You'll Hear It: Full Album Deep Dives with Jazz Musicians - 6 Songs To Turn Coltrane Curious Into Coltrane Converted

Episode Date: February 24, 2025

Have Giant Steps and Meditations scared you away from John Coltrane? Join us on the other side of the Trane tracks with what might be the best trio of albums ever dropped in the same year. We...’re talking 1963 Coltrane—at his most accessible (dare we say smooth?) yet still cutting straight to the truth. From the GRAMMY hall-of-famer Ballads to his legendary Impulse! sessions with Duke Ellington and Johnny Hartman, enter the perfect gateway into Coltrane’s world. We break down his honest melodies, the masterful support from McCoy Tyner, Elvin Jones, Jimmy Garrison (and more), and quibble with certain Rudy Van Gelder… choices… Whether you’re Coltrane-curious or already converted, this episode has something special for your ears.Link to Spotify playlist🟠 Open Studio Members -> Nerd NookTry OS Membership today! → https://osjazz.link/aboutLooking to drop a question? Want to listen to the audio pod? Look no further!https://youllhearit.com/

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Starting point is 00:00:00 Hey, Bob, you want to take the A-Train? No. Caleb, how about the MetroLink? Adam? The Amtrak? I'd rather not. All right. Well, let's take the coal train. Let's. And you're listening to the You'll Hear It Podcast.
Starting point is 00:01:29 Music Explored. Explored, brought you today by Open Studio. Go to Open StudioJadiojadjojazz.com for... Oh, your jazz lesson needs. What's up here? That was a lot. It was too much. How you doing the story of my life? Too much.
Starting point is 00:01:45 I'm doing okay. I'm doing okay. Yeah. Good, good. It's an interesting time. It's been fun. We pray to live an interesting time. We certainly do.
Starting point is 00:01:53 I'm so excited about today's episode. Me too. We have the new format, the new season, and this is the first time we're doing, actually, we're going to fold three albums together. All within the year of 1963. Buddy, we could have done 13 albums all folded together from this year. Really?
Starting point is 00:02:10 Really? One of the most underrated years in music history. Incredible year. Go look up all the jazz records that got released in 1963. It's amazing. Yeah. I mean, we're just concentrating on John Coltrane. but we have some illustrious co-stars
Starting point is 00:02:22 along with Mr. Coltrane. Of course, his classic, he's already into his classic quartet years, Jimmy Garrison, Elvin Jones, McCoy Tyner. Incredible. But there's going to be a Johnny Hartman siding. There's going to be a Duke Ellingson siding, even a Sam Woodyard siding.
Starting point is 00:02:35 Excellent. You know what I think is what's great about the albums you've picked and the tunes you picked for this episode is that like if you've tried some John Coltrane before, but maybe he wasn't quite your thing or you haven't ever gotten the opportunity to get into John Coltrane's music
Starting point is 00:02:50 because it can be very intense. Yes. Right? Especially if you dive in on something like giant steps through the later live
Starting point is 00:02:58 Vanguard sessions. It can be very intense. But this is like one of the greatest artists of his generation doing some incredibly accessible, romantic, dare I say?
Starting point is 00:03:09 Smooth, dare I say. I know I thought that's in that category. Yeah. It goes to how grounded he was as a human being and as a person because he can make
Starting point is 00:03:18 music for like any person on the planet. And I think like reach into their souls with what he does. It's really a special time for a special person. Yeah. And I mean, look, these, we're going to be looking at three records. We have a playlist, a bespoke, a bespoke, a bespoke playlist of six songs. We were told me can't say that in 2025. Six tracks, two from each of the albums.
Starting point is 00:03:40 But it's John Coltrane ballads, Johnny Hartman and John Coltrane. Incredible. And Duke Ellington and John Coltrane. These were all released in 1963 on the impulse. jazz record. All three. In one year. All released in one year.
Starting point is 00:03:52 Oh, and he released a couple others, too. I know. A few others. And he's on a couple of others for other artists. And it's just like an incredible time. All three of these are bangers. Yeah. All three are all timers.
