In the career of any artist, there are always many projects that are proposed, and many of these never happened. In this series I’ll share with you a few ideas that would have involved John Coltrane, but that never took place. Tom Wilson (1931-1978) was a visionary record producer
This is fascinating stuff! While I’m bummed this never happened, I can’t help but note the similarity in concept and instrumentation to Africa/Brass which also winds up with the theme of Coltrane (and in that case his quartet) placed in front of a band with a largely brass sound. I wonder if we got this album if Coltrane would go on to record Africa/Brass at all, or if it’d be wildly different from the way we know it. With the pianoless vibe of this suggested group, I’d imagine the album we could have gotten would have been a strange mix between Africa/Brass and The Avant Garde. I wonder if Coltrane and Don Cherry recording Bemsha Swing for that album is just a coincidence given the fact that it stands out so strongly being placed with what is otherwise exclusively Ornette’s repertoire. Maybe it was a reference to this failed project? I also wonder if Coltrane’s dental work that he had in ‘59 (if I remember correctly) could have been another factor in the cancellation of this project. Either way thanks for sharing this amazing stuff as always!
Thank you for this! I love getting "in the weeds". I think this would've been a great album-I'm imagining Coltrane's rather "hard" tone against the more velvety softer tones of the brass. I love Gil Evans' things (who doesn't?) so this is tantalizing. Cheers.
Great piece. I found it interesting that Wilson proposed paying Benny Golson $125 per arrangement. And speaking of Miles and Gil, Gil told me that he was paid $75 per arrangement for Miles + 19 and Porgy and Bess, and no other royalties.
Interesting instrumentation discussed here—reminds me of the unique band that Charles Mingus briefly used in the mid-to-late sixties, recorded and released on the "Music Written for Monterey 1965, Not Heard... Played in its Entirety at UCLA" album. Essentially a modified brass quintet—3 trumpets (one often doubling on flügelhorn), french horn, tuba, and sometimes trombone was included or substituted—with the addition of a single saxophonist (the great Charles McPherson), underpinned by bass and drums, with Mingus sometimes playing piano, in which case the tubist filled the bass duties. Cool sound to my ears, and a configuration I wish had been explored more. Billy Strayhorn even wrote an arrangement of Lush Life for the band, which was unfortunately never recorded.
Didn't Sonny Rollins also do an album with brass? (Checks: ah, recorded July 11, 1958 for Metrojazz, tuba but no french horn, and with piano and guitar; Ernie Wilkins charts.) More conventional big band approach (if memory serves, and it doesn't always), so maybe not in the lineage you're sketching out here.
This is fascinating stuff! While I’m bummed this never happened, I can’t help but note the similarity in concept and instrumentation to Africa/Brass which also winds up with the theme of Coltrane (and in that case his quartet) placed in front of a band with a largely brass sound. I wonder if we got this album if Coltrane would go on to record Africa/Brass at all, or if it’d be wildly different from the way we know it. With the pianoless vibe of this suggested group, I’d imagine the album we could have gotten would have been a strange mix between Africa/Brass and The Avant Garde. I wonder if Coltrane and Don Cherry recording Bemsha Swing for that album is just a coincidence given the fact that it stands out so strongly being placed with what is otherwise exclusively Ornette’s repertoire. Maybe it was a reference to this failed project? I also wonder if Coltrane’s dental work that he had in ‘59 (if I remember correctly) could have been another factor in the cancellation of this project. Either way thanks for sharing this amazing stuff as always!
Thank you! Fantastic! What a great way to start a day.
Thank you for this! I love getting "in the weeds". I think this would've been a great album-I'm imagining Coltrane's rather "hard" tone against the more velvety softer tones of the brass. I love Gil Evans' things (who doesn't?) so this is tantalizing. Cheers.
Great piece. I found it interesting that Wilson proposed paying Benny Golson $125 per arrangement. And speaking of Miles and Gil, Gil told me that he was paid $75 per arrangement for Miles + 19 and Porgy and Bess, and no other royalties.
Interesting instrumentation discussed here—reminds me of the unique band that Charles Mingus briefly used in the mid-to-late sixties, recorded and released on the "Music Written for Monterey 1965, Not Heard... Played in its Entirety at UCLA" album. Essentially a modified brass quintet—3 trumpets (one often doubling on flügelhorn), french horn, tuba, and sometimes trombone was included or substituted—with the addition of a single saxophonist (the great Charles McPherson), underpinned by bass and drums, with Mingus sometimes playing piano, in which case the tubist filled the bass duties. Cool sound to my ears, and a configuration I wish had been explored more. Billy Strayhorn even wrote an arrangement of Lush Life for the band, which was unfortunately never recorded.
Didn't Sonny Rollins also do an album with brass? (Checks: ah, recorded July 11, 1958 for Metrojazz, tuba but no french horn, and with piano and guitar; Ernie Wilkins charts.) More conventional big band approach (if memory serves, and it doesn't always), so maybe not in the lineage you're sketching out here.