A Blowing Session W/ Johnny Griffin
A Blowing Session W/ Johnny Griffin
A Blowing Session W/ Johnny Griffin

A Blowing Session W/ Johnny Griffin

John Coltrane
  • LP

  • 1

  • 37129

€12.39

 

180-gram PURE VIRGIN VINYL

INCLUDES 1 BONUS TRACK

This album, which ended up being the only recorded collaboration between John Coltrane and Johnny Griffin, wasn’t planned that way. Initially, Coltrane wasn’t scheduled to be on this date, but Griffin saw him on his way to Rudy Van Gelder’s studio and asked him to join the remaining musicians, third tenor Hank Mobley, trumpeter Lee Morgan, pianist Wynton Kelly, bassist Paul Chambers, and drummer Art Blakey. These musicians were all associates within the same East Coast hard bop scene of the time; they came from the Jazz Messengers and Miles Davis’ quintet, and many had played with Dizzy Gillespie’s big band. The date produced versions of two standards, “The Way You Look Tonight” and “All the Things You Are,” along with two original Griffin compositions, “Ball Bearing” and “Smoke Stack.” The opening track features the three tenors trading off with complexity and speed that is still astonishing. The only other existing version of “The Way You Look Tonight” featuring Coltrane, recorded the following month for the Mal Waldron LP Mal/2, has been added as a bonus.

PERSONNEL:

JOHN COLTRANE
JOHNNY GRIFFIN & HANK MOBLEY, tenor sax
LEE MORGAN, trumpet
WYNTON KELLY, piano
PAUL CHAMBERS, bass
ART BLAKEY, drums

Hackensack, New Jersey, April 6, 1957.

(*) BONUS TRACK:

John Coltrane (ts), Sahib Shihab (as), drees Sulieman (tp), Mal Waldron (p), Julian Euell (b), Ed Thigpen (d). Hackensack, New Jersey, May 17, 1957.

SIDE A:

01 THE WAY YOU LOOK TONIGHT 02 BALL BEARING 03 THE WAY YOU LOOK TONIGHT [different version]*

SIDE B:

01 ALL THE THINGS YOU ARE 2 SMOKESTACK

One of the most renowned jazz photographers of all time, Francis Wolff (1907-1971) was also a record company executive and producer, whose skills were essential to the success of the Blue Note record label. Born Jakob Franz Wolff in Berlin, Germany, he soon became a jazz enthusiast, despite the government ban placed on this type of music after 1933. A Jew, in 1939 he left Berlin, where he had worked as a commercial photographer, and established himself in New York. He began working there with his childhood friend Alfred Lion, who had co-founded Blue Note Records with Max Margulis. The latter soon dropped out of any involvement in the company, and Wolff joined Lion in running it. Wolff took thousands of photographs during the label’s recording sessions and rehearsals. His highly personal visual concept would be forever associated with both Blue Note and jazz as a whole.

Format
LP
Discs
1
Label code
37129
LPS 156121

John Coltrane

John Coltrane is an American musician and saxophonist dedicated to the world of jazz and considered one of the most notorious influences of the genre, especially the bebop style. 

He is originally from Hamlet, North Carolina, and in his career he stands out for his long and original improvised melodies. 

He is also known for his influence on the struggle for the civil rights of people of color, a marked social conflict of the time and to which he contributed through his music, with lyrics inspired by the theme and free melodies that he developed through several notes played at the same time. 

BIOGRAPHY

John William Coltrane was born in Hamlet, North Carolina, on September 23, 1926. He was the son of John R. Coltrane and Alice Coltrane, working people dedicated to the world of tailoring and sewing, but with great musical skills inherited by his son. 

Coltrane's family was linked to the religious and political world, which is why Coltrane grew up in the city of High Point, North Carolina, where they moved a few months after his birth for work reasons. 

In 1938, at the age of 12 and after the death of the most representative male figures of his lineage, John Coltrane joined the community orchestra, playing clarinet and tenor horn. In 1945 he served for a year in the U.S. Navy. 

Coltrane later devoted his life to professional alto and tenor saxophone playing and in 1949 joined Dizzy Gillespie's Big Band.  After several musical works as part of some bands of the genre, in 1955 he really began his musical career in an outstanding way; he joined the famous quintet of Miles Davis, American musician, composer and trumpeter, considered one of the most prominent figures of jazz, especially after World War II, and with whom he managed to record one of his most outstanding recordings Kind of Blue in 1959.

However, before this and after some problems with Miles, in 1957 he joined the renowned pianist Thelonious Monk, with whom he achieved excellent collaborations. That same year he recorded his first solo album: Blue Train.

