Evenings At The Village Gate: John Coltrane with Eric Dolphy

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Tyner, who had been playing with Coltrane for about a year when this was recorded, was well into his powerful unifying role between saxophone and drummer, aware (finally) that he had to compete with Jones’ volume to be heard, yet retain a coherence and identity of his own. Pitchfork may earn a portion of sales from products that are purchased through our site as part of our Affiliate Partnerships with retailers. You can change your choices at any time by visiting Cookie preferences, as described in the Cookie notice. Coltrane’s road to the avant-garde was built from his ability to compose, arrange, and imagine new roles for diverse instruments on his bandstands. Four years had passed since Coltrane quit heroin and resolved to become a “preacher” on his instrument, and now he eschewed the bohemian archness of giants like Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie to propound an earnest, devotional relationship with his art.

His solos and ‘Impressions’ and ‘Favorite Things’ underlinine what an important component of Coltrane’s quartet/quintet he was becoming.Chris Pearson of The Times rated this release 4 out of 5 stars, writing that Coltrane and Dolphy were at artistic heights, but criticizes Reggie Workman's solo in "Africa". However, back in 1961 the duo’s elemental, modal playing was regarded by some as a step into nihilism and anarchy, an “anti-jazz”, in the contemporary words of Downbeat magazine’s Leonard Feather.

Andrew Male of Mojo gave this release 4 out of 5 stars, praising several tracks, including the concluding recording of "Africa" as being like a "historic moment", and also notes the extensive liner notes from Ashley Kahn.

Seminal Never-Before-Heard 1961 Recordings Released On 'Evenings at the Village Gate: John Coltrane with Eric Dolphy' ".

In addition to some well-known Coltrane material (“My Favorite Things”, “Impressions”, “Greensleeves”), there is a breathtaking feature for Dolphy’s bass clarinet on “When Lights Are Low” and the only known non-studio recording of Coltrane’s composition “Africa”, from the Africa/Brass album.His experimentation signaled something both impractical and studied, a breakdown of big-band largesse into the endless permutations that opened to jazz musicians as ’50s conventions fractured into parallel universes of sound. Compared to “My Favourite Things”, the less familiar “When the Lights Are Low” seems almost ordinary, but it contains some beautiful playing, including a superlative solo by Tyner. In Ashley Kahn’s exemplary linernotes to this release, which are accompanied by the memories of Workman and Alderson, he places great importance on that Downbeat article, particularly Dolphy and Coltrane’s answers to the repeated question: “What are you trying to do? Then, in April, the then 36-year-old saxophonist became the first artist signed to Creed Taylor’s new Impulse!