NEW RELEASES : Coltrane at Outer Limits: A Glimpse at Mid-’60s Scene

JOHN COLTRANE

“The Major Works of John Coltrane”

Impulse!

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This two-CD set chronicles Coltrane’s creative state of mind in 1965, a time when he had become the patron figure in New York’s burgeoning jazz avant-garde movement.

The most notable tracks are two long versions (about 40 minutes each) of the almost completely improvised “Ascension,” in which the Coltrane quartet--also including McCoy Tyner, Jimmy Garrison and Elvin Jones--was supplemented with Archie Shepp, Pharoah Sanders, Freddie Hubbard and others. Fortunately, both performances are intact for the first time, without the break that existed on the original vinyl releases.

Three other tracks--”Om,” “Kulu Se Mama” and “Selflessness”--also feature the Coltrane ensemble with additional players.

Coltrane’s playing by this time had reached its outer limits, willfully stretching and augmenting the possibilities of saxophone improvisation.

But what makes the collection especially valuable is the picture it provides of the energetic jazz scene of the mid-’60s, much of which went unrecorded. Coltrane wisely read the complex musical currents of the period and used them in recordings such as these to the further expansion of his own gifted imagination.

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