John Coltrane: The Complete 1961 Village Vanguard Recordings (Impulse!)

This set of 50-year-old recordings is a historic milestone no jazz collection should be without. The performances are presented chronologically on this 1997 four-CD compilation that finally brought together in one package material released haphazardly on four separate LPs while adding previously unreleased takes.

Coltrane was already a star when he played this November 1-5 stand with his quintet including Eric Dolphy (alto sax, bass clarinet), McCoy Tyner (piano), Reggie Workman (bass), and Elvin Jones (drums), supplemented by Jimmy Garrison (bass) and including guests Ahmed Abdul-Malik (oud), Garvin Bushell (oboe, contrabassoon), and Roy Haynes (drums). The four days captured here find Coltrane anticipating many other ideas he later expanded on before his untimely death in 1967.

Coltrane took a major leap forward, at least in his recorded work, with "Chasin' the Trane." Based on the familiar blues progression, it has no pre-determined theme and finds Coltrane venturing far beyond the chord changes, sometimes braying, squawking, or splitting his tones to convey deep emotion. On the first version released, it consists of Trane improvising only over bass and drums, offering a white-hot intensity few had ever heard before this (only Sun Ra tenorman John Gilmore, an acknowledged influence on Coltrane, had previously traveled such pathways).

Coltrane also takes his interest in modality to new levels of inspiration with daring improvisations on "Impressions" (derived from Miles Davis's "So What" being sped up considerably) and "Spiritual," and his incorporation of ideas associated with Indian ragas also blossoms here with "India." This music casts aside the comfortable parameters of melody, steady rhythm, and chord progressions in favor of more primal expression yet more sophisticated methods of organization.

This adventurous streak can partially be ascribed to the presence of Dolphy, whose playing is superb on the tracks he's present on (19 of the 22 collected here, though he appears only briefly on two). His quite angular style of improvisation complements Coltrane's more linear approach well. The previously released version of "Naima" is even more valuable for Dolphy fanatics than Coltrane collectors, as Trane doesn't solo on it and Dolphy's playing is truly inspired. He's even more daring on his bass clarinet solos on the four versions of "Spiritual."

Only one track on the whole set is (barely) under five minutes in length (the second version of "Greensleeves"), while 14 are over 10 minutes (the last version of "Spiritual" even breaks the twenty-minute barrier), anticipating another trend in Coltrane's music. Jones was a powerhouse drummer whose energy often drove Coltrane to expansive new heights, and here he took drumming to a new level of polyrhythmic complexity, laying down a rich bed of multiple accents for the soloists to respond to.

Tyner, though he has his moments (most notably on "Miles' Mode"), is recorded in tinny, one-dimensional sound and often seems to have little to do. The bassists have more presence, sonically and musically; Workman and Garrison, whether playing separately or in combination, are omnipresent, in the process reinventing the role of their instrument in jazz as they searched for a new function when defining the chord changes was no longer an option in music where drones and vamps defined its motion and its gravity.

But it was Coltrane who took the biggest risks in pushing the music into new and challenging realms, proving that a performer could be popular (he was one of the biggest attractions in jazz) without being "pop." There are a few tracks which could be seen as concessions to his audience: "Greensleeves," easily pegged as another 3/4 modal recasting of a familiar tune a la "My Favorite Things"; the standard "Softly As in a Morning Sunrise," a pretty ballad which lets Tyner shine. In effect, they ease the audience into the heavier forays, but they are equally masterful in their own way and hardly compromises -- just more facets of Coltrane's all-encompassing style. - Steve Holtje

Mr. Holtje is a Brooklyn-based poet and composer who is halfway through recording his five songs composed on texts from James Joyce's Pomes Penyeach with singer Kate Leahy and cellist Suzanne Mueller.