The thing I like most about N&G is that you can voice your opinions without the normal backlash just because people don’t agree with you.
I don’t mind digressions in threads. It’s more interesting that way.
Let’s talk about Blue Trane. Why do people get so excited about it? What about the music and playing is worth the hype. With Somethin’ Else I can point to 5 or 6 phrases by Adderley that make the album worth the hype.
Before I talk about Blue Train, I'll briefly mention Eric Dolphy. I've been listening to jazz since my teens. I didn't care for Eric Dolphy in my younger years. I had to go back to his earlier work with Chico Hamilton to truly appreciate him and his progression. In time, I came to love his work. Dolphy is now one of my favorite musicians across all genres.
Back to Blue Train; I personally don't think it's overrated. I think it's rated accurately, especially when put into context of Coltrane's musical chronology. See, we have the luxury (or curse) to look back at art retrospectively. We pick and choose what we like and don't like. Nothing wrong with that, but sometimes we lose track of when these records were made. So someone will say that perhaps they like a Coltrane record from 1964 better than Blue Train from 1958 (but recorded in 1957). Coltrane was a different person between those periods and it reflected in the music. I like to contextualize the music. Where and when was the artist when he or she made it? What were they trying to accomplish? Of course, you can prefer any period, but I personally find it worthwhile to accept the records as they are on their own individual merits. For 1957, Blue Train was a tour de force. Sometimes, we look back at art and compare it to art that often came later.
Blue Train was a one-off. The lone album Trane made for Blue Note as a leader. It was while he was playing with Monk, so he was in the midst of a reinvigorated creative fury. While there were some Prestige dates between them, I look at Giant Steps as the spiritual successor of Blue Train. It was the natural progression of Coltrane's "sheets of sound" and he just continued to do amazing things through to his Atlantic period and his Impulse period.
So like I did with Eric Dolphy, perhaps going back to early Trane and then listening chronologically to his music to hear his progression and growth over the years will put things into context and might help you see Blue Train for what it is. A tremendous effort put forward by Coltrane during a period in his life where he felt reinvigorated creatively. He had two up-and-coming young lions with him on the horns (Morgan and Fuller) and he had two former bandmates from the Miles Davis Quintet (Chambers and Philly Joe), and last but certainly not least, Kenny Drew. With the exception of Trane and Philly Joe who were in their 30s, this was also a very young band. Chambers and Fuller were 22. Morgan was only 19. Again, putting it all into context, very young men made this album. It's actually quite remarkable what these guys were doing at those ages. Think about what you were doing at 19 years old. When I contextualize it like that, Blue Train will never be overrated. It will always be worth the hype.
