John Coltrane My Favorite Things Recorded Oct. 21, 24, and 26, 1960 Released March, 1961 With John Coltrane (ts and ss), McCoy Tyner (p), Steve Davis (b), and Elvin Jones (dr). 1. My Favorite Things (Rodgers/Hammerstein) 2. Every Time We Say Goodbye (Porter) 3. Summertime (Hayward/Gershwin) 4. But Not for Me (Gershwin/Gershwin) From Bill Coss's liner notes: It's harvest time for John Coltrane. Fifteen years of serious and intelligent rotation have produced a bumper crop. Fifteen years of professional saxophoning have brought him from his debut in Philadelphia with a cocktail lounge combo, through bands led by Eddie Vinson, Johnny Hodges, Miles Davis and Thelonious Monk, to this record of his own quartet. . . . The spontaneous development, compounded of his varied musical experiences and searching mind, had crystallized to the point where it could be criticized. It was criticized and harshly, partly because, as John points out, "It just didn't always come off the way I wanted it to," but, mainly because he was dealing with the unexpected, no matter how disciplined and schooled his search may have been. That is a major element in Coltrane -- the unexpected. It is what makes following him not always an easy experience for the casual listener, but a rich experience for those who will match him with a seriousness of their own. Unexpected is the word for his self-assessment and for his continuing development ("I've got to keep experimenting. I feel that I'm just beginning. I have part of what I'm looking for in my grasp, but not all.") Unexpected, too, the addition of soprano saxophone last February [1960] to the list of instruments he plays ("It lets me take another look at improvisation. It's like having another hand.") Not unexpected, though, is the quality of this album, which John has been moving towards during these fifteen years, and I have been getting to in these notes, which have deliberately set out to show that, while the whole is always dependent on the sum of its parts, some things are more equal than others, and John Coltrane has become a Gestalt reality, much more than even his considerable parts might indicate. With the forming of his own group in 1960, which you hear here (excepting the substitution of drummer Elvin Jones), John became more flexible. If variety had been lacking, he determined to become more varied. He chose his material carefully to ensure that. And he chose his companions as carefully. Pianist McCoy Tyner is a highly intuitive musician in accompaniment, a soloist with rare ability to reach into the heart of a melody. Bassist Steve Davis, a most underrated musician, is the soul of strength and taste. Drummer Elvin Jones is richly inventive and rhythmically powerful. Together, they take the Coltrane track--direct, uncluttered, sometimes a-rhythmic, always rolling in pulsation, never sentimental. And varied: contrast the title tune, and John's almost middle-Eastern soprano flavor in strict waltz time, with Cole Porter's "Every Time We Say Goodbye," John obviously as much concerned with the lyric as he is with the melody; or contrast those with either of the bright tempo tracks on the other side of this record. Add to those, Tyner's solos on the first two tunes, Davis' special strength on the second, and his solo on "Summertime," and Elvin Jones throughout. The harvest, you see, is a many-splendored thing. And you will find it glowing within My Favorite Things. "By reducing chord changes to a minimum on such recordings as 'My Favorite Things,' the tenor man applied the idea of scalar improvisation to trance-like, hit-making effect. In 1962, Coltrane explained to the French magazine Jazz Hot how he adapted the waltz-like song from The Sound of Music to a more modal form: 'This piece is built, during several measures, on two chords, but we have prolonged the two chords for the whole piece.' ('Only he could do that and make it work,' commented Miles in 1988, referring to the tune's modal section.) By simplifying the chord pattern of songs into a set of modes, Coltrane was refashioning chordal songs for his own modal purposes." Ashley Kahn, Kind of Blue: The Making of the Miles Davis Masterpiece, at 182 (Da Capo Press 2000).
I've got the 1987 CD, the 2010 BG-mastered single LP, and the 2013 BG-mastered double 45 LP. The 2013 takes the cake for me. During dinner tonight, I spun the title track for my son, who loves the song he calls "Raindrops on Roses," and I pointed out to my wife that Trane was playing the song over only two chords--if I'm not mistaken, Tyner is alternating between E major and E minor throughout. I think the original composition has something like 10 chords in the melody. This gives rise to a droning, almost suspended, feel, similar to an Indian raga. That the song is already in waltz time only heightens the exotic feel to Trane's reading of it. He would continue to look for popular songs in 3/4 or 6/8 time to add to his book.
It could also have been John Gilmore, of Sun Ra's band. Not sure about Gilmore's role as far as innovating in the employment of multiphonics, but he was definitely in the vanguard of taking the saxophone to some far-off places that impressed Coltrane. From Gilmore's Wiki entry: "Despite being five years older than Gilmore, Coltrane was impressed with his playing, and took informal lessons from Gilmore in the late 1950s. Coltrane's epochal, proto–free jazz "Chasin' the Trane" was inspired partly by Gilmore's sound." John Gilmore (musician) - Wikipedia I recall reading a c.1990s Billboard magazine overview of the life and times of Sun Ra and the Arkestra, and the author related an anecdote about Coltrane attending a gig and raving to Gilmore about his playing: "Gilmore! You got the concept!" I still have the article somewhere, and may be able to add some more detail on where and when that occurred.
