Afro Blue Impressions (LP)

The recordings that make up Afro Blue Impressions were acquired by jazz impresario/auteur Norman Granz during the tours he produced for many jazz artists during the 1960s, though they weren't issued until 1973. Recorded at shows in Berlin and Stockholm, the John Coltrane Quartet -- with pianist McCoy Tyner, bassist Jimmy Garrison, and drummer Elvin Jones -- is in tremendous form here, using a familiar repertoire in order to expand upon the group's own building blocks in creating the new post-harmonic system that the saxophonist was developing. Afro Blue Impressions is a rhythm collision, where mode gives way to some of Trane's most angular soprano playing, pushing the limits of the instrument and his own dexterity to near breaking points. This is the sound of one of the greatest -- albeit short-lived -- quartets in jazz history completely coming into its own in concert.