From this moment on and after a hard recovery due to his well-known drug addiction, Coltrane took a much more marked free style influenced by his religious convictions, present since his childhood, but fully developed after his new "awakening to life" and which he made clear in an excellent recording called A Love Supreme, released in 1965 and whose live performance, that same year in the city of Seattle, gave rise to a posthumous album released in 2021: A Love Supreme: Live In Seattle. 

In 1969 he formed his own quartet and made his first recording with it, in an album called My Favorite Things, which also featured the renowned pianist McCoy Tyner. 

This masterful jazz musician died in New York City on July 17, 1967 of liver cancer. 

After his death, his musical career continued to reap success with a series of posthumous albums, compiling his recordings during his lifetime, and even with an outstanding special mention for the Pulitzer Prizes.

MUSICAL INFLUENCES

His earliest musical influences were his own parents. His father inspired him to play the clarinet and his mother was an excellent piano player.

His initial stage of musical development was marked by musicians such as Lester Young and Johnny Hodge. He was also inspired by the likes of Ben Webster, Coleman Hawkins and Tab Smith. 

COLLABORATORS IN PERFORMANCE

His main collaborators throughout his career have been his band mates, among whom we can mention musicians such as Miles David, Charlie Parker, Thelonious Monk, McCoy Tyner, Dizzy Gillespie, Paul Chambers, Elmo Hope, Mal Waldron, Tommy Flanagan, Ray Draper, Wilbur Harden, Johnny Griffin, Kenny Burrell, among others.

DISCOGRAPHY

As a leader, John Coltrane has recorded over a hundred albums, more than 20 group albums with musicians Miles Davis and Thelonious Monk, and more than 50 albums recorded with other leaders, including compilations with other musicians. 

Among the highlights of his musical career are: 

Dakar - Original Jazz Classics (1957)

Coltrane - Original Jazz Classics (1957)

Blue Train - Blue Note (1957)

Wheelin And Dealin - Original Jazz Classics (1957)

The Last Trane - Original Jazz Classics (1957)

Soultrane - Original Jazz Classics (1958)

Coltrane Time - Blue Note (1958)

Blue Trane: John Coltrane Plays The Blues – Prestige (1958)

Giant Steps - Atlantic (1959)

Coltrane Jazz – Atlantic (1959)

My Favorite Things – Atlantic (1960)

The Best Of John Coltrane – Atlantic (1961)

Impressions - Impulse! (1961)

Coltranology, vols.I & II – Affinity (1961)

From The Original Master Tapes - Impulse! (1962)

The Complete Graz Concert vol 2 – Magnetic (1962)

The 1962 Graz Concert. Complete Edition - Jazz Lips (1962)

Promise – Moon (1962)

Bye Bye Blackbird - Original Jazz Classics(1962)

Ballads - Impulse! (1962)

Live At Birdland And The Half Note - Cool & Blue (1962)

Coltrane Live At Birdland - Impulse! (1963)

John Coltrane & Johnny Hartman - Impulse! (1963)

Live in Stockholm, 1963 – Charly (1963)

Afro Blue Impressions - Pablo Live (1963)

Coast to Coast – Moon (1964)

A Love Supreme - Impulse! (1965)

The John Coltrane Quartet Plays - Impulse IMPD (1965)

The John Coltrane Quartet Plays - Impulse MCAD (1965)

The Major Works Of John Coltrane - Impulse! (1965)

Ascension - Impulse! (1965)

New Thing At Newport - GRD 105(1965)

Love In Paris – LeJazz (1965)

A Love Supreme: Live In Concert - Black Label (1965)

Live In Paris - Black Label (1965)

A Live Supreme – Moon (1965)

Live In Seatle - Impulse! (1965)

Meditations - Impulse! (1965)

Live At The Village Vanguard Again - Impulse! (1966)

Live In Japan - Impulse! (1966)

Expression - Impulse! (1967)

A John Coltrane Retrospective - Impulse! (1967)

One down, one up: Live at the Half Note - Impulse! (1967)

The Olatunji Concert: The Last Live Recording - Impulse! (1967)

Transition - Impulse! (Póstumo - grabado en el año 1965) (1970)

Sun Ship - Impulse! (Póstumo - grabado en el año 1965) (1971)

Interstellar Space - Impulse! (Póstumo - grabado en el año 1966) (1974)

First Meditations - Impulse! (Póstumo - grabado en el año 1965) (1977)

Blue world - Impulse! (2019)

A Love Supreme: Live In Seattle - Impulse! (Póstumo - grabado en el año 1965) (2021)

MOST FAMOUS SONG

There are many well-known songs by John Coltrane, but without a doubt, among the most emblematic and representative of his career are: 

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