with Coltrane pushing the band members and they pushing him. "Living Space", one of the tracks unreleased during Coltrane's lifetime, is quite possibly his most urgent and beautiful statement on soprano saxophone, and it would be a mistake to label it as "transitional".

In November 1965, Coltrane augmented his group with drummer Rashied Ali and tenor saxophonist Pharoah Sanders to record a suite entitled Meditations. However, in September of the same year, he had recorded most of that suite with just the quartet alone. It's quite a beautiful record, separate and distinct from the initially released version. While the quartet version was released as First Meditations, the remastered sound of this box set is gorgeous. Though some may disagree, it's arguable that this is the pinnacle of the work Coltrane did with his classic quartet. It's like the last word, the swan song after which there was nothing more to say. After these recordings, Coltrane would delve into another world with other musicians.

The box set is beautifully constructed as a leatherette (artificial -- no animals were harmed in the making of this set) album with cardboard sleeves for the 8 CDs and a pocket for a removable 100 page booklet. The booklet is well done with numerous black and white photos of the band members (the bulk of them being Coltrane however). There are about twenty pages devoted to discussion of the musicians, how the group came together, and an extract from an interview with quartet drummer, Elvin Jones. The session notes by Bob Blumenthal are fairly detailed, and the sessionography and discography are presented in a way that's easy to use. Even though the font size is slightly larger than that used in Columbia's Miles Davis box sets or Rhino/Atlantic's Charles Mingus box set, the san serif typeface is slightly less appealing to the eye. A little more color wouldn't have hurt the graphic appeal of the booklet, but the black and white photos do give it an air of "classic-ness" and classiness which befits this quartet. The whole thing is bounded by a nice metal sheath that keeps the album from opening up on its own.

While this collection does not offer a comprehensive view of Coltrane's career, it is a very important picture of his most classic group. It includes a large number of his most classic albums and compositions. If you already have the complete Coltrane on Atlantic box set, this is a terrific and essential companion. If you are a fanatic, is the set worth buying for the one disc of previously unreleased alternate takes and breakdowns alone? Probably -- it's probably worth is just for the beautifully remastered sound itself. Both newbie Trane fans and fanatics will enjoy this collection. This would make a terrific birthday or Christmas present for that jazz fan in your life. It's a pretty darn good deal; eight CDs with over eight and a half hours of unbelieveable jazz music, usually priced from $70 to $85. If you're ready to make a small investment towards your musical enjoyment and education, this set is a great choice.