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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
By S J Buck
TOP 500 REVIEWER
Format:Audio CD
An unusual album from Milt Jackson and John Coltrane who you wouldn't expect to be playing with each other. Recorded in 1959 this was made just before 'Giant Steps', but its completely different from that classic album.
With Jackson alongside Coltrane the whole album takes a much more bluesy turn especially when Jackson is playing, and indeed there a couple of blues tracks on the album. So when you hear Jackson on these tracks its the same Jackson who played with the MJQ and made a number of great albums with Oscar Peterson. However, Coltrane was pushing the boundaries at this stage, so the contrast between his solo on say 'The Late Late Blues' and Jackson's is quite dramatic.
The supporting cast is, as you would expect top notch. On drums is Connie Kay, Bass is Paul Chambers and Piano is Hank Jones.
My favourite track is 'Be-Bop', a Dizzy Gillespie tune taken at a frightningly fast tempo, on which Jackson swings through his solo with amazing panache and Coltrane (obviously in practise for things to come) just blasts through the chord sequence like it was a 12 bar (which its not).
A great album that improves everytime you listen to it.
With Jackson alongside Coltrane the whole album takes a much more bluesy turn especially when Jackson is playing, and indeed there a couple of blues tracks on the album. So when you hear Jackson on these tracks its the same Jackson who played with the MJQ and made a number of great albums with Oscar Peterson. However, Coltrane was pushing the boundaries at this stage, so the contrast between his solo on say 'The Late Late Blues' and Jackson's is quite dramatic.
The supporting cast is, as you would expect top notch. On drums is Connie Kay, Bass is Paul Chambers and Piano is Hank Jones.
My favourite track is 'Be-Bop', a Dizzy Gillespie tune taken at a frightningly fast tempo, on which Jackson swings through his solo with amazing panache and Coltrane (obviously in practise for things to come) just blasts through the chord sequence like it was a 12 bar (which its not).
A great album that improves everytime you listen to it.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
By Bob Murray
Format:Audio CD
When this record first came out it didn't get very good reviews. It was thought to be fairly sub-standard Coltrane, playing without his usual force, and with a rhythm section that didn't give him adequate support. In fact, it is a very good record indeed. The problem may have been that it was recorded just before 'Giant Steps' but not released until some time later, by which time a sea change had taken place in Coltrane's style and he just wasn't playing this way any more. He made much fine music before that change and this disc fits well into that body of work.
Trane plays throughout with an easy loping swing. He was always a superb ballad player and excels on 'Stairway To The Stars' and 'The Night We Called It A Day'. He unleashes his formidable technique on the fast 'Be-Bop' and plays convincingly in a bluesy manner on the remaining tunes, not all of which are blues.
The blues feel to the disc comes mainly from Milt Jackson, who was always a master of that style. He plays well throughout and there is little point in singling out individual tracks. Hank Jones is his usual impeccable self and Paul Chambers a tower of rhythmic strength on bass. Connie Kay suffered some flack when this was first issued but plays well, lightly swinging and punctuating rarely but always to the point.
There are better Trane records around, such as 'Blue Trane', but this is a pleasing example of his work pre 'Giant Steps' and the other four musicians can hardly be bettered, individually or together.
Trane plays throughout with an easy loping swing. He was always a superb ballad player and excels on 'Stairway To The Stars' and 'The Night We Called It A Day'. He unleashes his formidable technique on the fast 'Be-Bop' and plays convincingly in a bluesy manner on the remaining tunes, not all of which are blues.
The blues feel to the disc comes mainly from Milt Jackson, who was always a master of that style. He plays well throughout and there is little point in singling out individual tracks. Hank Jones is his usual impeccable self and Paul Chambers a tower of rhythmic strength on bass. Connie Kay suffered some flack when this was first issued but plays well, lightly swinging and punctuating rarely but always to the point.
There are better Trane records around, such as 'Blue Trane', but this is a pleasing example of his work pre 'Giant Steps' and the other four musicians can hardly be bettered, individually or together.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
4.6 out of 5 stars
22 reviews
29 of 29 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Old lion meets young lion with rip-roarin' results
27 May 2000
By Tyler Smith
- Published on Amazon.com
Format:Audio CD
This 1960 release does both Coltrane and vibist Jackson proud. Coltrane was considered at the time a "New Wave" proponent with his then-shocking "sheets of sound" vertical attack, while Jackson was a bebop mainstay. On "Bags and Trane" they sound utterly at ease with one another and produce some beautiful jazz.
