Review: John Coltrane: The Paris Concert
Carl Brauer, Cadence (April 1986)
The MHS Review 385, Vol. 11 No. 7, 1987
The Paris Concert is a 1961 or 1962 radio broadcast of a performance .... Kicking off the album is the side-long "Mr. P.C.," a 26-minute exorcism that gives Tyner, Garrison, Jones, and finally Coltrane ample room to explore the inner workings of the music. One can hear (and even feel) Coltrane fighting with himself to express the musical vision that was still percolating inside of himself. Even with the less than "hifi" sound (this is a mono recording), the sheer joy and abandonment of the act of musical creation is palpable. This continues unabated with "The Inch Worm"; the only change is the soprano sax for the tenor and the lack of any real solo space for the others. The final "Ev'ry Time We Say Goodbye" is a chance (in a sense) for everyone to catch his breath, and Coltrane gives a nice, but hardly out of the ordinary, rendition. Since there are many examples of the Coltrane Quartet at that time in various authorized and unauthorized recordings, this does not shine any more brightly. However, if one doesn't have too many already, this one will do just fine.
The Paris Concert is a 1961 or 1962 radio broadcast of a performance .... Kicking off the album is the side-long "Mr. P.C.," a 26-minute exorcism that gives Tyner, Garrison, Jones, and finally Coltrane ample room to explore the inner workings of the music. One can hear (and even feel) Coltrane fighting with himself to express the musical vision that was still percolating inside of himself. Even with the less than "hifi" sound (this is a mono recording), the sheer joy and abandonment of the act of musical creation is palpable. This continues unabated with "The Inch Worm"; the only change is the soprano sax for the tenor and the lack of any real solo space for the others. The final "Ev'ry Time We Say Goodbye" is a chance (in a sense) for everyone to catch his breath, and Coltrane gives a nice, but hardly out of the ordinary, rendition. Since there are many examples of the Coltrane Quartet at that time in various authorized and unauthorized recordings, this does not shine any more brightly. However, if one doesn't have too many already, this one will do just fine.