Starting point is 00:04:04 Yeah. And I think there's a connection between all of these because they're all primarily ballads, not all ballads, but primarily ballads. They're all. I mean, I would say in the most positive sense of the term commercially, commercially viable, palatable, populist, perhaps even. 100%. These are things, these are, I think, great access points
Starting point is 00:04:23 into, like we say, we're trying to turn the Coltrane Curious into the Coltrane converted. You know what I mean? And a lot of times people talk about Giant Steps. Giant Steps is great, but that's really a thing for nerds, right?
Starting point is 00:04:34 That belongs in the nerd nook more than anything I would say. You really missed an opportunity here for Coltrane curious to Coltrane purist. Purist. Purest, I like it. Could have linked that up.
Starting point is 00:04:44 We'll fix it in post. Yeah. But, yeah, it's just to say that, like these are not, and I really think, hopefully we're going to be able to show today, too, that John Coltrane, like his lyricism, his, the beauty of his sound was such a foundation. It's not just all the crazy stuff that he played that he's known for. If you listen to Live the Vanguard, well, the Impressions record, which is from Live of the Vanguard, they came out and was recorded this same year.
Starting point is 00:05:07 It's a whole other way of playing in a way, but hopefully we're going to show some connections. So I thought it'd be fun to just take things back a little bit. We're not going to go all the way back to the very beginning of Coltrane. but we're going to go back to 1957. This is only six years before 63, obviously, if my math is correct. I'm a pianist, so, you know, there's that. But this is, you know, you can look at Coltrane as different.
Starting point is 00:05:28 There was the Coltrane playing with Monk and then Coltrane playing with Miles and then he came back to Monk and then he went back to Miles. So there's those two connections and that cross-pollinization. But this is Ruby, My Deere, of course, composition of Thelonius Monks.
Starting point is 00:05:42 This is from 1957 Coltrane and Monk. We're already hearing that. beautiful tone, that lyrical, the joining approach to the melody. And, I mean, such incredible playing, you know, just one little melody like that.
Starting point is 00:06:25 I mean, it really, that demonstrates, I think, why people are so attracted to Coltrane, but also Monk, it's like, you can hear in just those first few notes from that first phrase, you can hear like this, this kind of sound really grandiose and maybe kind of stupid, but you can hear
Starting point is 00:06:41 the truth. Like, you can hear someone, who's cutting through to the truth. There's a purity to it, right? We're getting away from frivolity and getting away from any other BS that we're going to add to the music. I just want what matters. Just the facts, ma'am.
Starting point is 00:06:56 No, it's not even just like, there's a lot of raw beauty in it. It's just like, let's get to the point with this and like let's do this the way that human beings recognize each other in this incredibly raw, like, pure way, this like person-to-person way. Yeah, better than anybody.
Starting point is 00:07:12 Yeah. cutting them. And Monk is there too. Well, and I think Monk very much in his music, his compositional style lends itself to that. We could say that Coltrane learned some of that, you know, from being in that situation, certainly with Miles too. But, you know, Coltrane's like 29, 30 years old. He's still pretty young
Starting point is 00:07:27 at this point. The next year, 1958, this is one of his most famous tracks. And famous compositions. Blue Train, Blue Nut Records. One more course to get a little bit into the solo. We should do Blue Tane. Yeah. But a lot of times people point towards this as being the best entry point to train.
Starting point is 00:07:59 And I would only say, yes, it's a great record. But check out the way he's so long on here compared to what we're going to listen to today. He's jumping in there, right? Bluesy. Just the greatest. But if that was your first time coming into here, train, it might be a little bit jarring, right? Yeah. I mean, I think this is what we were talking about in the setup is like if like, oh, yeah, Blue Train. It's a beautiful sounding record, of course, and like the arrangements with the horns are are beautiful. But yeah, you're right.
Starting point is 00:09:06 It could be a little jarring if you haven't heard that kind of music before. Yeah, but he had different sides to him. So just one year later, this is, of course, blue and green from Kind of Blue, Miles Davis.
Starting point is 00:09:44 It just stops in your tracks. It really does. It sounds like a written-out solo or like its own tune, you know, or something. It kind of resets you a little bit. And then from the same record, same year,
Starting point is 00:09:53 1959, is of course, Freddie Freeloader. I mean, we could go through all of Trained Solo. Oh, we're about to. No, we're not. There's the only other one. But again, here,
Starting point is 00:10:10 the greatest moments in musical history, right? It's arresting, right? I mean, it just, like, grabs a hold of you, right? Well, because Witten's solo, and Miles is solo,
Starting point is 00:10:20 up to this point, so different, in the pocket, grieving, pretty even, comes in as like, again, we're cutting straight through. Cutting straight through. But there's a purity,
Starting point is 00:10:30 I mean, that's like Coltrane's hallmark, right? A directness, a purity, but a beauty. Nothing. cute about it. But again, if you're not ready for this, you're like, whoa. And then, of course, a year later, 1960.
