John Coltrane

First Meditations (For Quartet)

★★★★½

Is it fair that I'm giving both this version and the original release the same rating? Probably not but I'm so split on it, that I think it's not really easy or even possible to compare the two. This is the recording without Pharaoh Sanders, so it loses some of its edge and inaccessibility. And even looking at this cheesy, definitely 70's album cover, you can tell it's not going to be the roaring thunderstorm that Meditations is. 

Not to say it's not as beautiful, in fact in a very straightforward manner it seems a lot more beautiful. I find the beauty and soul of these two recordings to be equal but here it seems a lot more fluid. Like it's constantly pouring out of his inner-self, and while this may not be as religious or spiritual as his seminal album A Love Supreme, there's a lot of similarities. But when relating it to the original release with Pharaoh Sanders, there's not much you can piece together from the same compositions. There's a different head-space here.

Starting off with "Love" you can tell that Coltrane is at his most lyrical, it's like a poem is being read to you. An improvised poem that meanders but always returns to the same conclusion and it's full of warmth. McCoy Tyner pursues this idea similarly while Elvin Jones and Jimmy Garrison go off on a different tangent; relying on percussion and confidence. This theme is carried on every song this album, perhaps getting a little more extreme at points; such as on the song "Joy". 

Coltrane's quartet was amazing, definitively helped push forward post bop and spirituality in jazz unlike anything before. And while this may not be as unpredictable or a pure example of entropy, it's shimmering in a beauty that is not exactly clean cut around the corners. Like the mystery that water is, how it works and its unique properties; that's this album in Coltrane's discography. 

Favorite Song: Joy