Newport, Rhode Island is the home of one of the most famous jazz festivals. John Coltrane is one of the most famous jazz saxophone players. It is no surprise then that one of Coltrane's concert recordings is at the Newport Jazz Festival, and this is it.

Concert Set List

John Coltrane Newport '63 is a concert that actually only contains THREE songs from the legendary Newport Jazz Festival! Coltrane performs I Want to Talk about You (8:13), My Favorite Things (17:24) and Impressions (15:40).

The remaining song, Chasin' another Trane (15:25) was actually recorded at the Village Vanguard in New York City in 1961.

Concert Line Up

Joining Coltrane on sax were McCoy Tyner on piano, Jimmy Garrison on bass and Roy Haynes on drums. Elvin Jones was not on this set. The show was recorded live at the Newport Jazz Festival on July 7th, 1963.

The song Chasing the Trane has none of the legendary quartet in it, but has Eric Dolphy playing alto sax, Reggie Workman on bass and Roy Haynes on drums. Coltrane plays the tenor sax. This song was actually recorded at the Village Vanguard in NYC on November 2, 1961.

Performance

I have yet to hear a Coltrane concert where he delivers a sub par performance, so the quality here is certainly top notch. However, I already have many performances of My Favorite Things, so yet another take of it, doesn't really add to my Coltrane collection. However, I can assure you, that like other versions of the song, this one isn't quite the same, he never performs it mechanically, he always puts passion into the song. I Want to Talk About It is laid back mellow jazz at first, but around the 6 minute mark, Coltrane delivers an awesome sax solo. Only at the very end of the song does the rest of the band come in for a finish. If you have not heard A Few of My Favorite Things it is one of Coltrane's signature pieces. He does things with it that Julie Andrew's never dreamed of. The version on this "63 concert is a good 17 minutes plus long and is as fine an example of his live performance of the tune as any. Impressions rounds out the set with another 15 minutes of what seems like an extended jam session more than a particular song.

I enjoyed the selections from the Newport Jazz festival. Even without Elvin Jones on the drums, this sounds very much like what you'd expect from the Quartet in a live setting, great classic jazz. The experimental stuff wasn't recorded yet, this is pretty straight forward jazz.

The final track from the Village Vanguard Chasin' the Trane is a nice bonus and makes you feel that you got your money's worth, rounding the album out to almost an hour of live Coltrane. I like to listen to this track on my Cellar Club setting on my Yamaha 663 Receiver, it gives the song a small inside jazz club feel from the stereo recording.

Recording Quality

Like most of the Impulse recordings of Coltrane that have been released, this one does justice to Coltrane's music. The sound is very clearly defined, with surprsingly little audience sounds in either the Newport songs or the Village Vanguard piece.

Summary

If you are a Coltrane fanatic, you will of course have to get this to round out your Coltrane Live CDs, however, if you are new to Coltrane and spot this, it's a nice introduction to Coltrane. For a better live set though you may also want to check out Coltrane's original Quartet Live at the Half Note or Coltrane's personal favorites from the Village Vanguard Sesssions The Master Takes. I gave this CD 4 stars, saving 5 stars for more complete concert CDs. The performances of Coltrane and his fellow musicians however are a solid five stars.

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