At the core of the album is the obvious respect that the two musicians had for one another. Coltrane attacks more aggressively, but his hard-edged sound proves a perfect foil for Jackson's mellow, ringing vibes. On "The Night We Called It a Day," you can hear how carefully they listened to each other, one solo blending into the other without costing the tune a beat.
Pianist Hank Jones, Jackson's Modern Jazz Quartet bandmate drummer Connie Kay and longtime Trane collaborator bassist Paul Chambers solidify the album. Jones, in particular, plays a wonderfully understated piano, relying largely on space and single notes to deepen the contrast with Trane's dense attack.
The CD adds tunes originally found on the vinyl release "The Coltrane Legacy," and the new material is a plus. The ballad "Stairway to the Stars" offers a particularly poignant turn by Coltrane, who isn't afraid to show his emotion, and "Centerpiece" is a great mellow blues.
This album will be rewarding to fans of Coltrane and Jackson alike. Best of all, if you're a fan of both (like me), you'll get a double dose from two great jazz musicians who showed how much they respected one another by listening to every musical word the other had to say.
19 of 19 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Just 3 little words... THIS IS GREAT!
22 Dec 2000
By Pharoah S. Wail
- Published on Amazon.com
Format:Audio CD
With all the press and discussion that surrounds the album immediately following this one, GIANT STEPS, this cd is all too often overlooked. Big mistake! This is one of my favorite cd's from Coltrane's time with the Atlantic label. I noticed in the previous reviews that a few people referred to Coltrane's sound and style as "harsh" or "attacking". That caught me off guard, I've never considered him to sound harsh on this at all. I could understand people thinking that way about some of his late-period playing but on this cd his playing flows like liquid silk. So many people think of Coltrane only as a harmonic genius but listening to this cd it is impossible to deny his total brilliance and mastery of rhythm. Quite simply, no one felt the pulse of a tune the way Coltrane did. This is not the scouring, searching, peeling away the layers of self to find redemption Coltrane of later years (a Coltrane which I myself love, but some people hate), this is Coltrane in a straight-ahead format, turning phrases inside out and back around into themselves, and doing it with incredible tenor tone. I love the sonic quality of this recording, Coltranes tone is just beyond words on this cd.
For sheer beauty and swinging mastery of melodic improvisation it almost doesn't get any better than what Coltrane does here on tunes like Be-Bop, Bags & Trane, Stairway To The Stars, etc...
And no, I am not forgetting about the rest of the band. Paul Chambers is brilliant on this cd. Milt also shows what he was made of on this cd, and he was made of some very fine stuff. What someone thinks of this cd overall may well depend on what they think of the vibraphone. If you don't like vibraphone then you may wish Milt Jackson wasn't on this, but if you do like it then this really is a classic recording. And quite honestly, if you're just a Coltrane fan this cd is still completely worth it even if you hate the vibraphone. I think this cd has, without a doubt, some of Coltrane's most incredible playing of the 1950's.
For sheer beauty and swinging mastery of melodic improvisation it almost doesn't get any better than what Coltrane does here on tunes like Be-Bop, Bags & Trane, Stairway To The Stars, etc...
And no, I am not forgetting about the rest of the band. Paul Chambers is brilliant on this cd. Milt also shows what he was made of on this cd, and he was made of some very fine stuff. What someone thinks of this cd overall may well depend on what they think of the vibraphone. If you don't like vibraphone then you may wish Milt Jackson wasn't on this, but if you do like it then this really is a classic recording. And quite honestly, if you're just a Coltrane fan this cd is still completely worth it even if you hate the vibraphone. I think this cd has, without a doubt, some of Coltrane's most incredible playing of the 1950's.
13 of 14 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Purls like a river, erupts like a volcano
10 April 2002
By Douglas LaRose
- Published on Amazon.com
Format:Audio CD
This is a very nice disc. Milt Jackson on Vibraphone calls for some funky type of riffs that seem to crescendo once or twice per solo. What is nice is that usually it will be Coltrane and Jackson back to back, leaving each other a lot of room to do individual solos, and then they will come in together very triumphantly. "Stairway to the Stars," the first track in the disc (but not on the originally LP release) is a very nice, mellow track which is perfect for a nice dinner.
I do recommend, however, that rather than buying this album you purchase "The Heavyweight Champion: John Coltrane, The Complete Atlantic Recordings." This 7-CD set may be a little pricy but you get all 10 of Coltranes Atlantic recordings plus a disc of all of the outtakes. The Bags & Trane sessions are particularly emphasized on the box set, so you get much more than you would just buying "Bags and Trane."
Enjoy
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4.6 out of 5 stars
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