Starting point is 00:10:46 Now, this is for music nerds. Yeah, this is, and this is so great. But again, like, if you're like, oh, I want to get into jazz, John Coltrane Giant Steps, yeah. Like, what the hell's going on? Yeah, you know, what's a major third? I mean, there's a beauty and a symmetry here and a logic that I think that the everyday listener can connect with.
Starting point is 00:11:07 But it's a lot to grab hold of. especially the soul. This is not an, what's it, Anise Bouch, Amis Bouch? This is like the end of the main chorus at the 12 years. Yeah. So that's kind of, you know,
Starting point is 00:11:28 sort of leading up. And then, you know, Coltrane, 61, 62. Actually, he kind of had another period where, you know, he was using Eric Dolfi, another horn player. Two bass players.
Starting point is 00:11:39 Two bass players a lot of times and got into some really, you know, well, this is impressions from the vanguard in that period. Same year, right? 63. This is actually came out in 63. I think it's the 62.
Starting point is 00:11:49 We record it. And like this whole way of playing, like, less approachable for sure, but beautiful, right? So all this stuff is great. It's all sort of part of the lineage and it's just over a few years. But when we get to 1963,
Starting point is 00:12:11 and we're going to look at and listen first to my one and only love, which is from John Coltrane and Johnny Hartman, wonderful vocalists. This is written by Guy Wood and Robert Mellon, my one and only love. This album, and the ballads album
Starting point is 00:12:42 are also great a recording example of McCoy Tyner at his best Yes Also in solo pianist McCoy Tyner Yep And Elvin Jones
Starting point is 00:13:00 who's such an architect on these records Doesn't even come in yet Like this arrangement is fantastic And this is kind of You know the iconic version of this tune Simple Ballad Temple
Starting point is 00:13:13 Without the drums Jimmy Garrison Half notes McCoy playing every quarter note Basically Yeah Hinting at the double time, right? But Train is very much still just beautifully stating the melody, pretty much
Starting point is 00:13:39 just right on. Well, Formata. Amazing. One of the all-time great setups. Yep. Very simple over the five. Elvin with the, oh, the brushes. Man, how can you not sing great with that setup, right? Anybody got a cigarette? This is a beautiful, romantic. Harvard. Oh, and McCoy is like super busy with his competent, but it's all works. Everything. Everything in my bank account.
Starting point is 00:15:02 I get everything in my bank got to feel this thing like that. This is where actually one of my quival bits, RVG, I come in handy with this mix. I know because of how much, you know, it's not great for the pianist, but it works. But I mean, that brush, that snare drum, you can't record that. The voice. The voice. Jimmy Garrison, everybody, culturing.
Starting point is 00:15:23 I feel your lips so long So yeah I mean this one's just That's a sort of legendary track So I'm starting the playlist out with that Because I feel like If you're never listen to Coltrane If you're culting culting curious
Starting point is 00:15:37 And you come in and listen to that And you're like Eh, that's not for me And you know what? I don't really have a lot more I'm not going to throw giant steps at you And you're going to be like Start there
Starting point is 00:15:46 Start with my own own love I think so Yeah so and then you know Talking about McCoy Tyner's solos This isn't even one of the tracks on there But I've got You are two beautiful Another great ballad on this same record.
Starting point is 00:15:58 Check out McCoy's solo. You are too beautiful and I am a fool. And how he comes out of the melody on this and they go into the other field. Hey. This is where me and Rudy have problems. Cascading. But that's subtle Elvin. Peak McCoy?
Starting point is 00:16:33 Maybe. I think early 60s is Peak McCoy. And everybody loves the real McCoy, this era. Come on. And Elvin and Jimmy Garrison's support on this. So perfect. This is kind of a low-key, kind of a perfect solo. I'm going to throw that out there.