Did some more research on the previous, and found this, from John Gilmore's obituary in the New York Times, August 22, 1995: "...The Arkestra relocated to New York City in the early 1960's. In 1961, Mr. Gilmore sat in at Birdland with a group led by Willie Bobo. He was nervous about the group's aggressive rhythm section, and he said in one interview, "Unable to play with the group, I decided to play against them." Afterward, he said, one onlooker, John Coltrane, ran up to him shouting: "You got it! You got the concept!" and asked him for lessons. The concept, Mr. Gilmore added, was "playing rhythmically and melodically at the same time..." Based on that information, I'm inclined to think that John Coltrane didn't make the acquaintance of Gilmore until 1961, rather than "the late 1950s" era claimed in the Wikipedia entry I excerpted. Elsewhere in the NYT obit, it's mentioned that the Arkestra didn't settle in Philadelphia until the early 1970s, a fact that would also indicate that my statement that Coltrane might have learned to play multiphonics on the saxophone from Gilmore was an incorrect guess.
Often Coltrane would be asked if he was tired of playing My Favorite Things, expecting his audiences demand he plays his 'hit'. I don't think he ever answered no, and he did continue to record standards throughout his Impulse career. Given Bob Thiele's pop background you could argue he would have encouraged it, but if so then Coltrane seemed willing. Of course, unlike most of today's pop and rock touring groups and solo artists from the 60s onwards, every performance would be massively different through improvisation.
Up to this point, if there was only one Trane album I could have it would be MFT. I absolutely love his take on the title track, and really love hearing the stretched out live versions.
The liner notes for My Favorite Things again quote Trane saying that Monk showed him multiphonics on the saxophone. So, go figure! One thing I note about this record is that Trane, who before this point was known for recording standards that were off the beaten path, chooses some very popular songs.
heh, not only did he not get tired of playing it, eventually he expanded the improvisastion to around four times its original length. As can be heard on Live In Japan (July 1966). But I'm getting ahead of the chronology with that observation, and I'd much prefer to stay on course. The Atlantic years are the era where the plot of this saga picks up considerable momentum.
I've said it before in other threads, the 'other' 3 tracks on My Favorite Things are what finally drilled 'real' jazz (as opposed to fusion stuff like Bitches Brew) into my head. My bass teacher told me to pick up this album (definitely not for the title track though...) and when I went into Sam Goody they didn't have it in stock - but look, there's 'My Favorite Things' on Live at the Village Vanguard Again... To your point, he also plays it on The Olatunji Concert: the Last Live Recording.
right, the one with Jimmy Garrison's bass solo . But, I said I don't want to get ahead of things here...I want to read some sage discourse on Coltrane compositions like "After The Rain" and "Central Park West."
I haven’t come close to keeping up misicallynwith this thread but it’s been fascinating reading. Thanks guys!
just a wee bit different from the album version. "Summertime" I think is my favorite track from the album.
Edit: Sorry! What was I thinking?!?! Not the time yet for OLÉ. Can't wait to get there... Sorry again.
'My Favourite Things' is a song I always hated (not a fan of The Sound Of Music at all) and was forced to sing in school as a child - until I heard the John Coltrane version. He really highlights the beauty of that melody and gives it a depth and wildness completely absent in the original. There's not a bad tune on this album - to be fair there's not really a bad song on anything Coltrane did from 60-65 (which in my view is his imperial phase).
To me, the song My fav things by Coltrane is his best work! His masterpiece!! Is emotional, heavy, mystichal, with hints of Oriental and indian music. The piano is very relaxful and simpler than most of Tyner works. The second track, a ballad, is one of his most beautful moments, like in "im old fashioned, from Blue train. The B side is more heavy, with the drums n sax destroying in the first track, and the last one is like normal hard bop from the time, but very very good. Is my fav Coltrane album, with Olé coming after!
We will get there! I’m in the process of buying/selling houses and moving and most of my records are in storage.
The early Atlantic albums kind of blur into each other for me as I always listen to them on the Heavyweight Champion box. But this is obviously a mandatory Coltrane album. My Favorite Things was a jukebox hit! And of course he continued to expand it in his live gigs, leading to the 1966 60 min+ versions where the melody is hardly played.
The single version part 2 was its own B side, both parts are on the rhino CD reissue as bonus tracks.
I've been enjoying this thread again as I read up on his Prestige era stuff and the oddities like the Wilbur Harden albums. Odd that in the middle of all the sessions for Soultrane, Milestones & Jazztrack, he recorded so much with Wilbur. My Favorite Things - I'm not a giant fan of soprano sax, when Coltrane goes way out with it, it can be really bracing and unenjoyable. MFT though, is a big exception. Just the way he goes anywhere and everywhere with it, and like Sonny Rollins, how he can take such a fluffy show tune and use it to untap his imagination and ideas and let it all out. But the rest of the album is really enjoyable too - again, not a fan of soprano but his take of Every Time We Say Goodbye is understated, one of my favorite Cole Porter songs anyway. And side two when he returns to tenor, takes on two familiar songs but with the quartet loosening up, a very enjoyable second half
I love MFT, both in its original setting (sorry, I enjoy some musicals and SoM is probably my favorite of the classics) and Coltrane's version. It's one of my favorite jazz albums, and I really like some of the live versions that I've heard of it where they really stretch it out.
I like to listen to the 1960 October's sessions in chronological order. It gave me a new appreciation of the music. I thing MFT (the track) was the 2nd track recorded.
