John Coltrane Quartet - Blue World

The Guardian 80

(Impulse)

Yet another entry in the growing catalogue of lost-and-found recording sessions, this dates from 1964 and was made for a French-Canadian film, Le chat dans le sac. Some of it was used on the soundtrack, but this is the whole thing and it’s fascinating. Coltrane and his classic quartet were then in the midst of their most creatively demanding year and everything they recorded was new. The film director, though, had asked for numbers he was familiar with and Coltrane was happy to oblige.

The result is a brief but serious retrospective treatment of five pieces, going back as far as 1958. There are two versions of Naima and three of Village Blues, but they’re all different, and every performance is complete, no odds and ends. The piece called Blue World here is an improvisation on the song Out of This World, which Coltrane had recorded in 1962, and for sheer intensity this version comes close to surpassing even that. As for the sound quality, it was recorded at Rudy Van Gelder’s studio, by the man himself, in mono, which has been delicately tweaked and runs for 37 minutes.