Interjection Used To Stir Up Excitement

1961 was a bit of quiet year for John Coltrane, he only released 5 LPs. This one, Olé Coltrane, was recorded 48 hours after the recording sessions for Africa/Brass were completed*.

It is probable that Coltrane was steered towards Spanish music by Miles’ Sketches Of Spain in 1960, but his take on it is so characteristically unique that a couple of modal similarities aside there is almost no comparison. Davis’ Spain is a land of detached, exquisite, meditative, Coltrane’s Spain swirls to a Moorish beat in the heat.

The title track takes up the first side of Olé and I wish it could be longer. Right from the first restive notes of the twin bass players Reggie Workman and Art Davis this music just drives forwards, I love the way that the understated piano work by McCoy Tyner is as purely rhythmic as Elvin Jones’ drumming. There is such an earthy, corporeal feel to the tune, a north African/Moorish sensibility to the rhythms.

Over the solid beat, Coltrane’s soprano sax and George Lane’s flute snake and writhe, twisting dervishes both, taking your attention away on flights and cascades of fantasy. Later Freddie Hubbard’s trumpet somehow manages to play both the rhythm and the melodic curlicues simultaneously. It is absolutely majestic.

‘Olé’ reaches a pinnacle about 3 minutes out from the end and coasts in like an athlete on a lap of honour for the remainder. It is a special, special track.

Olé: an interjection used to stir up excitement

Websters Dictionary

When I first played Olé I preferred the second track ‘Dahomey Dance’ to the title track, possibly because of the walking bass motif that I like so much and the fact that Coltrane and Lane switch to tenor and alto sax respectively, bringing the tone of the piece downwards. Tonight I find it a little frantic** and in my grill, the harmonious intro being the standout part for me. It is interesting in that I can hear a link, possibly in the way the piano is being used, to Coltrane’s earlier work with Miles.

McCoy Tyner’s composition ‘Aisha’ brings the curtain down on Olé in a sultry fashion. It is a beautiful ballad, the music spacious and graceful proof alone that Elvin Jones was a wonderful brush player and not just a blacksmith behind the kit. It immediately conjures all those ancient movie clichés of fedoras and regrets, cigarettes and cirrhosis, red heads and tear tracks. Tyner’s own playing is sublime and fulsome too.

---

Olé is very much a lesser known LP compared to the likes of Blue Train and the epoch-shattering works that came later, it doesn’t deserve to be. Olé is the sound of a brilliant set of musicians coalescing around some great compositions and extemporising sublimely from them at times. It also forms an interesting link between Trane’s more conventional past and his untethered future.

Dig it.

---

My copy of Olé was issued by DOL, by reputation a grey area record company at best. I have to report it is an excellent pressing and is definitely good value for money.

1123 Down

PS. Because:

*okay so the figures are not quite what they seem, the tally of 5 LPs include two assembled from disused tracks after his contract with Prestige Records expired. It is still an astonishing body of work, especially when you factor in the fact this includes the mighty Giant Steps and My Favourite Things; not to mention his work with Miles Davis on, 1537 fave, Someday My Prince Will Come. Here endeth the footnote and not beforeth time.

**probably a post-50 thing. Roger Whittaker, here I come.