New Releases
Bonnie Raitt & Friends
Bonnie Raitt
Gigantour DVD Featuring Megadeath
Various Artists
Sweet Warrior
Richard Thompson
So Real: Songs From Jeff Buckley
Jeff Buckley
A Tribute to Joni Mitchell
Joni Mitchell
Memory Almost Full
Paul McCartney
NOW That's What I Call Music! Vol. 25
Various Artists
KISSology: Volume Two 1978-1991
Greatest Hits
Sly and The Family Stone
The Very Best of Mick Jagger
Mick Jagger
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John Coltrane
Interplay, Prestige Records' new 5-CD set, containing early collaborative recordings of the peerless tenor saxophonist and visionary John Coltrane serves two distinct purposes. The first is to offer an extraordinary collection of music that provides an excellent overview of the modern jazz scene during the fertile 1956-1958 period. The other – and arguably more important purpose to the legions of Coltrane faithful – is its rich delineation of the evolutionary process behind one of the most profoundly important and emotionally compelling artists this planet has ever seen.
With all great musicians, the message is fully contained in the music, and the message of John Coltrane is one of powerful humanism, deep spirituality, unflinching emotion, relentless searching and supreme love. Interplay offers a most revealing roadmap to the early days of discovery in his unparalleled quest. One can misinterpret the astonishing focus and commitment that Coltrane had as being singular or even self-absorbed; but that is totally off-base. Coltrane was incredibly multi-faceted, a man of many interests in the pursuit of knowledge – both subjective and objective – who absorbed everything in his vision. In these recordings, surrounded by many of the finest musicians of the era, the listener can actually experience directly how Trane responds to his colleagues, transforming his own musical concepts to perfectly contribute to each environment in which he finds himself.
Interplay is comprised of seven complete albums and three tracks from two others. All but one of the recording sessions took place between September of 1956 and September of 1957; the final one in March of 1958. In the prevalent style of this period, the sessions all contain a certain jam session context; and in fact, five of the albums were released without any specified leader – Tenor Conclave, Interplay for 2 Trumpets and 2 Tenors, The Cats, Wheelin' & Dealin' and Modern Jazz Survey 2 (reissued as Dakar under Coltrane's name). The other two were entitled Cattin' with Coltrane, and Quinichette.

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