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In the standard process of reissue/repackage, Impluse! put together an eight-track compilation of John Coltrane numbers together under the Spiritual title and theme. The job must have seemed pretty easy since just about everything he recorded for the label could be considered in the spiritual order. The real problem, therefore, became deciding which pieces to leave off the
These four duets between John Coltrane and drummer Rashied Ali are Coltrane's final recordings (made five months before his death in 1967), and they are plainly astounding. What more exhilarating image can we have of the master than to envision him blowing flat-footed into the booming martial roar of Ali's drumming like thunder and lightning having a final go during the last storm of the summer?
This two-disc collection gathers the results of two recording sessions from April and May 1961 with the John Coltrane Orchestra. As the title indicates, The Complete Africa/Brass Sessions includes both volumes of the work and relocates "The Damned Don't Cry" -- originally issued on the Trane's Modes compilation -- to this more chronologically sound release. On this collection, these recordings