I found the 6 - CD box set, John Coltrane: Fearless Leader, in a retail CD store for $29.99. This is the entire catalog of Coltrane recordings as a band leader on Prestige Records. 11 albums, I think, for $30. They also had a 2nd 6-CD box set, Interplay, which are all the Prestige recordings of Coltrane’s collaboration recordings with other Prestige artists. Same price. Mrs. Wisely bought it for me for Christmas. I’ll have to wait on that one. There about to release another 6-CD set of Coltrane as a sideman for other leaders.
Unbelievable music. I spent 8 or 10 years in the 80s listening to Coltrane and other musicians of his era. It’s great to go another round with this music. I have always especially loved the classic Coltrane Quartet (1960-66, Impulse records) but this Prestige stuff is dynamite.
Rock musicians, and lord knows I love some of 'em, spend ages writing songs, recording and producing and obsessing over their albums. These jazz greats showed up at the studio with a list of standards and recorded an album in a day and went home. In fact, one of the Prestige albums by Coltrane’s band has a quartet on side 1 (sax, piano, bass, drums) and a trio (sax, bass, drums) on side 2. You think, wow, nice concept. But, in fact, they recorded side 1, broke for lunch, and the piano player never showed up for the afternoon session.
I seem to remember that the Prestige recordings were a bit noisier than the earlier ABC/Impulse recordings. Still great music, but not for everybody.
I had just noticed yesterday, while painting a set of louvered closet doors, that most Gentle Giant records were cut in less than a month and released just a few months later. In the 1970’s this was not unusual. But this is Gentle Giant, a group in which most of the band members played multiple instruments, the music was incredibly complex, and every note had to be perfect. Compare that with albums these days in which they might spend months and months just recording the drum track.
Of course, the classic example of the perfect album being done quickly was Kind of Blue. From concept and composing (if you could call the music actually composed) to finishing recording in less than 24 hours.
Well, I guess not. Yet to run across any music that was for everybody, though.
Of course, the classic example of the perfect album being done quickly was > Kind of Blue> . From > concept and composing > (if you could call the music actually composed) to finishing recording in less than 24 hours.
I don’t think that’s accurate, but it’s Kind of True. Actually, Kind of Blue was recorded in two separate sessions a few weeks apart. There’s no way to be certain how long it took to compose, or even what composition would have actually meant, as you suggest. It appears to be true that Davis gave the band in the studio the basic idea of each piece and the players improvised based on the modal rules. I do think I recall that Davis said that he had composed the pieces more or less on the spot which, with all due respect to Miles Davis, doesn’t mean it’s so. There’s a long-standing legend that the whole recording was done in a single take, but that’s clearly not true as alternate takes eventually surfaced. But, all that said, you’re sure right to suggest that it’s a great example of an incredible end product coming without rehearsal and with very little preparation of the kind one would expect.
Miles conceived these settings only hours before the recording dates and arrived with sketches which indicated to the group what was to be played. Therefore, you will hear something close to pure spontaneity in these performances. The group had never played these pieces prior to the recordings and I think without exception the first complete performance of each was a “take.”
Never read this, but maybe I will:
Khan, Ashley. Kind of Blue: The Making of the Miles Davis Masterpiece. New York: Da Capo Press, 2000
Kind of Blue - the actual compostions were done just before the recording, but these guys had been working out the concepts of modal improvisation for months. So even though it may seem like they just showed up and played brand new, wonderful music, they had been “rehearsing” for a while, even if it wasn’t the exact compostitions.
Been listening to a lot of Coltrane and Dolphy lately to get into the right frame of mind for a couple of gigs where I will be playing alto and soprano sax, neither of which I have been playing much for some time now.
I have loved this sort of music since I first heard it in the mid to late 1960s.
Actually, Kind of Blue was recorded in two separate sessions a few weeks apart. There’s no way to be certain how long it took to compose, or even what composition would have actually meant, as you suggest. It appears to be true that Davis gave the band in the studio the basic idea of each piece and the players improvised based on the modal rules. I do think I recall that Davis said that he had composed the pieces more or less on the spot which, with all due respect to Miles Davis, doesn’t mean it’s so. There’s a long-standing legend that the whole recording was done in a single take, but that’s clearly not true as alternate takes eventually surfaced. But, all that said, you’re sure right to suggest that it’s a great example of an incredible end product coming without rehearsal and with very little preparation of the kind one would expect.