vor Ascension hab ich auch ein bisschen Angst… aber gerade bin ich beim 9. April 1964, Big Band Arrangeur Bill Mathieu beginnt seinr Rezension von Live at Birdland (****) mit einer allgemeinen Bemerkung
If white critics can stand in any relation at all to Negro jazz of this caliber ( it is not obvious that we can) then that relation must be humble, but it also may be malcontent. The dignity that propels Coltrane’s music is dignity beyond the immediate grasp of the average man, especially the average white man, whose idea of dignity is born in relative peace. It is the high level of emotional sincerity that makes this music not only good music but good instruction as well.
Die Bemerkung mag von Amiri Baraka’s Liner Notes inspiriert sein, die er besonders hervorhebt… den Stern Abzug gibt es einmal mehr dafür, dass es nur zwei Akkorde gibt, weswegen McCoy Tyner nicht optimal zur Geltung kommt…
Am 8. Oktober 1964 ist Matthieu dann gleich wieder dran, mit einer Doppelrezension von Coltrane’s Sound (****) und Crescent (***1/2)
Coltrane’s Sound was recorded about three years ago and is representative of Coltrane’s best playing of that period. Crescent was made in spring, 1964; it does not give the best of current Coltrane. A comparison of the two albums, then, is not entirely balanced. Both records, however, give a fairly good look at the quartet and how it functions. The highest point in the
die Kritik ist die gleiche wie bei Live At Birdland (und irgendwie ja auch schon bei Africa / Brass)…
As the drone drones, it spells safety to Coltrane, and if Coltrane is safe, Coltrane is, alas, dull. The further out he searches, the more his music means. The reason these records do not mean more to me is that most of the time I am pinned to a fixed pedal-point. No freedom is worth such restriction, at least not in jazz, not in 1964, not for such a leader. And the more recent record is the more disappointing because it shows exactly how the issue has not been resolved. Coltrane has not yet found a way to break the harmonic stasis. One might ask why is Coltrane greatest when he departs from it furthest? Has this correlation occurred to Coltrane? Rest assured it has.
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