JOHN COLTRANE w/ DUKE ELLINGTON, “TAKE THE COLTRANE”
Friday, March 4th, 2011
This solo by Coltrane is from the classic Impulse recording DUKE ELLINGTON AND JOHN COLTRANE, featuring the bulk of Trane’s best known quartet with Ellington in on piano for McCoy Tyner, Jimmy Garrison on bass and Elvin Jones on the set for half of the record. “Take The Coltrane”, a blues in F, serves as a nice vehicle for Trane’s hard driving lines. all in all, his playing is pretty “in”: his lines are by and large made up of eighth notes, he only occasionally utilizes chord substitutions and is very spare in employing more advanced saxophone techniques like false fingerings or altissimo play (which made this solo relatively easy to transcribe)… Eleven choruses of Grade A, nutrient- rich Trane (with Ellington doing his best Tyner impersonation, laying out while Trane does his thing)…