Starting point is 00:17:01 Anyway, that's not even one of the tracks, but I just wanted to kind of throw that in there for you. All right, let's go on to the next tune on the playlist. This is from the Ballad's record. So it's all instrumental, fantastic record. This is a little bit lesser-known, Harry Warren, Great American Songbook, Composition, I Wish I New. And I love, there's something that has.
Starting point is 00:17:19 happens in here. I want you to confirm this. It should be done in the nerd. I cannot confirm nor deny. I think there's an open studio moo happening in here. I wonder if that's what they called it. I wonder if it was marked that in the chart. Now, how train comes in out of the park every time, McCoy. They just come right in on
Starting point is 00:17:54 the time. It's high level. Yeah. Trains leaving a lot of space from McCoy. It's crazy how good it is. Yeah. How beautiful. Then he comes out of this Lydian. This next phrase, the way he approaches. and listen for the move.
Starting point is 00:18:50 I think you might have moot. I think you moved there. I think you might have mood a little bit. You know what's so great about the premise of this for you, this episode here is like, if you're new to jazz, right? You are expecting to hear stuff like this. Like, this is the kind of thing you want to hear.
Starting point is 00:19:10 You know what I mean? And this delivers, but again, again, in a way that is so soulful and so honest. Yeah. Right? That it's like, it's deeper than coffee house. some BS coffee house Spotify playlists.
Starting point is 00:19:26 I can see you even like that. I can't even say that on this episode? I don't want to say it in the presence of Trains music. You know what I mean? Right. But it's like that's just a cheap rip-off caricature of like some kind of like all it gets is like the visuals of a, but this is the thing. Like you want a jazz club vibe.
Starting point is 00:19:42 You want to be sophisticated. Yeah. It's no problem that you haven't got it yet in your life. Now is your time. But you come in with this. There's so many layers there. You know, come for the beauty, stay for the moochore. That's right.
Starting point is 00:19:51 You know what I mean? That's right. It's like there's so much. cool stuff. I can tell you having listening to these records over and over again. It's like, you know, there's a lot of great movies out there, but there's not that many movies that what you could watch over and over and still be discovering things. Something you might call like a, I don't know, like a rewatchable. A rewatchable kind of movie. Exactly. Now, a lot of this stuff, you know, is very atmospheric, romantic, even cinematic. And I think this next track, a lot of folks
Starting point is 00:20:18 will recognize it directly from the introduction. One of the most iconic piano, rhythm section introductions ever. The greatest. The great Duke Allington. They love Jones, the mental mood. Oh, that crunchiness, man. Alvin.
Starting point is 00:21:15 Like the swishiness of the high hats, the symbols going. It's like you're viewing, it's like you're seeing it in a blur a little bit of a fog and then there's like this clarity of the other part, you know, the melody.
Starting point is 00:21:28 Yeah. And this orchestral thing that... This is the greatest, man. This album, Duke and John Coltrane is the greatest. This is what we played at the top that take the Coltradeus from this as well. Yeah, exactly.
Starting point is 00:21:43 So good. Yeah, and I mean, it's very much too, like, along the lines of, on these three records, you know, Johnny Harbman, John Coltrane, Duke Ellington, John Coltrane, and ballads, you know, mostly Great American Songbook,
Starting point is 00:21:54 but then a few of these, which I would really consider straddling the line between Great American Songbook and greatest jazz compositions of all time. Like, is in a sentimental movie? That's great American songbook, right? It's a jazz standard.
Starting point is 00:22:06 Right. Lush Life, probably the greatest standard, in my opinion, ever written by Billy Strayhorn. My Little Brown Book. Correct take on that. Yeah. And like, The way they're put together. And shout out Bob Thiel, who produced every one of these records. I mean, he was the head of Impulse all through the 60s.
Starting point is 00:22:24 Impulse. Creed Taylor left. Prushing it in this era. Yeah, yeah. Everything's recorded at Rudy Van Gelder Studios, all these records. And all released in 1963. I mean, just like... Bad for pianists, great for everybody else.
Starting point is 00:22:36 Everybody else sounds amazing. Exactly. Speaking of Lush Life, that's actually track number four. We might get through all the tracks on this playlist, which we rarely do. Should we listen to a little bit of that? Please. Okay. Oh.
