UNCUT

archive release OF The YeaR

JOHN COLTRANE Both directions At once: The Lost Album

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This year marked the 50th anniversar­y of a slew of foundation­al rock texts, each honoured by the obligatory deluxe reissue, buffed up using the latest modish techniques. Among the stacks of bonus material, there were moments of revelation – a pivotal early take here, a telling snatch of studio banter there – but sometimes also the sound of a barrel being scraped. All of which made the appearance of a complete lost album by John Coltrane, recorded just 18 months before A Love Supreme, that much more staggering. In the sleevenote­s, Sonny Rollins likened it to “finding a new room in the Great Pyramid”. Recorded in a single day in March 1963 at Rudy Van Gelder’s New Jersey studio with Coltrane’s Classic Quartet lineup of McCoy Tyner, Elvin Jones and Jimmy Garrison, Both Directions At Once includes unusual renderings of familiar tunes – airy, piano-free takes of “Nature Boy” and “Impression­s” – and previously unheard, untitled numbers that find Coltrane favouring the soprano sax rather than his signature tenor. The story of its discovery adds an element of romance. With the master tapes of the sessions long destroyed, a mono audition reel was discovered by the family of Coltrane’s then-wife Naima. Yet surely there was a catch? If Coltrane deemed this material insufficie­ntly exciting to release at the time, are we overstatin­g its importance now? Both

Directions At Once is clearly not a revolution­ary work, but 55 years hence, that feels less important than the fact it contains some beautiful music, played with an effortless accord that verges on the mystical. The work of Coltrane’s son Ravi (and others) in editing and sequencing the album also shouldn’t be underestim­ated. Disc Two of the deluxe edition provided intriguing alternate takes but Disc One instantly felt definitive. For a long time, it has seemed that the possibilit­y of jazz as a musical expression of social and spiritual concerns was a notion that belonged to the past. Yet a new generation of musicians led by Kamasi Washington and Shabaka Hutchings have breathed new life into the genre. It’s only fitting that a “new” John Coltrane album should be part of this renaissanc­e.

 ??  ?? “Verging on the mystical”: John Coltrane
“Verging on the mystical”: John Coltrane
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