Dear Old Stockholm
This CD pairs two unusual Coltrane sessions made whenElvin Joneswas absent from the saxophonist's quartet. His replacement on both occasions was the estimableRoy Haynes. A superb drummer who had worked regularly in the preceding years withCharlie Parker,Bud Powell, andThelonious Monk, Haynes brought his own distinctive touch to the quartet's chemistry, an almost lacy dance around the beat and a lighter touch than Jones's powerful polyrhythms. The 1963 session produced "After the Rain," one of Coltrane's most majestic invocations, and "Dear Old Stockholm," the folk tune first recorded byStan Getz. Here it receives an extended exploration of its minor mode, capped by a beautiful Coltrane cadenza. The 1965 session finds Coltrane in one of his most tumultuous periods, bringing singular intensity and convoluted invention to "After the Crescent" and "One Down, One Up," and meditative depth to "Dear Lord." --Stuart Broomer