Live in Japan (John Coltrane album)

Live in Japan is a four-disc box set by American saxophonist John Coltrane and his last group, a quintet featuring Coltrane, his wife/pianist Alice, saxophonist/bass clarinetist Pharoah Sanders, bassist Jimmy Garrison and drummer Rashied Ali. The 4-CD set compiles all the music issued as three albums in the seventies by Impulse!; Concert In Japan (1973, US 2-LP), Coltrane In Japan (1973, Japan 3-LP (side six is blank), mono) and Second Night In Tokyo (1977, Japan 3-LP (side six contains an interview, mono). (Some of this material was also reissued as two 2-LP sets in 1980 by MCA under the titles Coltrane In Tokyo Vol. 1 and Coltrane In Tokyo Vol. 2) The first CD issues were by Impulse! Japan as two 2-CD sets: Live In Japan Vol. 1 (same as "Coltrane In Japan") and Live In Japan Vol. 2 (same as "Second Night In Tokyo"). The US 4-CD edition includes both of these volumes, with identical mastering from the original mono tapes. The side six interview from "Second Night In Tokyo" has never been reissued on any CD edition.

Live in Japan
Live album by
John Coltrane
Released1973 (original triple LP)
1991 4-CD set
RecordedJuly 11, 1966 at Shinjuku Kosei Nenkin Hall and July 22, 1966 at Sankei Hall
GenreFree jazz, avant-garde jazz
Length247:01
LabelImpulse!
ProducerAlice Coltrane, Ed Michel [1]
Concert in Japan Cover
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
Allmusic [2]
The Rolling Stone Jazz Record Guide[3]
Concert in Japan

Recorded live on Coltrane's only Japanese tour in July 1966 at two Tokyo venues, Shinjuku Kosei Nenkin Hall and Sankei Hall, it is taken from mono radio broadcasts. Unusually for these players, both Coltrane and Sanders sometimes play alto saxophone in these recordings.

By this point in his career, Coltrane was firmly enmeshed into the avant-garde style of jazz. Sanders, who was an innovator of free jazz, influenced Coltrane's playing through his technical use of overblowing and fierce vibrations of the reed. Both saxophone players use multiphonics, overtones, and other extended musical techniques. Ben Ratliff described the recording as "a record of long-form stamina, closer than any other recording to what [Coltrane's] performances had actually been like for about five years..."[4] Regarding Coltrane's playing on Peace on Earth, Ratliff wrote: "he displays a technique that had never been more stunning, with rapid interrogrations of harmony and extreme dynamics - from mild susurrations to a stretch before the end of this solo where he packs so much force into the horn that it sounds as if it might burst."[4]

Brief background

At the time Coltrane and his quintet were invited to tour Japan in July 1966, he was, according to the Japanese jazz magazine Swing Journal, the most popular musician in Japan, with albums selling as many as 30,000 copies each.[5] The members of the group arrived by plane in Tokyo on July 8 and were treated like visiting dignitaries, with several thousand fans greeting the plane.[6] The group's schedule was grueling, and involved playing seventeen concerts over fourteen days.[7] During the tour, a number of Japanese jazz musicians sat in with the group,[8] and Coltrane and Sanders were presented with alto saxophones by the Yamaha Instrument Company, with the understanding that the musicians would play the instruments and offer advice.[9] (This explains the use of alto saxophones on some of the recordings.) Coltrane also participated in at least one press conference, and took time to visit the War Memorial Park in Nagasaki.[10] Despite the exhausting itinerary, Coltrane biographer Eric Nisenson called Coltrane's Japan tour "the event that was probably the greatest single triumph of his life".[11]

While in Japan, Coltrane began experiencing headaches that foreshadowed the health problems that would lead to his death in 1967.[12] After Coltrane's death, Rashied Ali noticed that a number of the photographs that he had taken during the Japan tour showed Coltrane holding his hand over his liver, "like he was trying to stop that pain he must have been feeling all by himself."[12]

Track listing

All compositions by John Coltrane except as indicated

Disc One
  1. Afro Blue (Mongo Santamaría) - 38:49 Previously released on Second Night In Tokyo
  2. Peace on Earth - 26:25 Previously released on Second Night In Tokyo

