Ballads (John Coltrane album)

Ballads
Studio album by John Coltrane
Released	January 1963 (1963-01) [1] [2]
Recorded	December 21, 1961; September 18 and November 13, 1962
Studio	Van Gelder (Englewood Cliffs)
Genre	Jazz
Length	32:18
Label	Impulse! A-32
Producer	Bob Thiele
John Coltrane chronology
Duke Ellington & John Coltrane (1963) Ballads (1963) Kenny Burrell & John Coltrane (1963)

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[3]
DownBeat (Original Lp release)	[4]
The Encyclopedia of Popular Music	[5]
New Record Mirror	[6]
The Penguin Guide to Jazz	[7]
The Rolling Stone Jazz Record Guide	[8]

Ballads is a jazz album by John Coltrane released in January 1963 by Impulse! Records. ^{[1] [2]} It was recorded in December 1961 and 1962, and released with catalogue number A-32 (mono) and AS-32 (stereo). Critic Gene Lees stated that the quartet had never played the tunes before. "They arrived with music-store sheet music of the songs" and just before the recordings, they "would discuss each tune, write out copies of the changes they'd use, semi-rehearse for a half hour and then do it". Each piece was recorded in one take, except for "All or Nothing at All". ^[9] In 2008, the album was a recipient of the Grammy Hall of Fame award. ^[10]

Track listing

Original

1. "Say It (Over and Over Again)" (Jimmy McHugh)– 4:18
2. "You Don't Know What Love Is" (Gene DePaul)– 5:15
3. "Too Young to Go Steady" (Jimmy McHugh)– 4:23
4. "All or Nothing at All" (Arthur Altman)– 3:39
5. "I Wish I Knew" (Harry Warren)– 4:54
6. "What's New?" (Bob Haggart)– 3:47
7. "It's Easy to Remember" (Richard Rodgers)– 2:49
8. "Nancy (With the Laughing Face)" (Jimmy Van Heusen)– 3:10

2002 deluxe edition

Disc two

1. "They Say It's Wonderful"
2. "All or Nothing at All" - Alternate take
3. "Greensleeves" - Alternate take
4. "Greensleeves" - Alternate take
5. "Greensleeves" - Alternate take
6. "Greensleeves" - Master take
7. "Greensleeves" - Alternate take
8. "It's Easy to Remember" - Alternate take
9. "It's Easy to Remember" - Alternate take
10. "It's Easy to Remember" - Alternate take
11. "It's Easy to Remember" - Alternate take
12. "It's Easy to Remember" - Alternate take
13. "It's Easy to Remember" - Alternate take
14. "It's Easy to Remember" - Alternate take

Personnel

• John Coltrane  – tenor saxophone
• McCoy Tyner  – piano
• Jimmy Garrison (#1–6, 8), Reggie Workman (#7; Disc 2, #3–14) – bass
• Elvin Jones  – drums

Production

• Rudy Van Gelder  – recording engineer
• Jim Marshall  – photography

References

1. DeVito, Chris; Fujioka, Yasuhiro; Schmaler, Wolf; Wild, David (2013). Porter, Lewis (ed.). The John Coltrane Reference. New York/Abingdon: Routledge. p. 658. ISBN   9780415634632 . Retrieved January 2, 2020.
2. "13 ABC, 7 Impulse LPs Bow At N.Y. Distrib Meet" (PDF). Cash Box . New York: The Cash Box Publishing Co. January 5, 1963. Retrieved May 3, 2020.
3. AllMusic review
4. Down Beat: March 28, 1963 vol. 30, no. 8
5. Larkin, Colin (2007). The Encyclopedia of Popular Music (4th ed.). Oxford University Press. ISBN   978-0195313734.
6. Watson, Jimmy (July 13, 1963). "John Coltrane Quartet: Ballads" (PDF). New Record Mirror . No. 122. p. 10. Archived from the original (PDF) on April 1, 2022. Retrieved August 6, 2022.
7. Cook, Richard; Morton, Brian (2008). The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings (9th ed.). Penguin. p. 288. ISBN   978-0-141-03401-0.
8. Swenson, J., ed. (1985). The Rolling Stone Jazz Record Guide. USA: Random House/Rolling Stone. p. 46. ISBN   0-394-72643-X.
9. Original liner notes by Gene Lees
10. Grammy Hall of Fame website Archived February 19, 2011, at the Wayback Machine , retrieved 9 November 2013.