Starting point is 00:22:49 I know. Okay. Let's just talk about this. This might be the most concise, greatest piano intro ever. How come I can't resonate like that? If McCory was here, you'd be able to. Just check this out. There you go.
Starting point is 00:23:09 Just the facts. Those come what. What? Where one relaxes on the a axis of the wheel of life To get the feel of the... Man, I don't know what McCoy just played there, but... No. From jazz and cocktail.
Starting point is 00:23:29 The straight horn 16 when he wrote this? Yeah. The words and the music. Distongage. That used to be there, you could see where they'd been washed away. The way McPoy's walking with him, a head behind, behind. and with. 12 o'clock tail
Starting point is 00:23:48 then you came along. So this is just an incredible thing. Check the whole thing out. We have a link to the playlist. I want to just to jump ahead to John Coltrane solo. Although, am I getting ahead of myself? This might be...
Starting point is 00:24:02 Oh, no, it's not on my apex moments. There's so many apex moments. That's good I don't have it. I want to just play Trainsolo because the transition going in is one of the most genius elven moments of all time. Where can people hear all this?
Starting point is 00:24:13 We got a playlist for them? We have a playlist on a little thing that a little startup we are helping out. Spotify. Check out the show notes where you can go to the bespoke playlist from our own Peter Martin on this. I think I got a pretty good order on this year of John Coltrane. Yeah. This is for the long LushLine.
Starting point is 00:24:27 Once they're already in time. This is one of my FX moments, actually, the end of LushLive. Yeah. Well, this is actually before the train solo. But the end is incredible, too. In some small dive and there will be while I rock. Oh, that core. But check out how Elvin
Starting point is 00:24:50 percolates and affects the transition here. Trains. Not much 20th century music owes to these moments. Man, you know how much, so much 20th century music owes to moments like that on all of these recordings? Amazing. Amazing. And these are just a few. I mean, there's always, you know, cool, great moments.
Starting point is 00:25:22 But if every moment is great, then nothing is special. You know what I mean? I don't think that's how that works. I don't think that's how that works. I don't think that's... But that's what I'm talking about. The layers on the zero seconds. No, but I mean, there's all these little things
Starting point is 00:25:31 you can kind of start to go in and pick out your favorites, which is really fun. Yeah, so, I mean, that's lush. Of course, Billy Strainon's probably most famous composition outside of Take the A-Train. But this next tune, which is from... Actually, which one of these is this from?
Starting point is 00:25:45 Oh, it's from the Duke Ellington. They start to all become one record after a while. But this is another Billy Strain, lesser known, but I think one of his greatest tunes, My Little Brown Book. Duke Allentonelington. piano course. I believe this is Sam Woodyard on drums here and Arab Bell. Let's just lay back.
Starting point is 00:26:31 Nobody make any sudden, you know, it's just, come on, we're grown folks. That is a grown person's moment. Amazing, man. I keep saying amazing because I'm just amazed every time. Like, there's no other artists that hits me as hard as John Coltrane. every, every single time. And this is what I'm saying, all he's doing is playing the melody. No, but there's something, you know what I mean? There's something, like I said, there's an earned honesty that happens in his playing,
Starting point is 00:27:15 in his tone, and his phrasing, and his choices. Yeah. That is, it's so inspiring. Like, there's a lot of other stuff that he can and does do sometimes, but on these records, he's really just, you know, he's just doing his thing. Well, talking about just, you know, lyricism, beauty in the tone. I found this little excerpt. There's only a couple of interviews, audio of John Coltrane. Amazingly, I couldn't even find any video interviews. But check out in his own words in this little
Starting point is 00:27:43 snippet from a 1960 interview. On this show, you claim that you were trying to get, as I understood it, a more beautiful sound. What do you mean with that? Well, I hope to play not necessarily a more beautiful sound, though I would like to, you know, just say tone-wise. like to be able to produce a more beautiful sound. But now I'm primarily interested in trying to work what I have, what I know down into a more lyrical line.
Starting point is 00:28:15 You know, that's what I mean, my beautiful, right? More lyrical. So to be, you know, easily understood. So it's interestingly talks about that because there is, there's beauty in the tone, you know, saxophone is thinking about vibrato, intonation, you know, affectation of the sound, all these different things that you have,
Starting point is 00:28:34 but him focusing on the lyrics and the lyricism, I think on these records with these great standard tunes, I think he had such a great, that's how he could just play those melodies so straight and so powerfully, so direct. And so interesting that the way he qualifies that is like, I want to play more in a more lyrical way so that I can be more easily understood.