Disc Two
  1. Crescent - 54:33 Previously released on Second Night In Tokyo

Disc Three
  1. Peace on Earth - 25:05 Previously released on Concert in Japan and Coltrane In Japan
  2. Leo - 44:49 Previously released on Concert in Japan and Coltrane In Japan

Disc Four
  1. My Favorite Things (Richard Rodgers / Oscar Hammerstein II) - 57:19 Previously released on Coltrane In Japan

Notes
  • Disc 1 & 2 recorded at Sankei Hall, Tokyo, on July 11, 1966
  • Disc 3 & 4 recorded at Shinjuku Kosei Nenkin Hall, Tokyo, on July 22, 1966

Note: According to the Japan tour itinerary, which was reproduced in its entirety in both J. C. Thomas' biography Chasin' the Trane[13] and The John Coltrane Reference[14] (the authors of the Reference note that the itinerary was provided to them by Rashied Ali, and a photocopy of the first page of the itinerary is also included[15]), the Coltrane quintet played in Sankei Hall on July 10 and 11, and Shinjuku Kosei Nenkin Hall on July 18, 19, and 22, 1966. However, the CD notes incorrectly state that the July 11 recording was made at Shinjuku Kosei Nenkin Hall and the July 22 recording at Sankei Hall. The Coltrane Reference confirms this error, stating that, for the July 11 concert, the CD "wrongly lists the location as Shinjuku Koseinenkin Hall"[16] and, for the July 22 concert, it "wrongly lists location as Sankei Hall".[17] Katherine Whatley's article "Tracing a Giant Step: John Coltrane in Japan" provides an overview of the entire tour, including dates and locations.[7]

Personnel

Production
  • Alice Coltrane - producer
  • Ed Michel - producer, transfer
  • Bob Brown - transfer with
  • Kathryn King - transfer with
  • Rick Heenan - transfer with
  • Honeya Barth - illustration

References
  1. Credits Taken from Notes. Retrieved August 29, 2015
  2. Allmusic review
  3. Swenson, J., ed. (1985). The Rolling Stone Jazz Record Guide. USA: Random House/Rolling Stone. p. 47. ISBN 0-394-72643-X.
  4. Ratliff, Ben (2007). Coltrane: The Story of a Sound. Farrar, Straus and Giroux. p. 108.
  5. Thomas, J.C. (1976). Chasin' the Trane. Da Capo. p. 208.
  6. Thomas, J.C. (1976). Chasin' the Trane. Da Capo. p. 209.
  7. Whatley, Katherine (December 2016). "Tracing a Giant Step: John Coltrane in Japan". Point of Departure (57). Retrieved July 6, 2020.
  8. Porter, Lewis; DeVito, Chris; Fujioka, Yasuhiro; Wild, David; Schmaler, Wolf (2008). The John Coltrane Reference. Routledge. p. 350.
  9. Thomas, J.C. (1976). Chasin' the Trane. Da Capo. pp. 211–212.
  10. Thomas, J.C. (1976). Chasin' the Trane. Da Capo. pp. 210–211.
  11. Nisenson, Eric (1993). Ascension: John Coltrane and His Quest. St Martins Press. p. 209.
  12. Thomas, J.C. (1976). Chasin' the Trane. Da Capo. p. 214.
  13. Thomas, J.C. (1976). Chasin' the Trane. Da Capo. pp. 208–209.
  14. Porter, Lewis; DeVito, Chris; Fujioka, Yasuhiro; Wild, David; Schmaler, Wolf (2008). The John Coltrane Reference. Routledge. p. 349.
  15. Porter, Lewis; DeVito, Chris; Fujioka, Yasuhiro; Wild, David; Schmaler, Wolf (2008). The John Coltrane Reference. Routledge. p. 755.
  16. Porter, Lewis; DeVito, Chris; Fujioka, Yasuhiro; Wild, David; Schmaler, Wolf (2008). The John Coltrane Reference. Routledge. p. 756.
  17. Porter, Lewis; DeVito, Chris; Fujioka, Yasuhiro; Wild, David; Schmaler, Wolf (2008). The John Coltrane Reference. Routledge. p. 758.
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