Blue Train (album)
Encyclopedia
Blue Train is a hard bop
jazz album by John Coltrane
, released in 1957 on Blue Note Records
, catalogue BLP 1577. Recorded at the Van Gelder Studio
in Hackensack, New Jersey
, it is Coltrane's second solo album, the only one he recorded for Blue Note as a leader, and the only one he conceived personally for the label. It has been certified a gold record by the RIAA.
." The title track is a long, rhythmically variegated blues
with a brooding minor theme that gradually shifts to major during Coltrane's first chorus. "Locomotion" is also a blues riff tune, in thirty-two-bar form
. During a 1960 interview, Coltrane described Blue Train as his favorite album of his own up to that point.
, would break new melodic and harmonic ground in jazz, whereas Blue Train adheres to the hard bop
style of the era. Two of its songs — "Moment's Notice" and "Lazy Bird
" — demonstrate Coltrane's first recorded use of Coltrane changes
, which he would later expand upon on Giant Steps. Musicologist Lewis Porter has also demonstrated a harmonic relationship between Coltrane's "Lazy Bird" and Tadd Dameron's
"Lady Bird".
In 1997, The Ultimate Blue Train was released, adding two alternate takes and enhanced content
, and in 1999 a 24bit 192kHz DVD-Audio
version was issued. In 2003, both a Super Audio Compact Disc version was released, as well as a remastered
compact disc as part of Blue Note's Rudy Van Gelder
series.
The artwork on the cover was inspired by Picasso's Blue Period, and Coltrane is said to have been a proponent of Picasso's avant-garde movement, consequently giving his album name deeper interpretational, and perhaps more significant meaning.
The iconic cover photo taken by Francis Wolff
would inspire the cover design of Scott Weiland
's 1998 album 12 Bar Blues
and All of the Above
by J-Live
. The cover of Blue Train is also seen on a wall in a coffee shop on the South Park
episode With Apologies to Jesse Jackson
.
Hard bop
Hard bop is a style of jazz that is an extension of bebop music. Journalists and record companies began using the term in the mid-1950s to describe a new current within jazz which incorporated influences from rhythm and blues, gospel music, and blues, especially in the saxophone and piano...
jazz album by John Coltrane
John Coltrane
John William Coltrane was an American jazz saxophonist and composer. Working in the bebop and hard bop idioms early in his career, Coltrane helped pioneer the use of modes in jazz and later was at the forefront of free jazz...
, released in 1957 on Blue Note Records
Blue Note Records
Blue Note Records is a jazz record label, established in 1939 by Alfred Lion and Max Margulis. Francis Wolff became involved shortly afterwards. It derives its name from the characteristic "blue notes" of jazz and the blues. At the end of the 1950s, and in the early 1960s, Blue Note headquarters...
, catalogue BLP 1577. Recorded at the Van Gelder Studio
Van Gelder Studio
The Van Gelder Studio is a recording studio located at 445 Sylvan Avenue, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey. It was set up in 1959 by Rudy Van Gelder and has been used to record many albums released by major jazz labels such as Verve Records, Blue Note, Prestige and CTI Records.-Background:After having...
in Hackensack, New Jersey
Hackensack, New Jersey
Hackensack is a city in Bergen County, New Jersey, United States and the county seat of Bergen County. Although informally called Hackensack, it was officially named New Barbadoes Township until 1921. As of the 2010 United States Census, the city population was 43,010....
, it is Coltrane's second solo album, the only one he recorded for Blue Note as a leader, and the only one he conceived personally for the label. It has been certified a gold record by the RIAA.
Content
All of the compositions were written by Coltrane, with the exception of the standard "I'm Old FashionedI'm Old Fashioned
"I'm Old Fashioned" is a 1942 song composed by Jerome Kern, with lyrics written by Johnny Mercer.It was written for the film You Were Never Lovelier , where it was introduced by Nan Wynn who dubbed for Rita Hayworth as part of a song and dance routine with Fred Astaire.According to Mueller:...
