Collecting live Coltrane from '62 - '65 is a nightmare, if you want to be sure what, where and when was recorded.
Yes, I can see what you mean. Apart from the less than hi-fi audio quality, the music itself is really tough. It really sounds like a man knowing that his time is short, and already looking at the other side, and giving the listeners glimpses of it. Sorry if that sounds stupid but that's how I hear the album.
I think its fantastic and I dont think its a "horrible" recording at all, the atmosphere including the sounds of the street and passing cars give it an incredible "fly on the wall" feeling also some of the piano playing is quite stunning.
No, that’s the way I hear it, too. Once you know he was so close to death - and probably knew it himself - you can’t filter that out. Like most late period Coltrane performances, Olatunji is emotionally draining and hard to get through - not necessarily for sonic reasons. In the same time period, Coltrane was planning on building a home studio so he could record ‘at will’. Planning for the future while you know you’re time isn’t long is a common human activity.
I wasn't aware of this forthcoming release until my friendly neighbourhood record shop mentioned it to me when I went in earlier to pick up a couple of Tone Poet titles. It looks intriguing although given my latest expenditures I'm wondering if a CD might be a more cost effective option given it's very unlikely to be cut straight from the tapes, especially given the nature of the recording and the (likely) need to do a bit of work on it..?
It's a mess with the Half Note recordings. I think I concluded one time that most of them are on One Up, One Down. But not everything...
Just found a professional review of it here (about the performance, not the sound quality of the recording.)
I remember about ten years ago I was driving on a forest road deep in the Northern Finnish countryside. It was a dark autumn night and I was driving fast and blasting the Olatunji concert really loud. All those saxes were screaming and screeching endlessly, so I started to scream along with them. Sometimes a song makes you want to sing-along, but that was a scream-along. A scary experience on a dark road in the middle of nowhere
Sanders is credited with bells in lots of releases across his career, so I don't get the usage of double quotes ("bells") in reference to what sounds like bells on the clips we've heard.
I recently have been listening to Offering, the Temple University recording. I think I was getting it mixed up with Olatunji. Offering is fabulous. Now I have to reacquaint myself with Olatunji.
My local record store got this one in today, but I don't think I'll be able to pick up my copy for a bit I've been reading this got pushed to late Oct, but if anyone else can pick their's up today please let us know how this sounds!
Mine arrived today. Nice packaging. Quite beefy. Have not tucked into the liners yet though. Will leave deeper reviews to more seasoned members but I will say if you are expecting a live but fairly faithful performance of the LP this is not it (at times!) and is not necessarily a bad thing. They really take it...somewhere else. Not one for throwing on cooking dinner with your partner (at times). Edit: recording is solid. Lacking a bit high-end for me but totally within releasable limits. Better than some other live Coltrane and a hair bit worse than others. Totally fine though. Crowd seems a bit subdued so far (could be mic placement). Maybe they're shocked at what's unfolding before them.
How did you get it, if it’s pushed back two weeks? I like that it’s not faithful to the studio version.
