John Coltrane Ascension Impulse! Reissued: 2.2016 Originally released: 2.1966 (as "Edition I" — A-95) * Actual question. ** Actual opinion. So, the reissue sounds great.  My copy is mislabeled, however, so Side B is actually Side A, which I guess is sort of fitting since the whole "Edition I"/"Edition II" thing still requires a bit of brain matter to keep straight.  Interestingly, it's easier to find structural cohesion on the vinyl edition than I was ever able to find on the 2000 CD issue, which contains both versions. Sincerely, Letters From A Tapehead

I was given the gift of record shopping for Father's Day this year.  Better yet: I was given the gift of shopping at the Princeton Record Exchange, which I hadn't visited since Record Store Day in 2013 .  Left with a stipend and about an hour or so to peruse, I was happy to spend more time navigating the inventory than last time, though I was not the only Dad given the day to record shop.  The store was packed with Dads toting impatient, bored children and wives that seemed stuck in this permanent scowl that said very plainly, "When will he grow the fuck up?"  Those Dads could very easily have replied, "When will you stop taking me dress shopping?" There were more deals than I had cash, unfortunately.  I found a copy of Madlib 's Shades of Blue , which I probably should've picked up.  I also found a stack of used Japanese Public Image Ltd. CDs that were going for $10 apiece and a sealed copy of OFF! 's First Four EPs 7" set.  To do thi...

Took a drive to The Vinyl Closet on Saturday just for some casual browsing and found the following: The Vinyl Closet North Wales, PA Sonic Youth Sonic Youth EP SST Records Originally released: 3.82 (via Neutral ) Reissued: 1987 Sonic Youth 's self-titled EP was originally released in 1982 on Neutral Records, which belonged to Glenn Branca of Theoretical Girls .  The version I found is the 1987 SST reissue, which, to me, was still a pretty cool find and worth the $25 I dropped.  I gave this a spin last night and it sounds clean, though it could use a dusting. It's worth noting that Sonic Youth's signature dissonance hadn't yet become a major part of the band's identity, (though feedback and atonality still play some role), so the EP is rooted in the more familiar workings of the post-punk/no wave underground that defined New York's art scene in the late 70s.  There's some A Certain Ratio groove to this, too. John Coltrane The Africa/Bra...

My fascination with the avant school of jazz music has much to do with that it's the frantic, loosely constructed illustration of the human psyche in a state of personal, societal and internal unrest.  Some call it annoying.  I call it the artistic realization of an extreme as a mind incapable of settling knows no boundary or structure, and life in tumult brings this sort of offensively off key deliverance to people unprepared to accept and ready to dismiss.  Because of when and how it grew out of the continual evolution of jazz music in the 60s, the idea of improvisational styles completely losing any semblance of key or structure, the avant and/or free jazz stands as truer testimony to the era, moreso in some ways than the folk swaying hippie culture that's typically identified as the protest music of the decade.  This is loud and chaotic surface noise designed to delve into and distill.  It's not "peace" and "love" inasmuch as it's ...

I gently brushed the dust off of John Coltrane 's First Meditations (For Quartet) this evening.  The needle drops and the effect is instantaneous, a wash of McCoy Tyner 's keys and that sax — always that sax — speaking volumes in impassioned honks and blasts. This was the last recording to emerge from Coltrane's famed quartet, so the beauty is always bittersweet.   Sincerely, Letters From A Tapehead

Going with Interstellar Space today to mark the occasion. Sincerely, Letters From A Tapehead

Various Artists First Impulse — The Creed Taylor Collection Box Set Hip-O Select Released: 4.19.11 In 2006, I picked up Ashley Kahn ’s in-depth book, The House That Trane Built: The Story of Impulse! Records . It was a dangerous book for me to read, simply because the albums, (and there are MANY), spotlighted became essentials for my record collection. As a somewhat economical alternative, or as a temporary teething ring to chew on while I acquired the Impulse! releases I wanted, was the book’s accompanying 4-disc compilation. A single disc version was released as well, but spending money on a paired down colossus wasn’t really an option. Why spend money to get blue-balled? Seemed counterproductive. For 2011, a 4-disc commemorative box set named for the label’s founder, Creed Taylor , was released in recognition of Impulse! Records’ fiftieth anniversary. For those of you like me that invested in the Ashley Kahn compilation, you might feel as though the Creed Taylor versi...

