Impressions (John Coltrane album)


Impressions is a 1963 album of live and studio recordings by jazz musician John Coltrane.

Music and recording

Tracks 1 and 3 were recorded live at the Village Vanguard in November 1961, while tracks 2 and 4 were recorded at Van Gelder Studio, respectively on September 18, 1962 and April 29, 1963. Track 5, "Dear Old Stockholm" did not appear on the original release, but appears on later reissues. The album was originally released in 1963 on the Impulse! label.
The studio tracks were performed by the classic Coltrane quartet, who are joined by saxophonist Eric Dolphy and bassist Reggie Workman on the tracks recorded live at the Village Vanguard. Dolphy contributes a long bass clarinet solo on "India", but lays out on all but the final chord of "Impressions". Workman plays only on "India", joining Garrison in approximating the droning sound of Indian classical music.
Drummer Roy Haynes replaces Elvin Jones on "After the Rain" and "Dear Old Stockholm". The title track features nearly fifteen minutes of Coltrane's soloing.
The music reflects Coltrane's evolving emotional and musical range, where he explores jazz modality, the music of India, the blues, and a traditional Swedish folk song. The eclecticism is to be expected; the album amounts ultimately to a compilation of three years of oddments.

Reception

Down Beat magazine critic Harvey Pekar summed up the album in his five-star review of August 29, 1963 writing "Not all the music on this album is excellent but some is more than excellent."

Influence on popular music

According to Roger McGuinn, while touring in late 1965, the rock band the Byrds had only a single cassette recording to listen to on the tour bus, with Ravi Shankar on one side and Coltrane's Impressions and Africa/Brass on the other: "We played that damn thing 50 or 100 times, through a Fender amplifier that was plugged into an alternator in the car." The result was the recording of the single "Eight Miles High", acknowledged by the band as a direct homage to Coltrane, and to "India" on Impressions in particular.
In 2000 it was voted number 687 in Colin Larkin's All Time Top 1000 Albums.

Track listing

All tracks composed by John Coltrane except where noted.
  1. "India" – 14:10
  2. "Up 'Gainst the Wall" – 3:17
  3. "Impressions" – 15:06
  4. "After the Rain" – 4:07
Bonus track first released on the 1964 LP, The Definitive Jazz Scene Volume 2, and on the 2000 Impressions CD reissue.
  2. "Dear Old Stockholm" – 10:38

    Personnel

Musicians