News

2018 has already seen the announcement of never-before-heard recordings by the late legends Prince and Bobby Darin.  Now, a third artist joins that elite club with Impulse! Records’ discovery of a lost 1963 album from The John Coltrane Quartet.  Saxophone titan Coltrane was joined by Jimmy Garrison on double bass, Elvin Jones on drums, and McCoy Tyner on piano – the same group behind the monumental A Love Supreme and other Coltrane classics – for a March 6, 1963 session that will see release on June 29 as Both Directions at Once: The Lost Album.  This historic collection will arrive in 1-CD, 2-CD, 1-LP, 2-LP, and digital configurations.

The master tape for the session at Rudy Van Gelder’s New Jersey studio on that spring day had long been presumed lost.  But it turns out that Coltrane gave his own tape of the session to his wife Naima, whom he divorced in 1966.  However, the tape stayed in her family’s possession as the decades passed, and now it has been acquired by Coltrane’s label at the time, Impulse!, for this release.  Sonny Rollins, a contemporary of Coltrane’s and an all-time great himself, noted in the press release that the album was “like finding a new room in the Great Pyramid.”

Both Directions at Once refers to the crossroads at which Coltrane found himself during this time.  He hadn’t yet moved into the realm of “free jazz” but was clearly on the road to the experimental, spiritually-driven likes of Ascension; yet Ballads (recorded with this same group and released in 1963) showed the artist at his most accessible and melodic.  In the liner notes, Wayne Shorter also notes that the title came from a tip Coltrane gave him “about starting a sentence in the middle, and then going to the beginning and end of it at the same time.”

The album boasts seven tracks including versions of “Impressions” and “Villa,” and two untitled compositions (“Untitled Original 11383” and “Untitled Original 11386”) played on soprano saxophone.  A live version of “One Up, One Down” from Birdland has circulated among collectors, but this studio version will be new to all listeners.  Both Directions at Once premieres his first recording of Nat “King” Cole’s “Nature Boy,” heard in a straightforward three-minute take without solos.  That Coltrane was still in thrall to melody despite his desire to push jazz forward is evident; the very next day (March 7, 1963), he recorded the classic John Coltrane and Johnny Hartman for Impulse!.  When he re-cut “Nature Boy” in 1965, it was in a much freer style.

Both Directions at Once will be available in a standard 1-CD or 1-LP edition with the album’s intended seven songs.  A deluxe 2-CD or 2-LP edition adds seven additional alternate takes.  Both iterations will be available on all digital services.

One of the year’s major musical discoveries, Both Directions at Once: The Lost Album will arrive on June 29 from Impulse! and UMe.  Look for it at the links below!

The John Coltrane Quartet, Both Directions at Once: The Lost Album (Standard Edition) (Impulse!/UMe, 2018)

1-CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada
1-LP: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada

CD/LP

1. Untitled Original 11383 (Take 1)
2. Nature Boy
3. Untitled Original 11386 (Take 1)
4. Villa (Take 3)
5. Impressions (Take 3)
6. Slow Blues
7. One Up, One Down (Take 1)

The John Coltrane Quartet, Both Directions at Once: The Lost Album (Deluxe Edition) (Impulse!/UMe, 2018)

2-CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada
2-LP: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada

CD 1/LP 1

1. Untitled Original 11383 (Take 1)
2. Nature Boy
3. Untitled Original 11386 (Take 1)
4. Villa (Take 3)
5. Impressions (Take 3)
6. Slow Blues
7. One Up, One Down (Take 1)

CD 2/LP 2

1. Villa (Take 5)
2. Impressions (Take 1)
3. Impressions (Take 2)
4. Impressions (Take 4)
5. Untitled Original 11386 (Take 2)
6. Untitled Original 11386 (Take 5)
7. One Up, One Down (Take 6)