Evenings at the Village Gate: John Coltrane with Eric Dolphy cover

Evenings at the Village Gate: John Coltrane with Eric Dolphy

Recorded
Released

From August 8 to September 3, 1961, John Coltrane had a residency going at the Village Gate, a club in lower Manhattan. It’s not known which nights these tapes were made, but the band includes Eric Dolphy on alto sax, bass clarinet, and flute; McCoy Tyner on piano; Reggie Workman on bass; and Elvin Jones on drums, plus second bassist Art Davis on an epic version of “Africa,” the only known live recording of the opening track from 1962’s Africa/Brass. The music was recorded with a single microphone hanging from the club’s ceiling, running to a tape deck backstage, so you get a kind of ambient, holistic sound that tends to prioritize the horns and the drums. Tyner’s piano is very quiet in the mix, and Workman’s audible but often more of a low bounce than the force he could be. On “Africa,” though, he and Davis get some dual spotlight time that’s extraordinarily beautiful, and the way Coltrane and Dolphy play as a duo, each man spurring the other on, is phenomenal.

Phil Freeman

Suggestions
Sound cover

Sound

Roscoe Mitchell Sextet
Nunatak cover

Nunatak

Thomas Köner
Unit Structures cover

Unit Structures

Cecil Taylor
Treasure Island cover

Treasure Island

Keith Jarrett
Mama Too Tight cover

Mama Too Tight

Archie Shepp
Audentity cover

Audentity

Klaus Schulze
Jazz Moods cover

Jazz Moods

Yusef Lateef
Science Fiction cover

Science Fiction

Ornette Coleman
What You Can Throw cover

What You Can Throw

Steven Lantner
Live at the East cover

Live at the East

Pharoah Sanders