Live in Seattle

In late September and early October 1965, John Coltrane played at the Penthouse in Seattle, Washington. He paid out of his own pocket to have the September 30 performances recorded, and in 1971 Impulse! released a double LP, which was later expanded to a two-CD set. The group consisted of Pharoah Sanders on second tenor saxophone, McCoy Tyner on piano, Jimmy Garrison on bass, and Elvin Jones on drums, plus a guest: Donald Garrett on bass and possibly clarinet. The music, as with all the live recordings from the final two years of Coltrane’s life, is often relentless, high-energy and raucous, and the interaction between Coltrane and Sanders in particular is either going to set your heart racing at double time or send you right out of the room. But if you can make it through the first eight minutes or so of the opening “Cosmos,” there are moments of extraordinary beauty to be heard, too, like the band’s shimmering take on the standard “Body and Soul,” which really lets McCoy Tyner in particular do his thing.