Rare Coltrane Revives Impulse! Label

“This is a very loose-edged, very spontaneous, very improvised performance. It’s very intense and it got me interested and inspired.”

That’s keyboardist-composer Chick Corea’s unsolicited reaction to a 57-plus minute version of “My Favorite Things” from John Coltrane’s “Live in Japan” album. The four-CD set, recorded in 1966 and containing more than 3 1/2 hours of music never before issued in the United States, is one of five reissues signaling the return of the Impulse! label.

The famed jazz line, which has been largely inactive since the mid-’80s, released seminal recordings in the ‘60s and ‘70s by such major artists as Coltrane, Sonny Rollins, McCoy Tyner, Freddie Hubbard and Archie Shepp, as well as such mainstream notables as Coleman Hawkins, Johnny Hodges and Ben Webster.

“Impulse! was one of the most important lines in the ‘60s and ‘70s, a label that created quality recordings, and I don’t think it’s been given enough care in the CD era,” says Michael Cuscuna, a noted jazz producer and co-owner of Mosaic Records, who is supervising the Impulse! reissues.

The reissues--part of a series titled “GRP Presents the Legendary Masters of Jazz.”--will be released four to six at a time on a quarterly basis and distributed by GRP Records, a subsidiary of MCA Records, which acquired the Impulse! catalogue in 1979.

Besides the Coltrane album, the just-released batch of albums includes works by McCoy Tyner (“Today and Tomorrow”) and saxophonists Stanley Turrentine (“Let It Go”) and Oliver Nelson (“Soundpieces”). The next group of albums, due in October, will feature CDs by John Coltrane, Coleman Hawkins and Albert Ayler.

More Reissues: Some of the recordings of bandleader Stan Kenton, originally made for Capitol Records from the mid-’40s until the late-’60s--and thereafter on his Creative World label--have been re-acquired by Capitol and are being released in CD.

The first two albums are 1960’s “Road Show,” spotlighting the Kenton Orchestra with June Christy and the Four Freshmen, and 1956’s “Cuban Fire,” a Latin-based album with compositions and arrangements by Johnny Richards.

In addition, a new set of albums in the Columbia/Legacy Jazz Contemporary Master series are in stores. One of the highlights is Miles Davis’ “Circle in the Round,” a two-CD anthology of outtakes that includes such gems as “Love for Sale”--with Cannonball Adderley, Bill Evans and Coltrane--and the 26-minute title track, with Herbie Hancock and Wayne Shorter.

Another noteworthy releases include Davis’ “E.S.P.,” the first album recorded by his groundbreaking early ‘60s quintet of Hancock, Shorter, Ron Carter and Tony Williams, and Herbie Hancock’s “A Jazz Collection,” which sports three Chick Corea-Hancock duets and five quartet tracks featuring Wynton Marsalis.

Ambassador Plans: “Pasadena Jazz Weekend,” scheduled for Aug. 24 and 25 at Ambassador Auditorium in Pasadena, will feature a strong lineup, including pianist Claude Bolling (leading a big band in arrangements by Duke Ellington), Dizzy Gillespie, Poncho Sanchez and the Harper Brothers. Information: (800) 266-2378.