Customer Reviews
Great album, not so great edition - By: A. Craig, 12 Jan 2008 
Musically, this is one of my favourite John Coltrane albums. McCoy Tyner's piano style is transposed to the big band arrangements, making it sound simultaneously familiar & different to all of Coltrane's work up to that point, & I'm always a fan of the music Coltrane made when he teamed up with Eric Dolphy. My five stars go to the music itself, as released at the time.
However, this is one of those annoying reissues that doesn't actually have the original album as people knew & loved at the time. The tracks are spread across two discs, interspersed with alternative takes & bonus tracks which, while interesting to Coltrane fans, aren't the main attraction. If the alternative takes were isolated to the second disc, keeping the original tracklisting intact on disc one (as with certain other reissues such as "Coltrane" or "Ballads"), it would be a much stronger release. Luckily I was able to sequence the original album on a CDR by myself, & have since put this release into storage.
Unique Coltrane recordings - By: John Brown, 09 Aug 2007 Never mentionedin the same breath as Giant Steps or A Love Supreme, or even Blue Train, the Africa/Brass sessions come together to rank as some of John Coltrane's most underrated recordings. Obviously the reason it has not got as much attention as the first two albums I mentioned is that it can not be considered as one of his ground-breaking records. Nevertheless, it acts as a fine bridge between Coltrane's middle period (Blue Train, Giants Steps etc.) & his later period (A Love Supreme, Sun Ship etc.). While his playing is by no means mainstream, it is still very listenable to those who find his post A Love Supreme work a step too far.
The material is greatly varied containing hard driving swing (Song of the Underground railroad & Blues Minor), a waltz (Greensleeves) & one of Coltrane's first experiments into dispensing a western time signature &in its place using a drone (Africa). The remaining track, The Damned Don't Cry, features a 12/8 head with a medium blues solo section.
Greensleeves is strikingly similar to My Favourite Things, & features Coltrane on soprano sax with a superb, if slightly haunting orchestral accompaniment. Next up is Song of the Underground railroad which is a frantically fast swing number which features Coltrane ripping through the changes as only he could. It is arguably the highlight of the album, & yet it is a wonder why the track is still relatively unknown all these years later. The Damned Don't Cry features a comparitively mediocore solo by Coltrane though the main theme is played intriguingly on trumpet by Booker Little. Blues Minor does exactly what is says on the tin with another storming solo from Coltrane (It was upon hearing this track that I decided to buy the album.). Africa is the most unusual piecein these sessions & was a sign of things to come from laterin Coltrane's career. The discs feature three quite different takes of this piece & it is up to the listener to decide what their favourite one is.
It is worth mentioning how important the orchestra (conducted by Eric Dolphy) is to these sessions. It heightens the intensity of Coltrane's playing (as if it needed it) & it provides an interesting and, as I mentionedin the title, unique setting for his playing. For this reason alone these sessions are worth owning.
While the music is first class the one downside is the order of the tracks which are playedin the order that they were recorded. By the third track you are already at an alternative take of Greensleeves! The solution to this is to make a mix CD (or something similar) of your own.
To conclude, the Africa/Brass sessions are a supremely accessible set of recordings of John Coltrane at his very best. Anybody who's a fan of him should own them.
Superior Jazz Antique - By: J. A. Scholte, 13 Jun 2006 
This volume is the best of John Coltrane, but it does not fitin the timeperiod & the other jazzmusicians. John Coltrane is different & unique, which places him apart. The price of this volume should be perhaps $7,50, like all the old timers.
One of Coltrane's truly great works - By: Adam Ventress, 11 Oct 2001 This album reveals yet another dimension to Coltrane's remarkable repetoire of recordings over just a single decade. Africa/Brass bridges the end of his tenure with the Atlantic label & the Classic quartet.It is unique amongst his workin that it is the only time he used jazz orchestra arrangements, with the possible exception of Ascension (although that was more a case of collective improvisation with an expanded group)
It is ambitiousin it's scope & content, but succeeds on both counts,the orchestra is very muchin the background but is highly effective,and the material itself is varied & fascinating. The original album only contained half the recorded material for these sessions, & as with some of his other recordings on Impulse, the full story did not emerge until after his death, with the release of volume 2. It is all together here, though, including alternate takes & session details.
'Greensleeves' is probably Coltrane's most effective soprano sax performance after 'My Favourite Things,' & was the best known track from this set; however the title track & particularly 'Song of the Underground Railroad' are for me the standout pieces here. The later is a blistering, fast swinging interpretation of an old folk song, a truly brilliant performance from Coltrane & also McCoy Tyner. 'Africa' itself is hard to describe, as it is unlike anything else he recorded; it is a long, slowly unfolding improvisation which builds atmosphere & tension, & the three takes differ significantly.
Overall, this is one of the essential Coltrane albums, so if you are a fan, or you are just getting into Coltrane then this comes highly recommended.
