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Both Directions at Once: The Lost Album

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Both Directions at Once: The Lost Album
A black-and-white photo of the Classic Quartet in the studio with the album's name written in the shape of a cross
Studio album by
John Coltrane
ReleasedJune 29, 2018 (2018-06-29)
RecordedMarch 6, 1963
StudioVan Gelder Studio, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, US
GenreJazz
LanguageInstrumental
LabelImpulse!
Compiler
John Coltrane chronology
The Atlantic Years in Mono
(2016) 		Both Directions at Once: The Lost Album
(2018) 		Blue World
(2019)

Both Directions at Once: The Lost Album is a studio album recorded by saxophonist John Coltrane for Impulse! Records that was first released in 2018.[1] The recordings were made in 1963 during Coltrane's Classic Quartet period and lost for decades.

History

[edit]

Both Directions at Once was recorded in Van Gelder Studio in New Jersey on March 6, 1963, by saxophonist John Coltrane and his Quartet: double bassist Jimmy Garrison, drummer Elvin Jones and pianist McCoy Tyner. The session took place on the last day of a two-week stint at Birdland.[2] The next day, the group would join singer Johnny Hartman for the recording of John Coltrane and Johnny Hartman.[3]

To cut down on storage space, Impulse! Records destroyed the master tape, and the recording was lost for decades. The seven tracks on Both Directions survived as a copy Coltrane gave to his first wife, Juanita Naima.[4][5] Van Gelder made a separate copy for Coltrane to listen to at home. In 2005, after the Guernsey's auction house announced plans to sell Coltrane-related artefacts, the record company intervened to acquire the tapes.[6] Coltrane's son Ravi and studio executive Ken Druker assembled the final album with liner notes written by Ashley Kahn.[1] Ravi recalled that he and the others involved in the preparation of the album were "over the moon," and commented: "We spend our lives following these players, recording, studying them, transcribing them — you go at the new material like it's sustenance."[7]

The album's title came from a recollection by Wayne Shorter, who stated that at one point, Coltrane told him that what he was attempting to achieve musically was "starting a sentence in the middle, and then going to the beginning and the end of it at the same time... both directions at once."[8]

The standard edition of the album includes one recording of each track and expanded deluxe editions include multiple takes, including several of the title track from Impressions. All tracks were previously unreleased except for "Vilia" (Take 5), which was included in the 1965 sampler The Definitive Jazz Scene, Vol. 3 and the CD reissue of Live at Birdland.[8][9]

Impulse! followed this release with 2019's Blue World, from a lost 1964 session.[10]

Reception

[edit]
Professional ratings
Aggregate scores
SourceRating
Metacritic90/100[11]
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[12]
The Guardian[13]
Pitchfork8.6/10[14]
Rolling Stone[15]

Giovanni Russonello of The New York Times noted that, on the album, "we hear something close to the breadth of what Coltrane and his associates were delivering onstage,"[1] and commented: "the band was working in its own lingua franca, basically playing a version of its live set. Even more than on the album Coltrane from a year before, we can feel how closely connected these musicians... had become, and how combustive those live moments must have been."[16]

Marc Myers, in an article for The Wall Street Journal, stated that the release "provides significant insights into the highly charged sound of the John Coltrane Quartet," and concluded that "it's impossible not to hear the feeling of Both Directions in Coltrane's solos on his Johnny Hartman album. The two are now forever linked."[17]

Writing for Spin, Winston Cook-Wilson remarked: "Both Directions At Once... speaks to Coltrane's humility as a stylist, and the reason why he is revered by jazz fans of all persuasions, including anyone who only knows the bare minimum number of albums. If it's not Giant Steps, the album that type of casual Coltrane fan knows is A Love Supreme. Both Directions at Once definitely isn't Supreme, but it enhances our understanding of how that group of musicians came to make it."[18]

In a review for Rolling Stone, Hank Shteamer wrote: "Don't expect a readymade masterpiece... better to view The Lost Album as a key transitional document. For the die-hards... it's another small but crucial puzzle piece in the group's still-stunning evolution during its roughly three-year lifespan. For everyone else, it's an unvarnished, day-in-the-life portrait of an icon – and the three musical giants that helped him achieve that status – at work."[15]

Richard Brody, writing for The New Yorker, found the album "moving and illuminating, as it fills in some of the background and middle range of Coltrane's career," but stated: "it doesn't hold a place in the foreground of his career or his discography. The very fact of its rediscovery and release is wondrous, and I wouldn't want to be without it. For those who listen to much Coltrane, it's a significant and valuable supplement. For those who don't, I suspect that it's likelier to inspire admiration rather than excitement, interest rather than love."[19]