Starting point is 00:28:54 That's a really interesting take. Like, I want to be more easily understood. I'm playing more lyrically. Yeah. I'm telling you, man. Mission accomplished? Yeah, it's really the North Star for all of us. Let's get to some categories, Peter.
Starting point is 00:29:05 So Apex Moments, you have Coltrane solo on My Little Brown Book. Yeah. Can we just check it out? And then you can tell me if you. It's copying, too, the way they just interacted. Gorgeous. Kind of spurred some of that all. Yeah, dude was a crazy copper. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:29:50 Never looking at any transcriptions. Yeah, I just, I love that solo. I think that's kind of where he's, it's the intersection of like all the crazy stuff he can do. He's doing some of it, but it's super direct and lyrical. But he's almost letting Duke say, it's okay, you can go to some of that crazy kind of stuff. What do you have for your apex? My apex moment is just the last few seconds of Lush Life. Just the way they end it.
Starting point is 00:30:25 There's nothing super special about it, but I don't know, it always stands out to me, especially in that Johnny Hartman album, the way they end the tune. Can we hear a little bit of the end? Let's do it. I don't know. There's something about it that just really, I really love. You talk about lyrical. Yeah, it's just beautiful.
Starting point is 00:31:11 I love that so much. And I love the note that Johnny Hartman picks. I love what Train does. I love what all of them are doing. Sue you. Sue me. Don't, please don't. Bespoke playlist title.
Starting point is 00:31:20 If this were on a Spotify playlist, what would the name of the title of a possible playlist? I mean, we already have like, coffee house there. Right, right. We don't want to talk. I'm already second-guessing mine, so once you go first, and then we'll circle back to me. I have a couple.
Starting point is 00:31:34 I have the 1963 Baby Boom. You know what I'm talking about? You know what I'm talking about. I think there were probably some kids born in late 63, early 64, that owe it to some of these records, if you know, I'm concerned. Right. And then I have Japanese whiskey commercial bangers. Totally, totally. Yeah, for sure.
Starting point is 00:31:52 I've got Get On Board the Smooth Train, T-R-A-N-E-1963. but I'm not let's not let's not settle in all that too much because that's not one of my better ones. If you play all of these on Spotify, what would be the up next? What would be a good up next? Well, I think kind of blue. I know we mentioned a lot but you know
Starting point is 00:32:11 sketches of Spain, you know, in terms of like cinematic, atmospheric, thematic for sure. It's a great call. But also a great up next if you love this you know, come for the ballads, stay for Crescent. Which came out the next year. You know what I'm saying?
Starting point is 00:32:27 This shouldn't be on a poster. Peter Martin, come for the ballads, stay for the Crescent. You know, you started out curious. Now you're in there. Crescent's your next step. Now you're serious. Serious. Yeah, exactly.
Starting point is 00:32:38 You're converted. Your coal chain converted. So now it's time for Crescent. Great record from 1964. I think probably my top choice for up next would be Nancy Wilson and Cannibal Adderley, especially off of the Johnny Hartman. I think those really pair nicely together.
Starting point is 00:32:50 And then also, Chet Baker sings would be an obvious one. Again, a similar vibe, similar era. What about quibble bits? Peter, anything to quibble with. My only quibble bit is my usual one, the Van Gelder piano sound. I feel like McCoy is scrunched this way, scrunch that way, then triangulate and then put into a little box. Did it. They didn't even have computers to do that back in the day.
Starting point is 00:33:11 They had to do that with microphones. Yeah. But like I mentioned earlier, I do think that because of this idea of, like there's only so much you can fit into the stereo soundscape, right? into the areas that we have coming at us from the speakers. So the piano can take over everything. I think that the drums is a 10 out of 10. I think Johnny Hartman's voice, 10 out of 10.
Starting point is 00:33:34 I think Coltrane's sound on these impulse recordings at Van Gelder Studios is like the perfect sound of, you know, everything, Jimmy Garrison. I think the piano is thin, and I think it's kind of at the expense of everything else being perfect maybe. The thing is I still like we're geeking out. It's not like we're not loving McCoy's playing. Playing is so good.