." The title track is a long, rhythmically variegated blues
Blues
Blues is the name given to both a musical form and a music genre that originated in African-American communities of primarily the "Deep South" of the United States at the end of the 19th century from spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts and chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads...
with a brooding minor theme that gradually shifts to major during Coltrane's first chorus. "Locomotion" is also a blues riff tune, in thirty-two-bar form
Thirty-two-bar form
The thirty-two-bar form, often called AABA from the musical form or order in which its melodies occur, is common in Tin Pan Alley songs and later popular music including rock, pop and jazz...
. During a 1960 interview, Coltrane described Blue Train as his favorite album of his own up to that point.
Legacy
Coltrane's next major album, 1960's Giant StepsGiant Steps
-Personnel:* John Coltrane — tenor saxophone* Tommy Flanagan — piano* Wynton Kelly — piano on "Naima"* Paul Chambers — bass* Art Taylor — drums* Jimmy Cobb — drums on "Naima"* Cedar Walton — piano on "Giant Steps' and Naima" alternate versions...
, would break new melodic and harmonic ground in jazz, whereas Blue Train adheres to the hard bop
Hard bop
Hard bop is a style of jazz that is an extension of bebop music. Journalists and record companies began using the term in the mid-1950s to describe a new current within jazz which incorporated influences from rhythm and blues, gospel music, and blues, especially in the saxophone and piano...
style of the era. Two of its songs — "Moment's Notice" and "Lazy Bird
Lazy Bird
Lazy Bird is a musical composition by John Coltrane, first appearing on his 1957 album Blue Train.Its name is most likely a play on the title of the Tadd Dameron composition "Lady Bird": Coltrane biographer Lewis Porter has proposed a harmonic relationship between "Lady Bird" and the A section of...
" — demonstrate Coltrane's first recorded use of Coltrane changes
Coltrane changes
In jazz harmony, the Coltrane changes are a harmonic progression variation using substitute chords over common jazz chord progressions...
, which he would later expand upon on Giant Steps. Musicologist Lewis Porter has also demonstrated a harmonic relationship between Coltrane's "Lazy Bird" and Tadd Dameron's
Tadd Dameron
Tadley Ewing Peake "Tadd" Dameron was an American jazz composer, arranger and pianist. Saxophonist Dexter Gordon called Dameron the "romanticist" of the bop movement, while reviewer Scott Yanow writes that Dameron was the "definitive arranger/composer of the bop era".-Biography:Born in Cleveland,...
"Lady Bird".
In 1997, The Ultimate Blue Train was released, adding two alternate takes and enhanced content
Enhanced CD
Enhanced CD, also known as CD Extra and CD Plus, is a certification mark of the Recording Industry Association of America for various technologies that combine audio and computer data for use in both Compact Disc and CD-ROM players....
, and in 1999 a 24bit 192kHz DVD-Audio
DVD-Audio
DVD-Audio is a digital format for delivering high-fidelity audio content on a DVD. DVD-Audio is not intended to be a video delivery format and is not the same as video DVDs containing concert films or music videos....
version was issued. In 2003, both a Super Audio Compact Disc version was released, as well as a remastered
Audio mastering
Mastering, a form of audio post-production, is the process of preparing and transferring recorded audio from a source containing the final mix to a data storage device ; the source from which all copies will be produced...
compact disc as part of Blue Note's Rudy Van Gelder
Rudy Van Gelder
Rudy Van Gelder is an American recording engineer specializing in jazz.Often regarded as one of the most important recording engineers in music history, Van Gelder has recorded several thousand jazz sessions, including many widely recognized as classics, in a career spanning more than half a century...
series.
The artwork on the cover was inspired by Picasso's Blue Period, and Coltrane is said to have been a proponent of Picasso's avant-garde movement, consequently giving his album name deeper interpretational, and perhaps more significant meaning.
The iconic cover photo taken by Francis Wolff
Francis Wolff
Francis Wolff was a record company executive, photographer and record producer....
would inspire the cover design of Scott Weiland
Scott Weiland
Scott Weiland is an American musician, lyricist, and vocalist, most notable for his work with Grammy Award-winning rock band Stone Temple Pilots. Weiland is also known for his five-year career with supergroup Velvet Revolver as well as his own solo career...
