Consumer Guide Album

John Coltrane: "Live" at the Village Vanguard [Hallmark, 2014]
The relaxed quietude of side one is lovely enough--'Trane applying both soprano and tenor sax to the Eric Dolphy-aided 14-minute original "Spiritual" before caressing a six-and-a-half-minute Hammerstein-Romberg "Softly, As In a Morning Sunrise" on soprano solely. But this endlessly rereleased album is sacred for one reason: a second side consisting entirely of the 16-minute "Chasin' the Trane," 'Trane wailing and whaling on tenor as Jones furiously drives and depth-bombs and bassist Jimmy Garrison tirelessly anchors and intensifies (and Dolphy is said to interpose brief alto commentary, though I've given up on figuring out where). I still remember the first time I heard it: April 1963 in Michael Levin's dorm room, which was also the second time and probably the third, because neither of us could get enough of how it both evoked and rendered unto history a theretofore unknown species of chaotic command I'd first encountered shouting and cheering for a Coltrane-Dolphy encore at the Village Gate in I believe 1961. "Chasin' the Trane" is as important a recording as "She Loves You" or "West End Blues." So buy the album, put track three on repeat until you've had your fill, and then learn how the calmer stuff fits in. A