Starting point is 00:33:51 It didn't ruin his playing. and it's, it sounds good in the mix, actually. Like, when everybody's playing together, when McCoy's comping, it really works. When you played that McCoy solo with the rhythm section, it was nice. It was tasty. I mean, the solo's nice and tasty,
Starting point is 00:34:05 but my heart drops a little bit. It does, because compared to the drums, super weak. Yeah. Yeah. Do you have any quibble bits? I don't. The piano sound is definitely a ditto for me.
Starting point is 00:34:15 But other than that, I really don't have any. All of three of these are near perfect albums. Yeah. Snomometer. Snobometer. How snobity? Snobody is this? I don't think this is very snobby.
Starting point is 00:34:24 In fact, I put a four, and now that I'm thinking it could easily be like a two or a three even. I mean, there's always a snobbiness with anything Coltrane, I think, because it's undeniable. Yeah. I mean, you can never be like, oh, Coltine sucks, man.
Starting point is 00:34:37 Everybody knows Coltrane's good. But I do think that the true jazz snobs are going to feel like these are some of the most commercially viable, most accessible records, which I don't think is a bad thing. I think it's a good thing. I think Coltrane's playing is super, well presented here.
Starting point is 00:34:53 So, I don't know. I almost put lower, so more towards like the accessible meter to, like a two or three. But it is cold trains. You know what it is? It's the truth, like we were talking about. Like, his ability to cut through the truth is uncomfortable sometimes. The truth is not always easy
Starting point is 00:35:09 to take down. Because he has this incredibly honest sound, sometimes it's harder than if it were like, say, someone like Ben Webster or Lester Young, right? That are going to give you a very syrupy, sunny, Collins, like this really beautiful, big sound. Sometimes Coltrane sound.
Starting point is 00:35:26 Coltrane, not beautiful. No, absolutely gorgeous. Got it. The most beautiful. Absolutely gorgeous, the most beautiful, because it's a little bit more on the raw, on a side of things. For sure. For sure.
Starting point is 00:35:36 But wouldn't you say that these records, these three records are some of his most, you know, sonically, like in terms of his sound, because of the material, the way that he plays and wraps himself within this material is some of the most accessible. you know what I mean? Yeah, for sure. It's still direct. It's still train, but it's still some of the easiest to access.
Starting point is 00:35:56 I think it's the most accessible for sure. Is it better than kind of bloom? No, but I mean... I have maybe. Yeah, I see that. I might be equal with it. I mean, I got no problem with shifting this into there in terms of, you know,
Starting point is 00:36:11 Apex Mountain or Desert Island Records. I think these three albums that you picked out, ballads, Duke Ellington, John Coltrane, and... I didn't pick them. They picked me. No, and Johnny Hartman. I think if you would have put,
Starting point is 00:36:22 if they were to come out as one album of like Coltrane plays ballads with these legends, that are the kind of blue. But maybe. So what about just Hartman record? Because that would be seen as the greatest of these three, I think in terms of popularity. Honestly, I think all three are pretty equal.
Starting point is 00:36:37 Yeah. At least in my guys, I think they're all very close. Yeah. And I think when you put them together like you have, it's pretty unstoppable. Yeah. I give it a nine.
Starting point is 00:36:46 I mean, all three covers are great, classic impulse records. there's nothing wrong with them. Impulse killing covers. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it's great. Okay, so like,
Starting point is 00:36:55 that was really fun. That was fun, man. Yeah, hope you guys enjoyed. This is our first, like, breaking into a couple of different records, our own little bespoke curated playlist, if you will.
Starting point is 00:37:05 You've put two horrible words right together, bespoke curated playlist. Yeah, man. So maybe we go out on a ballot? Yeah. How about that? Yeah, that. Yeah, yeah.
Starting point is 00:37:17 You don't know what love is. Yeah. It's a nice one. That's a classic one. Hey, give it up for Bob DeBoo on the bass. Caleb Kirby on the drums. Don't forget about our incredible rhythm section. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:37:25 And leave us to a rating and review. Oh, we'll go back to that. Good to leave us to a little. Gentlemen or ladies' agreement. If you know what that is you want to go back in time. Good job, man. Yeah. See you next time.
Starting point is 00:37:36 Until next time. You'll hear it.

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