NOTES TO 1961 |
General: This page is under construction, but will contain notes to items on the page of recordings from 1961. Some additional notes may be found on the Coltrane FAQs page
Significant Events:
| Impulse Contract | In the spring of 1961 Coltrane completed the recordings required by his Atlantic contract, and switched to the new Impulse label (ABC-Paramount). He remained with Impulse until his death. |
| Africa/Brass | The first recordings made under the Impulse contract featured a large orchestra (arrangements mostly by Eric Dolphy). Three were originally released under the title Africa/Brass, and the music from the sessions (including posthumous releases) is generally called the Africa/Brass Sessions (all titles released on a two-CD set by that name) |
| Live at the Village Vanguard | The John Coltrane Quartet (McCoy Tyner, p; Reggie Workman, b; Elvin Jones, dr) was expanded to a quintet with the addtion of multi-instrumentalist Eric Dolphy in September 1961. The controversial group was recorded at New York's 'Village Vanguard' on four nights in November 1961. These are considered among Coltrane's greatest recordings. The entire set of performances (22 titles) has been released in a box set. |
| European tour | The Coltrane quintet (with Dolphy) toured Europe in a Jazz at the Philarmonic package in November and December 1961. A number of the performances were recorded and some of those have been released (particularly the Stockholm performances, first released on Historic Performances HPLP-1 and -5 in the late sixties). |
Contents of this page based on The Recordings of John Coltrane: A Discography, (c) 1977, 1978, 1979 by David Wild and disc’ribe, Issues # 1, # 2, and # 3, (c) 1980, 1981 and 1983 by Angelyn and David Wild. All the usual legal protections apply. Click here to send mail to Dave Wild.