Afro Blue Impressions

This double disc, originally released in 1977, was mostly captured at a single November 1963 concert in Berlin; when it was reissued as an expanded 2CD set in 2013, two tracks from an October concert in Stockholm were added. Listening to this back to back with Live at Birdland, recorded a few weeks earlier, makes one wonder whether Coltrane felt more restrained in front of European audiences, or simply didn’t think they’d understand him if he went all the way out. The performances are more disciplined, more focused on thunderous grooves from the rhythm section (pianist McCoy Tyner, bassist Jimmy Garrison, drummer Elvin Jones) than the leader’s explorations. “Chasin’ the Trane,” a 16-minute blowout on 1961’s Live at the Village Vanguard, is disposed with in under six minutes here, while “My Favorite Things” lasts 21. But if this is a “play the hits” set, it’s still brilliant, and serves as a fascinating document of a transitional year in Coltrane’s musical journey. Less than six months after these shows, he’d make two of his greatest studio albums, Crescent and A Love Supreme, before leaping headlong into the spiritually infused free jazz that would occupy his final years.