Live at Birdland

Arriving in record racks just a year before the epochal shift of ‘A Love Supreme’, ‘Live At Birdland’ anticipates the period of stunning artistic development John Coltrane was experiencing in his final years recording for Impulse! Contrary to its title, the album offers three live recordings from the stage of midtown Manhattan’s Birdland jazz club on October 8, 1963 alongside two studio recordings made at Rudy Van Gelder’s Englewood Cliffs studio the following month-all featuring Coltrane with his legendary quartet of pianist McCoy Tyner, bassist Jimmy Garrison, and drummer Elvin Jones. Highlights include the original ‘Alabama’, written in response to the 1963 Birmingham church bombing, and a live read of Mongo Santamaria’s ‘Afro Blue’ with Coltrane offering a commanding lead on soprano saxophone. Verve Acoustic Sounds Series titles are mastered from the original analog tapes by Matthew Lutthans, pressed on 180-gram vinyl at Quality Record Press