Ballads
AMG AllMusic Guide: Pop Albums:
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Ballads
- Artist: John Coltrane Quartet
- Rating:
- Release Date: 1962
- Total Time: 31:49
- Type: Instrumental
- Genre: Jazz
Review
Throughout John Coltrane's discography there are a handful of decisive and controversial albums that split his listening camp into factions. Generally, these occur in his later-period works such as Om and Ascension, which push into some pretty heady blowing. As a contrast, Ballads is often criticized as too easy and as too much of a compromise between Coltrane and Impulse! (the two had just entered into the first year of label representation). Seen as an answer to critics who found his work complicated with too many notes and too thin a concept, Ballads has even been accused of being a record that Coltrane didn't want to make. These conspiracy theories (and there are more) really just get in the way of enjoying a perfectly fine album of Coltrane doing what he always did -- exploring new avenues and modes in an inexhaustible search for personal and artistic enlightenment. With Ballads he looks into the warmer side of things, a path he would take with both Johnny Hartman (on John Coltrane & Johnny Hartman) and with Duke Ellington (on Duke Ellington and John Coltrane). Here he lays out for McCoy Tyner mostly, and the results positively shimmer at times. He's not aggressive, and he's not outwardly. Instead he's introspective and at times even predictable, but that is precisely Ballads' draw. ~ Sam Samuelson, Rovi| Ballads (1955 Album by Ben Webster) | |
| Ballads (2006 Album by Enrico Pieranunzi/Marc Johnson/Joey Baron) |
Wikipedia on Answers.com:
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Ballads (John Coltrane album)
| Ballads | ||||
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| Studio album by John Coltrane Quartet | ||||
| Released | 1963 | |||
| Recorded | December 21, 1961; September 18 and November 13, 1962 Van Gelder Studio, Englewood Cliffs |
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| Genre | Jazz | |||
| Length | 32:18 | |||
| Label | Impulse! A-32 |
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| Producer | Bob Thiele | |||
| John Coltrane Quartet chronology | ||||
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| Professional ratings | |
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| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| Allmusic |   [1] |
Ballads is a jazz album by the John Coltrane Quartet. It was recorded in December 1961 and 1962, and released on the Impulse! label in 1963 as A-32 and later AS-32 (the "s" is for "stereo"). Critic Gene Lees stated that the quartet had never played the tunes before. "They arrived with music-store sheet music of the songs" and just before the recordings, they "would discuss each tune, write-out copies of the changes they'd use, semi-rehearse for a half hour and then do it". All the pieces were recorded in one take, except for "All or Nothing at All".[2]
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Contents
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Track listing
- "Say It (Over and Over Again)" (Jimmy McHugh) – 4:18
- Frank Loesser wrote lyrics for this song, but this recording is instrumental.
- "You Don't Know What Love Is" (Gene DePaul) – 5:15
- Don Raye wrote lyrics for this song, but this recording is instrumental.
- "Too Young to Go Steady" (Jimmy McHugh) – 4:23
- Harold Adamson wrote lyrics for this song, but this recording is instrumental.
- "All or Nothing at All" (Arthur Altman) – 3:39
- Jack Lawrence wrote lyrics for this song, but this recording is instrumental.
- "I Wish I Knew" (Harry Warren) – 4:54
- Mack Gordon wrote lyrics for this song, but this recording is instrumental.
- "What's New?" (Bob Haggart) – 3:47
- Johnny Burke wrote lyrics for this song, but this recording is instrumental.
- "It's Easy to Remember" (Richard Rodgers) – 2:49
- Lorenz Hart wrote lyrics for this song, but this recording is instrumental.
- "Nancy (With the Laughing Face)" (Jimmy Van Heusen) – 3:10
- Phil Silvers wrote lyrics for this song, but this recording is instrumental.
Personnel
- John Coltrane – tenor saxophone, soprano saxophone
- McCoy Tyner – piano
- Jimmy Garrison (#1-6, 8), Reggie Workman (#7) – bass
- Elvin Jones – drums
Additional personnel
- Rudy Van Gelder – recording engineer
- Jim Marshall – photography
References
- ^ Allmusic review
- ^ Original liner notes by Gene Lees
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