In an article for The Guardian, Geoff Dyer stated: "Coltrane's quartet... come powering out of the blocks. So completely were they living within the process of music-making that they could pick things up at a moment's notice... The result is not likely to be high on any list of jazz essentials but it illustrates how the forward momentum of creative expression was harnessed, at this point, by a constant desire to maintain and extend the commercial success achieved a couple of years earlier by My Favorite Things."[20]

Writing for Variety, Chris Morris commented: "At its heart, Both Directions at Once is a portrait of an artist and a band on the brink of a historic explosion. The bracing, probing, self-questioning and keenly played music on this collection is the missing link between the provisional work heard on 1962's Coltrane and the quartet's epochal studio albums... that would follow in 1964-65. Is its belated arrival a godsend? Absolutely."[21]

Coltrane biographer Ben Ratliff noted: "The music does not seem, in its context, to be a full step forward. It's a little caught between shoring up and surging forth... It can give you new respect for the rigor, compression, and balance of some of his other albums from the period... It is possible to take in Both Directions At Once, some of it middling by Coltrane's standards and some of it extraordinary by anyone's, without much thought about sellability or progress. In an ideal case, both qualities are overrated anyway. This is an ideal case."[14]

In a review for Jazz Times, Michael J. West remarked: "the music is remarkable and revelatory. It offers a fresh new look at how Coltrane was evolving at a previously underdocumented moment in his artistry, and adds new compositions to his catalog."[8]

In a review for AllMusic, Stephen Thomas Erlewine wrote: "As a historical document, this is a necessary footnote, providing evidence that the experimental side of Coltrane did not lay dormant during the early '60s, but the pleasant surprise is that Both Directions at Once is also enjoyable on its own terms as a long-playing record... Both Directions at Once is truly a rare thing: an important discovery from the vault that's also a blast to hear."[12]

Nate Chinen, writing for NPR Music, noted: "In the end, it makes little difference whether or not this superlative clutch of material amounts to a 'lost album' or something messier and less conclusive. What really matters is the seeking, as Coltrane always understood."[22]

Track listing

[edit]
  1. "Untitled Original 11383" (Take 1) – 5:41
  2. "Nature Boy" – 3:24
  3. "Untitled Original 11386" (Take 1) – 8:43
  4. "Vilia" (Take 3) (based on Franz Lehár's "Vilja Song" from The Merry Widow) – 5:32
  5. "Impressions" (Take 3) – 4:36
  6. "Slow Blues" – 11:28
  7. "One Up, One Down" (Take 1) – 8:01
Bonus tracks
  1. "Vilia" (Take 5) – 4:37
  2. "Impressions" (Take 1) – 4:06
  3. "Impressions" (Take 2) – 4:37
  4. "Impressions" (Take 4) – 3:40
  5. "Untitled Original 11386" (Take 2) – 8:41
  6. "Untitled Original 11386" (Take 5) – 8:23
  7. "One Up, One Down" (Take 6) – 7:17

Personnel

[edit]

The John Coltrane Quartet

Technical personnel

Charts

[edit]

This album was Coltrane's debut on the Billboard 200.[10]

