John Coltrane – Ballads UHQR

The quiet side of a far-reaching musical search

With John Coltrane, the title Ballads can already change an expectation. The saxophonist whose early-sixties music was moving towards increasingly open forms and intense improvisation devotes an entire album to eight standards. Melody, the length of a breath and the significance of a few notes become central concerns. This concentration belongs to his musical search just as much as the extended performances of the same period. Familiar songs give him another setting in which his personality can emerge.

The recordings were made at Rudy Van Gelder’s studio in Englewood Cliffs on three dates: December 21, 1961, and September 18 and November 13, 1962. Bob Thiele produced the sessions, with Van Gelder responsible for recording them. Impulse! released the eight selections in 1963. Their proximity to the Village Vanguard recordings and the collaboration with Duke Ellington shows the range of Coltrane’s projects at the time. Ballads becomes especially rewarding within a collection that allows those different approaches to sit alongside one another.

Gene Lees offers an illuminating account in the original liner notes. He describes musicians arriving with sheet music, discussing the harmonies and recording after a relatively brief preparation. His story concerns an ensemble able to rely on a shared language, rather than months of detailed rehearsal. With well-known standards, that ability matters enormously. A melody arrives with its own history, but the particular encounter between these players happens only in the moment of performance.

One quartet, two bass players

McCoy Tyner on piano and Elvin Jones on drums accompany Coltrane throughout all eight selections. The change at the bass chair can be identified precisely. Reggie Workman plays on “It’s Easy to Remember”, recorded in December 1961. Jimmy Garrison appears on the other seven tracks. Reading the names simply as the familiar personnel of Coltrane’s classic quartet would miss this transition. The album preserves a small but meaningful piece of the group’s developing history.

Tyner’s role offers a particularly rewarding way into the music. Between one saxophone phrase and the next, a piano chord can establish a connection, leave a tension unresolved or give a thought a different emphasis. Bass and drums remain active partners in that process. Jones need not be approached only through his reputation for powerful playing. The interest lies equally in the number of choices available to a drummer within a compact, lyrical setting, and in how those choices relate to the melody.

Coltrane plays tenor saxophone here. Instrument listings for a complete recording session should not automatically be transferred to every album made from it: soprano credits connected with “Greensleeves” concern other material from the early session. Keeping the eight ballads in view avoids confusing the original programme with the numerous later editions containing additional takes. It also keeps the relationship between personnel, recording history and the music itself clear.

Eight songs with histories of their own

“Say It (Over and Over Again)” opens the sequence, followed by “You Don’t Know What Love Is”. Both belong to the wider history of American film and popular song. Their melodies had been associated with voices and lyrics long before Coltrane recorded them. That background still matters in an instrumental performance. A useful listening approach is to follow the saxophone as another way of shaping the thought of a song without actually speaking its words.

“Too Young to Go Steady” and “All or Nothing at All” complete the first half. For the latter, Lees describes a particular rhythmic idea noted by Coltrane and several attempts before the performance was secured. A ballad is not necessarily a simple assignment. The handling of time, the movement between the stated melody and improvisation, and the responses of the accompanying musicians can demand as much concentration within a few minutes as a much longer solo.

“I Wish I Knew” is followed by “What’s New”. The closing pair brings together “It’s Easy to Remember”, from the Rodgers and Hart repertoire, and “Nancy (With the Laughing Face)”, strongly associated with Frank Sinatra. None of the eight pieces is a Coltrane composition. For a collector, that opens an appealing path between different recordings of familiar songs: noticing what Coltrane retains, where he creates room, and how Tyner, Jones and the two bassists help to shape that space.

The UHQR edition across four sides

The edition offered here carries catalogue number AUHQR 0008-45. Analogue Productions presents the stereo album as a 45 RPM UHQR double LP, pressed on 200-gram Clarity Vinyl at Quality Record Pressings. Ryan K. Smith cut the release at Sterling Sound, and the publisher identifies the original tape as its source. These are specifications for this particular reissue, rather than details borrowed from another version of Ballads.

Two selections occupy each side. The original eight-track programme is complete, with no additional session takes. The UHQR was announced as a limited edition of 5,000 copies. Its elaborate packaging includes material explaining the manufacturing process and a twelve-page, LP-sized booklet featuring writing by Ashley Kahn and session photographs by Jim Marshall. The musicians and the circumstances of the recordings receive their own space alongside the records.

For a collection, this edition combines a concise, self-contained musical programme with substantial supporting documentation. At its centre remains the meeting between Coltrane’s tenor, his accompanying musicians and eight songs whose melodies have long lives beyond jazz. The four-side arrangement provides a natural opportunity to pause after a pair of performances, then return attentively to the next small sequence of songs.

You order from Michael 45 in Germany. We arrange the US import and dispatch from Hilden.

Also in another edition: Ballads

More by John Coltrane: Giant Steps · Lush Life

Artist page: All titles by John Coltrane

Customer question: Collecting UHQR records: limited editions of great albums

Series: UHQR – all 31 editions with pressing run and mastering

Musicians

Participants and documented credit status. Track references correspond to the tracklist.

• John Coltranetenor saxophoneParticipation: All album tracks
• McCoy TynerpianoParticipation: All album tracks
• Elvin JonesdrumsParticipation: All album tracks
• Jimmy Garrisondouble bassParticipation: A1, A2, B1, B2, C1, C2, D2
• Reggie Workmandouble bassParticipation: D1

Album credits and track assignments are distinguished.