Touchin' on Trane | ||||
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Live album by | ||||
Released | 1993 | |||
Recorded | October 31 and November 1, 1991 | |||
Venue | Haus der Jungen Talente in Berlin, Germany | |||
Genre | Free jazz | |||
Length | 66:46 | |||
Label | FMP | |||
Producer | Jost Gebers | |||
Charles Gayle chronology | ||||
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By Any Means chronology | ||||
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Touchin' on Trane is a live album by American jazz saxophonist Charles Gayle, bassist William Parker, and percussionist Rashied Ali, featuring performances inspired by John Coltrane which were recorded in Germany in 1991 for the FMP label. [1]
When on tour, the trio was billed under the name By Any Means; however, the album was released using the musicians' individual names for contractual reasons. [2] The group would not release another recording until Live at Crescendo , issued by Ayler Records in 2008. [3]
Review scores | |
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Source | Rating |
AllMusic | [4] |
Penguin Guide to Jazz | 👑 [5] |
The Encyclopedia of Popular Music | [6] |
All About Jazz | [7] |
The AllMusic review by Brian Flota awarded the album five stars out of five, stating "This is Charles Gayle's most accessible work. Gayle's mastery of free jazz is blended with a more traditional compositional style of jazz on this disc... Gayle, bassist William Parker, and Ali don't copy Coltrane, but rather expand on his accomplishments. Without covering any songs, Touchin' on Trane is the greatest John Coltrane tribute album". [4]
The authors of The Penguin Guide to Jazz called the album an "outright masterpiece" that "seems likely to be a central document in the free music of the decade," and identified it as part of their suggested "Core Collection" of essential jazz albums, awarding it a "Crown", signifying a recording that the authors "feel a special admiration or affection for". [5] [8]
Francis Lo Kee of All About Jazz called the album "one of the strongest of the '90s," and noted that Gayle "plays with the conviction and strength of a Coltrane or Rollins in their twenties and thirties." [7]
Writing for Burning Ambulance, Phil Freeman commented: "What separates Touchin' On Trane from the pack is the mastery of the three players involved, and their ability to be taken out of themselves by the opportunity to work with the others... each man plays at the highest possible level, driving the others forward even as he reaches deep within himself to bring out something ineffable and awesome." [9]
The authors of Jazz: The Rough Guide described the album as "Gayle at his best," and wrote: "the feel is more relaxed, less constantly aggressive than Gayle can be. He has too often recorded with musicians of far lower calibre than he, but Gayle is in good company with this rhythm team." [10]
Author Ajay Heble remarked: "This is, to my mind, communal music making of the highest possible order... [Gayle's] widely varying timbres and non-tempered sounds... are a perfect match for... the formidable textural inventiveness and extended techniques" of Parker and "the liberating rhythmic drive" of Ali. [11]
All compositions by Charles Gayle. William Parker & Rashied Ali
William Parker is an American free jazz double bassist. Beginning in the 1980s, Parker played with Cecil Taylor for over a decade, and he has led the Little Huey Creative Music Orchestra since 1981. The Village Voice named him "the most consistently brilliant free jazz bassist of all time" and DownBeat has called him "one of the most adventurous and prolific bandleaders in jazz".
Rashied Ali, born Robert Patterson was an American free jazz and avant-garde drummer who was best known for performing with John Coltrane in the last years of Coltrane's life.
Charles Gayle was an American free jazz musician. Initially known as a saxophonist who came to prominence in the 1990s after decades of obscurity, Gayle also performed as pianist, bass clarinetist, bassist, and percussionist.
A Monastic Trio is the first solo album by Alice Coltrane. It was recorded in 1968 at the John Coltrane Home in Dix Hills, New York, and was released later that year by Impulse! Records. On the album, Coltrane appears on piano and harp, and is joined by saxophonist Pharoah Sanders, bassist Jimmy Garrison, and drummer Rashied Ali, all of whom were members of John Coltrane's last quintet. Drummer Ben Riley also appears on one track. The album was reissued on CD in 1998 with three additional tracks, one of which is a piano solo recorded in 1967.
Stellar Regions is a posthumous release by John Coltrane, drawn largely from tapes discovered in 1994 by the artist's wife, Alice Coltrane, who plays the piano on the session. Alice Coltrane is also responsible for the titles of the eight numbers featured on the album.
Interstellar Space is a studio album by American jazz saxophonist John Coltrane, featuring drummer Rashied Ali. It was recorded in 1967, the year of his death, and released by Impulse! Records in September 1974.
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Meditations is a 1966 album by John Coltrane. The album was considered the "spiritual follow-up to A Love Supreme." It features Coltrane and Pharoah Sanders as soloists, both playing tenor saxophones. This was the last Coltrane recording to feature his classic quartet lineup of himself, bassist Jimmy Garrison, drummer Elvin Jones and pianist McCoy Tyner, as both Jones and Tyner would quit the band by early 1966. Sanders, Ali, Garrison and Coltrane's wife Alice would comprise his next group.
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Offering: Live at Temple University is a live album by John Coltrane recorded in 1966 and released posthumously by Resonance Records on September 23, 2014, Coltrane's 88th birthday. The album won the Grammy Award for Best Album Notes and was well-received by critics. Proceeds from the album benefit the John Coltrane Home.
Songlines is an album by saxophonist Peter Brötzmann, bassist Fred Hopkins, and drummer Rashied Ali. It was recorded on October 30 and 31, 1991, in Berlin, and was released in 1994 by FMP.
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The Dynamic Duo Remember Trane and Bird is a double-CD live album by drummer Rashied Ali and multi-instrumentalist Arthur Rhames. It was recorded on August 29, 1981, at the Willisau Jazz Festival in Willisau, Switzerland, and was released in 2004 by Ayler Records. Rhames, who is heard on tenor saxophone and piano, appeared on only a handful of albums during his career, and died in 1989 at the age of 32.
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