John Coltrane with Eric Dolphy – Evenings at the Village Gate (Impulse!)

John Coltrane (tenor/soprano sax); Eric Dolphy (flute/bass clarinet/alto sax); McCoy Tyner (piano); Reggie Workman (bass); Art Davis (bass); Elvin Jones (drums).

There is an unusual affliction abroad in these times, evident only at the offices of Impulse! Records. The symptoms are broken thumb nails and splinter bedecked fingers brought on by scraping any available barrel in the hope of discovering another hour or two of hitherto unknown John Coltrane recordings. Over the years this deep barrel mining has brought forth the excellent One Down, One Up live album, the very good Both Directions At Once, Blue Moon (which I haven’t heard) and the Holy Grail of A Love Supreme: Live in Seattle. I suspect that, for Impulse!, the efforts are worth it because new Coltrane material sells better than anything else they have released in recent years.

First listen raises questions about the separation between the instruments. Usually, when I’m writing about the production on an album and refer to separation, it’s to highlight the space between, and the clarity of, the sound of each instrument. In the context of this album, separation means that Coltrane and Dolphy were in the same room as the microphone, Jones was doing something agricultural in a shed out back and Tyner and Davis and/or Workman were in the shop around the corner and only let into the Gate for a solo during last track Africa. Rich Alderson, who made the recordings, explains in the liner notes that he did so to test out a newly-installed sound system and used only one microphone above the stage at the front. I suspect in years to come, with further improvements in technology this music may be re-released with more of the rhythm section exhumed from the murk. I also wondered if they had considered re-recording the bass and piano parts, like Clint Eastwood did for his Charlie Parker film, Bird. I’d put forward local bass beast John Pope for a role in that alongside Zoe Rahman in the piano chair.

And so, to the artefact itself, and what else would you call it? It’s the longest single CD I’ve yet encountered at over 80 minutes, which means it may not all play on older CD players. There are only five tracks, (My Favorite Things, When Lights Are Low, Impressions, Greensleeves, and Africa), all versions of music from elsewhere but the addition of Dolphy gives them that extra colouring.

My Favorite Things opens suddenly, with no introduction from the MC, Dolphy’s flute suddenly appearing from out of the murk. There’s some rattling drums and occasional piano chords, if you can listen closely enough. Dolphy plays and dances around the main melodic line before the main man moves to centre stage. He’s been silent for six and a half minutes but he starts to construct his solo, laying foundations that will support the fury that follows. It’s typical of Coltrane during this period trying to force a million notes into every moment; a bold, energetic statement, enormously enhanced by Dolphy’s flute playing which circles around him. One of the unfortunate effects of the vibrancy of the front line is that it emphasises the recording issues highlighted above; across much of its sixteen minutes we have an unusual trio of sax, flute and drums.  

When Lights Are Low is an instant contrast, mellow, cool and swinging; much more supper club jazz than the previous track. It’s a lot brighter as well and the contrast in sound between the two tracks is notable. For this one Coltrane is on tenor and Dolphy on bass clarinet. They bellow and shout at each other, but in a good way before Tyner’s solo which is more in keeping with the inherent elegance of the tune itself.

Impressions races out of the blocks with Coltrane on Soprano and Dolphy on alto in a furious duel, challenging and raising each other with every bar. Jones is chopping down trees and we know the others in the band are there from Tyner’s heavyweight chording.

Greensleeves provides great examples of Elvin Jones holding back and pushing forward, displaying huge energy in those bombs he drops. It opens with more high energy duelling and, to add to the confusion, the melody isn’t stated until a few minutes in. The melody is, of course, just the launchpad, a brief sketch that’s subsumed under the musical edifice built over it. Tyner and Jones dominate for much of this one and Workman can be sensed in the background as drummer and pianist play around him. Coltrane and Dolphy come in on soprano sax and bass clarinet, respectively, providing a contrast in the tone of the instruments, soloing consecutively, rather than concurrently as they do for much of the album. I can just imagine Henry the Eighth and Anne Boleyn nodding their heads to this one, in her case, whilst she still had a head to nod. At one point a gentle, fluid restatement of the melody by Dolphy is suddenly overwhelmed by furious blowing from Coltrane and more of Elvin Jones’ bombs; Tyner, metronomically, holds the melody together in the background. That sets the scene for the last half of the piece; Coltrane just rips it up and Jones matches the standard he sets.

Art Davis sat in on Africa where he provides part of the drone sound that Coltrane was aiming for at a time when he wanted to incorporate ideas from Africa and the Middle East. Coltrane is the dominant voice on this track. His plaintiff wails and bellows provide the energy for the opening few minutes over Jones’ free and furious contribution. There’s a beautiful, tragic solo from Tyner and, we can hear both basses clearly as they duet over the murmurings of the crowd. After Elvin Jones’ fine solo the album closes out with more of that furious Coltrane blowing you either love or don’t.

Ashley Kahn has provided very extensive sleeve notes as he did with One Down, One Up, A Love Supreme; Live in Seattle and Both Directions At Once; an eight page essay is followed by Reggie Workman’s memory of the engagement at the Gate. There are also comments from Rich Alderson, who made the recording and from musicians and Coltrane acolytes Branford Marsalis and Lakecia Benjamin, both of who are held in high esteem in this house.

I think with this one you have to make a decision about how much you will be put off by the quality of the recording. It gets better with repeated listening and what seemed appalling first time round is dismissed as secondary to the opportunity to listen to this band. There’s a lot of Coltrane and Dolphy up front and central and enough of the contributions from the others (especially fine playing from Jones by the way) that, on balance, it’s probably worth having and, if you worship at the  Church of John Coltrane it will be a new book for your Bible.

Evenings at the Village Gate is out now, though I didn’t see any copies of it on my perambulations round the CD emporia of Newcastle last week. It’s definitely available online from all of the usual suspects. Dave Sayer