Several groundbreaking albums by John Coltrane and his new quartet were released in 1961. Influential and classic modal jazz albums such as
My Favorite Things,
Olé Coltrane and
Africa / Brass. That the group was already steps ahead on stage, toward the avant-garde jazz of
Crescent (1964) and
A Love Supreme (1964) can be heard on these live recordings from the same year. With guest musician the reed
… player and flutist Eric Dolphy, who was greatly admired by Coltrane, as a guest musician, songs such as My Favorite Things and Impressions are reworked into elongated improvisations. In the process, Coltrane and Dolphy spur each other on to expressionistic solos. For example, the squeaky "sheets of sound" on Coltrane's soprano saxophone in My Favorite Things seem to be a direct response to Dolphy's earlier, very freely played flute solo. Evenings At The Village Gate was recorded with only one microphone and sounds far from hi-fi. Passionate playing, a rare long performance of Greensleeves (with starring roles for pianist McCoy Tyner) and the sporadically played live Africa, make this Coltrane release from his then-label Impulse Records indispensable again anyway. (MR)more