References

[edit]
  1. ^ a b c Russonello, Giovanni (June 7, 2018). "Lost John Coltrane Recording from 1963 Will Be Released at Last". The New York Times.
  2. ^ Porter, Lewis; DeVito, Chris; Fujioka, Yasuhiro; Wild, David; Schmaler, Wolf (2008). The John Coltrane Reference. Routledge. p. 273.
  3. ^ Porter, Lewis; DeVito, Chris; Fujioka, Yasuhiro; Wild, David; Schmaler, Wolf (2008). The John Coltrane Reference. Routledge. p. 676.
  4. ^ Beaumont-Thomas, Ben (June 8, 2018). "'A New Room in the Great Pyramid': Lost 1963 John Coltrane Album Discovered". The Guardian. Retrieved June 8, 2018.
  5. ^ Vincent, Alice (June 8, 2018). "Long-Lost John Coltrane Album Set for Release". The Telegraph. ISSN 0307-1235.
  6. ^ Porter, Lewis (June 28, 2018). "Deep Dive with Lewis Porter: Considering John Coltrane's 'Lost Album,' From All Directions". WBGO. Retrieved June 30, 2018.
  7. ^ Weiner, Natalie (June 29, 2018). "Ravi Coltrane On the State of Jazz & Why John Coltrane's Lost Album Couldn't Have Been Found at a Better Time". Billboard. Retrieved February 22, 2022.
  8. ^ a b c West, Michael J. (August 9, 2018). "Delayed Trane: John Coltrane's Lost Album". JazzTimes. Retrieved August 23, 2018.
  9. ^ Considine, J. D. (June 8, 2018). "Coltrane's 'Lost' 1963 Studio Album Found". DownBeat. Retrieved August 23, 2018.
  10. ^ a b Chinen, Nate (August 16, 2019). "A Lost Album from John Coltrane, with Thanks to a French-Canadian Director". WUIS. Retrieved August 17, 2019.
  11. ^ "Both Directions at Once: The Lost Album by John Coltrane Reviews and Tracks". Metacritic. Retrieved December 27, 2020.
  12. ^ a b Erlewine, Stephen Thomas. "Both Directions at Once: The Lost Album - John Coltrane". AllMusic. Retrieved December 27, 2020.
  13. ^ Fordham, John (June 29, 2018). "Jazz album of the month – John Coltrane: Both Directions at Once: The Lost Album". The Guardian. Retrieved December 27, 2020.
  14. ^ a b Ratliff, Ben (June 30, 2018). "John Coltrane: Both Directions at Once: The Lost Album". Pitchfork. Retrieved December 27, 2020.
  15. ^ a b Shteamer, Hank (June 27, 2018). "Review: John Coltrane's New 'Lost Album' Captures a Day in the Life of His Greatest Band". Rolling Stone. Retrieved December 27, 2020.
  16. ^ Russonello, Giovanni (August 29, 2018). "Unreleased Jazz Treasures Are Arriving: Here's a Guide". New York Times. Retrieved February 22, 2022.
  17. ^ Myers, Marc (June 18, 2018). "'Both Directions at Once: The Lost Album' Review: Sitting in the Studio With Coltrane". Wall Street Journal. Retrieved February 22, 2022.
  18. ^ Cook-Wilson, Winston (July 5, 2018). "John Coltrane's Both Directions At Once: The Lost Album Is A Fascinating Piece Of Jazz History". Spin. Retrieved February 22, 2022.
  19. ^ Brody, Richard (June 28, 2018). "'Both Directions at Once,' Reviewed: The Thrills—and Limits—of a Rediscovered John Coltrane Recording". The New Yorker. Retrieved February 22, 2022.
  20. ^ Dyer, Geoff (July 7, 2018). "Full scream ahead: John Coltrane's Both Directions at Once". The Guardian. Retrieved February 22, 2022.
  21. ^ Morris, Chris (June 29, 2018). "Review: John Coltrane's 'Both Directions at Once: The Lost Album'". Variety. Retrieved February 22, 2022.
  22. ^ Chinen, Nate (June 27, 2018). "John Coltrane's 'Lost Album' Is A Window Into His Pursuit Of The Impossible". NPR. Retrieved February 22, 2022.
  23. ^ "Austriancharts.at – John Coltrane – Both Directions at Once - The Lost Album" (in German). Hung Medien. Retrieved July 12, 2018.
  24. ^ "Ultratop.be – John Coltrane – Both Directions at Once - The Lost Album" (in Dutch). Hung Medien. Retrieved July 6, 2018.
  25. ^ "Ultratop.be – John Coltrane – Both Directions at Once - The Lost Album" (in French). Hung Medien. Retrieved July 6, 2018.
  26. ^ "John Coltrane Chart History (Canadian Albums)". Billboard. Retrieved July 10, 2018.
  27. ^ "Dutchcharts.nl – John Coltrane – Both Directions at Once - The Lost Album" (in Dutch). Hung Medien. Retrieved July 6, 2018.
  28. ^ "Offiziellecharts.de – John Coltrane – Both Directions at Once: The Lost Album" (in German). GfK Entertainment Charts. Retrieved July 6, 2018.
  29. ^ "Irish Albums Chart: 6 July 2018". Irish Recorded Music Association. Retrieved July 7, 2018.
  30. ^ "Album – Classifica settimanale WK 27 (dal 2018-06-29 al 2018-07-05)" (in Italian). Federazione Industria Musicale Italiana. Retrieved July 7, 2018.
  31. ^ "Portuguesecharts.com – John Coltrane – Both Directions at Once - The Lost Album". Hung Medien. Retrieved July 31, 2018.
  32. ^ "Official Scottish Albums Chart Top 100". Official Charts Company. Retrieved July 7, 2018.
  33. ^ "Top 100 Albumes – Semana 27: del 29.6.2018 al 5.7.2018" (in Spanish). Productores de Música de España. Retrieved July 11, 2018.
  34. ^ "Swisscharts.com – John Coltrane – Both Directions at Once - The Lost Album". Hung Medien. Retrieved July 11, 2018.
  35. ^ "Official Albums Chart Top 100". Official Charts Company. Retrieved July 7, 2018.
  36. ^ "John Coltrane Chart History (Billboard 200)". Billboard. Retrieved July 10, 2018.
  37. ^ "John Coltrane Chart History (Top Jazz Albums)". Billboard. Retrieved March 25, 2021.
  38. ^ "Jaaroverzichten 2018". Ultratop. Retrieved March 25, 2021.
  39. ^ "Jazz Albums – Year-End 2018". Billboard. Retrieved March 25, 2021.
  40. ^ "Jazz Albums – Year-End 2019". Billboard. Retrieved March 25, 2021.
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