Jazz
End of '58, a prime period for Coltrane right on the heels of his Monk association, and immediately prior to the Atlantic period - it's all good. This may in fact be one of the finest sets he laid down for Prestige, with Wilbur Harden a nice enough (if not wildly exciting) foil, and the Chambers/Garland/Art Taylor (or Jimmy Cobb) rhythm section absolutely on fire. So rhythm is on fire, Coltrane's on fire, and Harden sounds good, but like much of the Prestige stuff, this is an accomplished hard bop set straining to break free of hard bop conventions. It strains especially hard in a few places - the title cut, especially - while the ballads that round out the A side are quite beautiful and the two tracks that make up the B also engage without slaying the listener. Starts strongest with title cut and "Goldsboro Express," astutely noted in the liners, and then it's fun for the remainder, though discographical details of the package bother me. Credits say that "My Ideal" and "I'm A Dreamer" stem from a July session while the balance of the five tunes come from December, but they also say that Harden and Cobb play on the two above plus one of the (supposedly) December tracks - "Something I Dreamed last Night" - while Art Taylor plays drums on the rest and there's no other trumpet. Shoddy. Given that there's clearly a trumpet on "Something I Dreamed Last Night" and also that the drums have Cobb's laid back style, rather than Taylor's fire, I think it's safe to assume that it too was recorded in July and that the personnel credits are correct while dates missed that one. Sorry if this is a little too anal retentive for you, but these are the sort of things that bug you when you get a little too obsessive about music.
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Released after A Love Supreme but recorded over two session seven years previously, more than anything Bahia shows how far Coltrane had travelled over that period - for listeners at the time it must have seemed strangely old fashioned, except for those who felt that Coltrane's developments had thrown them overboard, then the album must have been a relief, as though they had regained their footing and were having a strole on the decks of the stately Queen Mary. The first two tracks date from the summer of 1958 and are played by a quartet (Red Garland, Paul Chambers and Art Taylor on drums), the other three tracks are from the following winter (the same musicians except Jimmy Cobb is on drums and Wilbur Harden has joined them on trumpet) - and the album feels as though it is made up of two seperate sessions that have just been put together for convience. I have spoken before about how it seems that Coltrane was searching for a form that could contain the size and energy of his playing and it is the very tension created by his failure to find that form that makes his earlier recordings interesting - but in the later session here there is little of that tension, Coltrane seems happy within these versions of three popular songs: this is not to say the music is bad, and Coltrane's playing is nice, it is professional, but it will never knock you out of your chair. The same can be said of Chambers. I only know Wilbur Harden from his recordings with Coltrane and his playing is pleasant, but totally in the shadow of Miles Davis (whether he ever came out from that shadow and found his own personality I just don't know). I have problems with Garland playing ballads - My Ideal and Something I Dreamed Last Night - it always sounding as though he is bouncing in pink candyfloss, it's all much too sticky, but he is much better on I'm a Dreamer and this track is the only one where Jimmy Cobb makes an impression, nicely breaking up the gentle rhythm. But the other two tracks from the earlier session are much more interesting: Goldsboro Express is probably best described as interesting, working largely through the interaction of Coltrane and drummer Art Taylor, it begins by generating a lot of energy, but Taylor produces more noise than ideas and it doesn't live up to its early promise. By far the most impressive track, the one that stops the album being totally forgettable, is the title track: the rhythm section lay down a simple, often repetitive basis over which Coltrane has the freedom to fly, swoop and soar (this is a format that Coltrane and his bands would often come back to and by the release of this album there are better examples, but it is an important track in Coltrane's development and also very, very good).
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Paul Chambers- Bass
Jimmy Cobb- Drums
John Coltrane- Sax (Tenor)
Red Garland- Piano
Wilbur Harden- Trumpet, Flugelhorn
Freddie Hubbard- Trumpet
Art Taylor- Drums
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01. Bahia - A. Barroso (6:19)
02. Goldsboro Express - John Coltrane (4:41)
03. My Ideal, Whiting - Chase (7:30)
04. I'm A Dreamer, Aren't We All- Henderson,DeSylva, Brown (6:59)
05. Something I Dreamed Last Night - Yellen,Magidson,Fain (10:48)
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