Trane Tracks - The Legacy Of John Coltrane [DVD]

A 50 minute film “Lift the Bandstand” from 1985 which combines an interview with Lacy, a short set by his then sextet and some archive footage of musicians he references in the interview.The main parts of the programme are in colour with all the archive clips in black and white; the picture quality is rather poor, looking like a transfer direct from video, but the sound is acceptable enough.As a fan of Lacy, I was happy to get this – there are more recent video clips available on YouTube of Lacy (who died in 2004) but this is still a useful visual document of a modern jazz master who took the soprano sax into the modern era and influenced so many musicians.

It's a strange lineage the soprano saxophone's players have come from: Sidney Bechet's garrulous swing, Steve Lacy's cryptic freebop, Coltrane's transmontane proclamations, Evan Parker's superhuman essays in musical gridlock, and the apotheosis of the soprano sax in Kenny G.'s "Songbird." One feels nostalgic for Lacy's Paris sextet of the 1980s, one of those absolutely perfect, long-running small groups devoted to their leaders' music (Monk's quartet, Coltrane's quartet, and Dave Holland's quintet also come to mind).The sound and image quality in this film are no better than they have to be, which spoils two excellent band performances of "Prospectus" and "Gay Paree Bop" and gives a grainy, washed-out quality to the entire film. What we get, though, is Lacy's fascinating story about the birth of the modern jazz soprano, an instrument he rescued from oblivion in 1950. His journey through Dixieland, Cecil Taylor, Gil Evans, and Thelonious Monk (whose "Let's lift the bandstand" is one of the gnomic Monkisms that Lacy came to live by) climaxes in 1960, the year John Coltrane became the only other soprano player in the world of modern jazz. Coltrane changed the course of jazz history; Lacy had to move to Europe to survive as a musician."The soprano is like a wild horse," Lacy reminds us. "Very hard to tame." Besides this invaluable interview, there's rare footage of the Gil Evans Orchestra during the MILES AHEAD sessions, Monk's quartet playing "Criss Cross," and Coltrane's quartet playing "Afro Blue."

This DVD is essential viewing for all lovers of John Coltrane.Whilst 75 minutes can't cover the great man's life in detail it gives a good outline from his early days with Dizzie Gillespie's band through to his tragic and premature death.Quite a bit of the DVD is made up of live footage and some of it is priceless.You can see Coltrane and Eric Dolphy performing "Impressions" live with Dolphy on alto.You can see them again with "My Favourite Things" this time with Dolphy taking one of those beautiful flute solos of his.There is also an altogether different version of "My Favourite things" with Coltrane unleashing an absolute torrent of improvised sound on the soprano making it quite unlike any other version you would have heard.The only slight negatives are that some of the picture and sound quality of the old black and white film is not quite up to scratch but let's face it - any live footage of John Coltrane is precious as there is so little avaliable.A fantastic DVD - the 75 minute running time just flashed by - i couldn't recommend it more to Coltrane fans and jazz fans alike.

parce que ce dvd est, sous un autre nom, le film déjà ancien consacré à Steve Lacy et titré: "Lift the Bandstand"Ceci dit, il est excellent, montre les facettes de S.L. et, bon, pour le (petit) prix…

It's a strange lineage the soprano saxophone's players have come from: Sidney Bechet's garrulous swing, Steve Lacy's cryptic freebop, Coltrane's transmontane proclamations, Evan Parker's superhuman essays in musical gridlock, and the apotheosis of the soprano sax in Kenny G.'s "Songbird." One feels nostalgic for Lacy's Paris sextet of the 1980s, one of those absolutely perfect, long-running small groups devoted to their leaders' music (Monk's quartet, Coltrane's quartet, and Dave Holland's quintet also come to mind).The sound and image quality in this film are no better than they have to be, which spoils two excellent band performances of "Prospectus" and "Gay Paree Bop" and gives a grainy, washed-out quality to the entire film. What we get, though, is Lacy's fascinating story about the birth of the modern jazz soprano, an instrument he rescued from oblivion in 1950. His journey through Dixieland, Cecil Taylor, Gil Evans, and Thelonious Monk (whose "Let's lift the bandstand" is one of the gnomic Monkisms that Lacy came to live by) climaxes in 1960, the year John Coltrane became the only other soprano player in the world of modern jazz. Coltrane changed the course of jazz history; Lacy had to move to Europe to survive as a musician."The soprano is like a wild horse," Lacy reminds us. "Very hard to tame." Besides this invaluable interview, there's rare footage of the Gil Evans Orchestra during the MILES AHEAD sessions, Monk's quartet playing "Criss Cross," and Coltrane's quartet playing "Afro Blue."

If you are Coltrane's fan, grab it while it's still available.For me two tracks with Eric Dolphy ("Impressions" and "My Favorite Things")are worth more than the price tag :-) BTW, those two tracks, I've never seenanywhere else, looked like was recorded in studio. The picture quality ispretty good. The performance is super. Highest recommendation.

This is the same DVD as the previously issued "Lift The Bandstand." That said, it's the best video documentary to date of Steve Lacy's incredibly unique sextet.