JOHN COLTRANE — Impressions (review)

JOHN COLTRANE — Impressions album cover Live album · 1963 · Hard Bop Buy this album from MMA partners
4/5 ·
Sean Trane
Generally an album that seems to be forgotten about (well, somewhat so) in Trane’s discography, but with Impressions, everything announces his future peak of A Love Supreme a few years later. I wouldn’t call this the typical standard Trane quartet, because there are some guest like drummer Roy Haines, bassist Reggie Workman and the awesome Eric Dolphy on bass clarinet and alto sax on top of the usual Elvin-Jimmy-McCoy. Although the album was only released in 63, it mainly contains tracks from late 61 (the two main epics), but also a fourth (Rain) that was recorded as April 63, obviously to finish the album. Recorded with the usual Thiele/Van Gelder team, Impressions is mid-period Trane classic in my book, and no doubt it should one of yours.

Opening on the mythical India track (here in a 14-mins version), you are directly plunged in the modal moods that would make such a large part of the success of ALS. Right from the rhythm section and Garrison-Workman’s bass pulses, one knows you’re in for a millenary trip down that fabulous Asian sub-continent, with Trane’s personal spiritual quest as a bonus. What a masterpiece of suspense and excitement, where Dolphy’s clarinet adds an excellent depth. Indeed, it’s always been a bit of a source of wonder to this writer, as to why India is so overlooked upon, while it appears to yours truly as a cornerstone of Trane’s more transcendental oeuvre. As for the other monster track; the 15-mins title track, we’re not as much in a transcendental mood, but definitely in a more energetic hard-boppy mind frame with Elvin drumming up a storm.

While the short Tyner-less Up Against The Wall track is more of a bop piece, the closing After The Rain (including Tyner) is a 4AM cool jazz piece. Both are quite fine in their own genre, but pale in comparison to their big sisters on the present album. So with the opening India track definitely worthy of an ALS presence, Impressions is one of my personal pet albums of the immense Coltrane.
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