Jazz’s avant-garde lost another of its blessed progeny Monday, October 18th: Marion Brown , one of the eleven players that participated in the recording of John Coltrane ’s landmark Ascension , has passed away. Other than his part in Ascension , he was also best associated with Archie Shepp , who’d brought him into the Impulse! fold. Brown dedicated his own Three For Shepp out of gratitude, mimicking Shepp’s own Impulse! dedication/debut, Four For Trane . All About Jazz interviewed Brown in 2003 . There's also a wonderful article penned by W. Kim Heron that can be found at Metro Times' "Music Blahg." R.I.P. Sincerely, Letters From A Tapehead

Saturday, July 17th, marked 43 years since John Coltrane ’s life was cut short by liver cancer at the age of 40. Paying tribute to the man who “might be my single favorite musician besides maybe Ian MacKaye or Jimi Hendrix ,” Henry Rollins took the opportunity to devote an entire episode of his Harmony In My Head radio show to Coltrane. The broadcast can be downloaded at the Harmony In My Head archive site , or check it out at KCRW . Via Rollins’ broadcast notes : KCRW BROADCAST #72 07-17-10 Fanatics! Tonight is a very cool show. It’s all Coltrane, all night. On July 17, 1967, John Coltrane, a Jazz giant, passed away at age 40. It would be perhaps a little brighter occasion if this was Coltrane’s birthday. I couldn’t let this opportunity to pay tribute and homage not only to the man and his greatness but to his amazing bands. The Classic Quartet of Elvin Jones on drums, Jimmy Garrison on bass and McCoy Tyner on piano. Also, we are going to listen to Coltrane’s later line up of Jimmy...

I’m not sure how I missed this one. Yesterday afternoon, I was listening to an episode of Henry Rollins ’s Harmony In My Head radio show that had been recorded on August 22nd. In it, Rollins mentioned that Rashied Ali , Coltrane drummer and Philadelphia native, had died on the 12th. As tribute, Rollins played an instrumental excerpt that he had produced with Ali and saxophonist, Charles Gayle , during the sessions for an audio book entitled, Everything . Actually managed to find an excerpt from Rollins’s Everything Everything was my introduction to Rashied Ali, before I’d even laid hands on any John Coltrane album. I would throw on my thick, ear muff JVC headphones before going to bed, and drift off to sleep listening to Rollins speak while Ali and Gayle improv’d in the backdrop, cityscapes and traffic alive behind them if you listened closely enough. And, I really hadn’t been exposed to too much jazz at this point, so the avant/free stuff was beyond me. But, the album made sti...

Ahmad Jamal 's The Awakening . Easily one of my favorite jazz records of all time, Jamal's playing is smooth as silk and as fluid as running water. His version of Oliver Nelson 's "Stolen Moments," is beautifully entrancing and, after hundreds of listens, still sends shivers through me. Definitely an album that stays with you for weeks and, thankfully, has cast enough of a spell upon my daughter that it's now the stand-by for easing her into dreamland. Luckily, she's usually out by the time Jamal goes into waves of piano hysteria for the relatively hyper introduction of "I Love Music." Definitely worth the twelve bucks in your pocket. Sincerely, Letters From A Tapehead

Amazon purchase: John Coltrane The Complete 1961 Village Vanguard Recordings Box Set Impulse! Released: 9.23.97 I think I picked this up around April. Amazon.com had cut a decent amount of loot off of the asking price, so I figured I’d shell out the bucks. When the box set arrived, I cleared as much room from my iPod as I could and managed to get all four recordings on there. Then it was all I played for about a week or two straight. While reading Ben Ratliff ’s book, Coltrane: The Story of a Sound , I really felt the absence of the first Village Vanguard recordings from my album collection. These recordings were considered to be controversial for their time as Coltrane was in the process of breaking away from his Atlantic work and beginning his personal quest to find God through his saxophone. It would sound harsh, possibly irritating to some, and would cement Coltrane as a figurehead for the Avant movement, which was in its relative infancy with Ornette Coleman ...

To John , Today would’ve been your 81st birthday. It’s actually beautiful out: sunny, 81 degrees, blue skies around. The warmth hasn’t prevented the leaves from starting to turn, falling gently onto the pavement with every gust of wind. Those first few notes of “A Love Supreme” perfectly sum up the air out there. It would’ve been a good day for you to celebrate, lots of candles for you to blow out…with your sax. You weren’t even 40 when liver cancer took you. You had to be on the brink of SOMETHING. I listen to what you were doing. I try and put myself back then, mind blown by something powerful, sounds so extreme they were simultaneously pummeling tradition AND fracturing the sound scaffold. Even forty-two years after Ascension exploded into the jazz scene, it’s still captivating. It’s still pure. It still begs discussion and consideration whenever ears come in contact with it. What were you trying to do? How far would you have gone had you not died so early? I always...

To whom it may interest, Sunday night, I heard the news that Alice Coltrane , widow of John , had died at the age of 69 from respiratory failure. Alice Coltrane was a classically trained piano player. During John Coltrane’s exodus from convention and structure, Alice was at the keys, aiding John in his musical exploration. When he died of liver cancer in 1967 at the age of 41, Alice (then a widow at 30) continued to play with members of John’s group and went on a musical journey of her own. Having been heavily influenced by cultures in the East, most notably Hinduism, Alice incorporated these sounds into her playing and widened the jazz spectrum. Inadvertently I think she increased jazz’s relevance to society’s then-climate, the younger generations of which were turning on to enlightenment through drugs and Eastern religions. She also brought the harp into the mix, adding variety and stretching the boundaries a little more; boundaries that her husband was doing his damnedest to k...