John Coltrane
Live at the Village Vanguard:
The Master Takes
[Impulse!]
Rating: 8.5
The Village Vanguard. New York City. 1961.
We was sittin' there watchin' the stage. Waitin' for the man they
called Coltrane to come out and do his thing. It was me and my
four droogs. Them bein' Peter, Georgio and Dim; Dim being really
Dim.
'Round an hour'd passed and the place was packed straight through
to the back. I'd just dropped some dollars for 'Trane's Giant
Steps six months back. Now was the time, this was the place.
The Village Vanguard. New York City. 1961.
I was only there for the first night, see, but them cats at Impulse
just made my life complete. They put out four CDs of all that sound
'Trane put out those nights. But you know my type, man. Can't afford
to eat, let alone spend some heavy cash on music. So I only got the
essential. Live at the Village Vanguard: The Master Takes is
one disc, makin' it one- fourth the cost of the box set. And you only
get the best stuff.
Man, the opening beauty of "Spiritual..." It's like a dream I had: I
floated on the River Nile, smokin' some fresh weed, relaxin'. Yeah,
man. It wouldn't get better than that. But I ain't ever gonna see
the Nile anyhow. This track's as close as I come, and it's close
enough. Best of the best, though, has gotta be "India." It's only
when you listen to a perfect old jazz tune like this that you realize
how much drum-n-bass is derived from this music. 'Trane takes it
to heaven and back with some style, man. Some richness, daddy. It's
a sad thing his life was cut short by them jaws o' death.
Shit, cat. It don't make a difference. The man produced enough good
music to last me a lifetime. This Village Vanguard thing's just
another example of the genius of Coltrane.
-Ryan Schreiber