Blue World - The Lost Soundtrack [SHM-CD]

Any material from Coltrane’s classic quartet has timeless value. More than 55 years after this historic session was recorded, I am still amazed by Coltrane’s uncanny ability to explore familiar compositions to find new meaning in them. This session has a relaxed meandering quality, that reminds me of the 60 exotica sessions and Coltrane plays the blues ~ like a deep breath, before crossing the rubicon of A Love Supreme... Yet underneath this calm surface: a fiery intensity moving the spirit towards the revelations that were about to be made manifest the next few years. Coltrane’s sound here is mellifluous, yet compelling in its power and emotional depth. The mood of this session is deeply rooted in the blues, with strong oriental accents and modal structure, certainly reminiscent (Like Sonny, Exotica, Mr. Syms) of the Atlantic period. But Trane’s searching descending solo of ‘Blue World’ ~ with its richly layered, wailing but declamatory sound ~ reaffirms that this quartet was slowly guided towards the solemn exaltation of A Love Supreme and all that followed. This haunting reconstruction of ‘Out of this world’ from the classic ‘Coltrane’ album illustrates the searching, almost pleading, ‘otherwordly’ mood of this album. It seems Coltrane wanted to infuse the movie with a duality of the mundane and the immediacy of spititual truth underlying all experience... Sometimes this session reminds of ‘Slow Blues’ and ‘Nature Boy’ from that other lost session: ‘Both Directions at Once’, recorded the previous year. And perhaps even more so the profound steping stone to the temple of ‘A Love Supreme’: ‘Crescent’. Yet, it lacks its polished lyrical quality, demonstrating instead a raw uncertainty that in some ways points even furthers ahead to the uncompromising journey Coltrane was to embark on, only a few months later....just listen to Jimmy Garrison’s intro on ‘Traineing in’, or the conclusion of Trane’s solo on ‘Blue World’. The sound of this recording by the way, is rich, warm and detailed: typical Impulse. Produced at a crossroads in Coltrane’s recording career, its retrospective character must have seemed at odds with the more experimental and spiritual direction that was taken at the end of 64. Nonetheless, this ‘side gig’ produced a treasure trove of essential classic quartet material.