NOTES TO 1967 |
General: This page contains notes to items on the page of recordings from 1967.
Significant Events:
| Last Recordings | Although relatively inactive for the last part of 1966, Coltrane recorded a number of sessions during the first five months of 1967. Several of these sessions are currently missing,. |
| Last Performance | The last live performance of John Coltrane to be recorded was the April 23, 1967, Olatunji Center for African Culture concert, in New York City. Only the first of the two concerts was recorded. The last performance, on May 7, 1967, in Baltimore MD, was not recorded.. |
| Coltrane Dies | John W. Coltrane died early on the morning of July 17, 1967, at Huntington Hospital on Long Island. He was 40. |
670215. Most of the compositions from 1967 remained untitled at Coltrane's death. The untitled composition recorded in two versions at this session (670215c and 670215d) was also recorded at the duet session the following week (670222c). When released, 670222c was entitled "Venus". The earlier quartet version was mistakenly released under the title "Stellar Regions". These are different performances of the same composition, however.
670227. Marion Brown told Fuji that he only played bells at this session. The tapes have not been located, so this cannot be confirmed.
670307. "Ogunde" is an adaptation of an Afro-Brazilian spiritual entitled "Ogunde Varere".
670423. The first performance was recorded (at Coltrane's request) by engineer Bernard Drayton. Drayton left after the first performance, making it unlikely that the second performance was recorded. Short excerpts from the first performance have been previously released; the entire first performance is being released Verve/Impulse in September 2001.
670000. Four titles from Coltrane's spring 1967 recording sessions were released on the album Expression, approved by Coltrane shortly before his death. The recordings were identified on the album as being from sessions on 2/15/67 and 3/17/67. My research in the late seventies determined that the second session actually occurred on 3/7/67. It also determined that only Ogunde was recorded on that date, leaving Expression as undated. The recent rediscovery of the entire 2/15/67 session allowed us to determine that only Offering was recorded at that session, leaving To Be similarly undated. There is some slight evidence that To Be comes from session 670517. Conclusive dating will have to wait for the recovery of the three missing spring sessions, 670227, 670329 and 670517.
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.