Evenings at the Village Gate: John Coltrane with Eric Dolphy cover

Evenings at the Village Gate: John Coltrane with Eric Dolphy

Recorded
Released

From August 8 to September 3, 1961, John Coltrane had a residency going at the Village Gate, a club in lower Manhattan. It’s not known which nights these tapes were made, but the band includes Eric Dolphy on alto sax, bass clarinet, and flute; McCoy Tyner on piano; Reggie Workman on bass; and Elvin Jones on drums, plus second bassist Art Davis on an epic version of “Africa,” the only known live recording of the opening track from 1962’s Africa/Brass. The music was recorded with a single microphone hanging from the club’s ceiling, running to a tape deck backstage, so you get a kind of ambient, holistic sound that tends to prioritize the horns and the drums. Tyner’s piano is very quiet in the mix, and Workman’s audible but often more of a low bounce than the force he could be. On “Africa,” though, he and Davis get some dual spotlight time that’s extraordinarily beautiful, and the way Coltrane and Dolphy play as a duo, each man spurring the other on, is phenomenal.

Phil Freeman

Suggestions
Circuit City cover

Circuit City

Moor Mother
Playing cover

Playing

Charlie Haden, Ed Blackwell, Don Cherry, Dewey Redman
12 Stars cover

12 Stars

Melissa Aldana
Big Band cover

Big Band

Julius Hemphill
Clifford Brown & Max Roach cover

Clifford Brown & Max Roach

Max Roach, Clifford Brown
Fly or Die cover

Fly or Die

Jaimie Branch
Polyhymnia cover

Polyhymnia

Yazz Ahmed
She Knows… cover

She Knows…

The Thing with Joe McPhee
The  Eleventh Hour cover

The Eleventh Hour

Evan Parker Electro-Acoustic Ensemble