Rhino's Olé: The Real McCoy
Coltrane's Atlantic Finale was at A&R
According to Ashley Kahn's outstanding annotation for this Rhino High Fidelity release, a few days before stepping into Phil Ramone's A&R studios to record Olé—his final session for Atlantic Records— John Coltrane had been at RVG's in Englewood Cliffs, NJ recording his first Africa/Brass session for Impulse! Kahn writes that the relatively new A&R was handling "overflow" for Atlantic, which is fortunate. It meant that Olé would be both Coltrane's final for Atlantic but by far his best sounding.
This is more a sound than a music review because most readers are familiar with this album and just want to know how Kevin Gray's cut stacks up. So I compared it to the three other versions I have here: one from the old Atlantic The Heavyweight Champion: The Complete Atlantic Recordings of John Coltrane, which we were all so grateful to have on vinyl back in 1995. An early '70s red/green Atlantic 1841 Broadway pressing, pressed at Presswell with a nice laminated front cover and "STEREO" embossed or stamped in black on it—which has been my "go to" since the early '70s, the double 45 ORG with stereo labels and jacket but which was actually mono (oops) and this new one from Rhino High Fidelity available only on the Rhino store website.
This is an easy call: the box set version was sourced either from the CD master or from the actual CD and never sounded great but it was nice to have 12 Coltrane albums on vinyl back when there wasn't much, the ORG is obviously not in the running for the stereo version and the title cut is "8 tracked" split onto two sides. That leaves the 70's era and this new one, with the new one from the Analogue Productions double 45 stereo edition waiting in the wings.
The '70s era record is very nice but this new Kevin Gray cut is worlds better. So much better in every way that when McCoy Tyner's piano entered sounding more like a real piano than on any Coltrane album, either Tom Dowd's Atlantics or Rudy's Impulses, I jumped. And it sounds far more like a piano than the '70s era Atlantic I've been listening to for many years.
It's probably the same piano Antonio Carlos Jobim used on Getz/Gilberto. I once ran into the guy who bought it when A&R closed. But it got me to thinking: maybe some day AI can be used to first de-mix Tyner's piano from every Coltrane record (except this one) and then using this piano's sound, replicate Tyner's playing and then have it reinserted back into the records!
Okay, that's crazy but that's how good Tyner's piano sounds on this reissue compared to how he sounds on most. The dueling arco bass lines from Art Davis and Reggie Workman have added grit, bottom end rumble and power when they get going half way through Olé and of course Coltrane's soprano sax and "George Lane"'s flute both have never sounded this well articulated and timbrally accurate. Ditto Elvin Jone's cymbal crashes. When that track gets going, it'll strip the rich Corinthian leather from your listening chair. The tape is in outstanding condition!
Add Kahn's really useful annotation and the laminated gatefold jacket and you have an outstanding Olé! I have no way of knowing how the double 45 Atlantic series version will sound or how they will deal with the long title song. You can wait for that and maybe miss this, or get this and wait for that. If you prefer that one you'll easily be able to sell this one limited to 5000 copies.
And that's all I have to say about it.
