The first posthumous Coltrane album. Starts of very well, and ends well, but i struggle a bit with most of the middle album. Intro track is a brief but nicely spicy standard Coltrane tune. 2 then follows being a very introspective track with sounds we haven't heard before, almost reminding me of some of Disney's Jungle Book darker vibe, with flutes and Pharoah Sanders' contribution that isnt present anywhere else on the album afaik. The track is really moody and broody, which makes it particularly ominous knowing how close to passing Coltrane recorded it. But by the midtrack, some of the flutes get very loud, some of the notes get very aggressive, fast and repetitive (but still consonant ie. not in a free jazz kind of way) when i kinda wish the track kept to its spiritual undertone. The end is honestly borderline insufferable in short places. 3 also gets similarly loud and buzz in your face kind of annoying, though the angry drums are really quite cool. Then the closing track after a nice intro melody theme concludes on a much better note, with superb piano being the highlight, but still with occasional spurts of not so pleasant instrumentation preventing it from being a true Coltrane classic track. Some great aspects, but some problems that make it far from his best in thsi era. 3.7
Bump |