's 1998 album 12 Bar Blues
12 Bar Blues (album)
12 Bar Blues is the debut solo album from Stone Temple Pilots singer Scott Weiland. Its sound and style differs greatly from his band's releases. The design concept of the cover is a homage to the cover design of John Coltrane's Blue Train album...
and All of the Above
All of the Above (J-Live album)
All of the Above is the second album of indie hip hop artist J-Live, released in 2002 on the label Coup dEtat. The album's cover art pays homage/tribute to John Coltrane's famous cover design on his 1957 album Blue Train.-Track listing:...
by J-Live
J-Live
J-Live is an MC, DJ, and producer from New York.-Early career and The Best Part:...
. The cover of Blue Train is also seen on a wall in a coffee shop on the South Park
South Park
South Park is an American animated television series created by Trey Parker and Matt Stone for the Comedy Central television network. Intended for mature audiences, the show has become famous for its crude language, surreal, satirical, and dark humor that lampoons a wide range of topics...
episode With Apologies to Jesse Jackson
With Apologies to Jesse Jackson
"With Apologies to Jesse Jackson" is the first episode of the American animated television series South Park, and the 153rd episode overall. It first aired on Comedy Central in the United States on March 7, 2007...
.
Side one
Side two
2003 bonus tracks
Personnel
- John ColtraneJohn ColtraneJohn William Coltrane was an American jazz saxophonist and composer. Working in the bebop and hard bop idioms early in his career, Coltrane helped pioneer the use of modes in jazz and later was at the forefront of free jazz...
– tenorTenor saxophoneThe tenor saxophone is a medium-sized member of the saxophone family, a group of instruments invented by Adolphe Sax in the 1840s. The tenor, with the alto, are the two most common types of saxophones. The tenor is pitched in the key of B, and written as a transposing instrument in the treble...
saxophoneSaxophoneThe saxophone is a conical-bore transposing musical instrument that is a member of the woodwind family. Saxophones are usually made of brass and played with a single-reed mouthpiece similar to that of the clarinet. The saxophone was invented by the Belgian instrument maker Adolphe Sax in 1846...
, bandleaderBandleaderA bandleader is the leader of a band of musicians. The term is most commonly, though not exclusively, used with a group that plays popular music as a small combo or a big band, such as one which plays jazz, blues, rhythm and blues or rock and roll music.... - Paul ChambersPaul ChambersPaul Laurence Dunbar Chambers, Jr. was a jazz bassist. A fixture of rhythm sections during the 1950s and 1960s, his importance in the development of jazz bass can be measured not only by the length and breadth of his work in this short period but also his impeccable time, intonation, and virtuosic...
– double bassDouble bassThe double bass, also called the string bass, upright bass, standup bass or contrabass, is the largest and lowest-pitched bowed string instrument in the modern symphony orchestra, with strings usually tuned to E1, A1, D2 and G2... - Kenny DrewKenny DrewKenneth Sidney "Kenny" Drew was an American jazz pianist.-Biography:Born in New York City, New York, he first recorded with Howard McGhee in 1949, and over the next two years recorded with Buddy DeFranco, Coleman Hawkins, Milt Jackson, Charlie Parker, Buddy Rich, and Dinah Washington...
– pianoPianoThe piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal... - Curtis FullerCurtis FullerCurtis DuBois Fuller is an American jazz trombonist, known as a member of Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers and contributor to many classic jazz recordings.-Biography:...
– tromboneTromboneThe trombone is a musical instrument in the brass family. Like all brass instruments, sound is produced when the player’s vibrating lips cause the air column inside the instrument to vibrate... - Philly Joe JonesPhilly Joe JonesJoseph Rudolph Jones was a Philadelphia-born United States jazz drummer, known as the drummer for the Miles Davis Quintet.Philly Joe Jones was often confused with another influential jazz drummer, Jo Jones...
– drumsDrum kitA drum kit is a collection of drums, cymbals and often other percussion instruments, such as cowbells, wood blocks, triangles, chimes, or tambourines, arranged for convenient playing by a single person .... - Lee MorganLee MorganEdward Lee Morgan was an American hard bop trumpeter.-Biography:...
– trumpetTrumpetThe trumpet is the musical instrument with the highest register in the brass family. Trumpets are among the oldest musical instruments, dating back to at least 1500 BCE. They are played by blowing air through closed lips, producing a "buzzing" sound which starts a standing wave vibration in the air...