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  John Coltrane Quartet 
  Impressions From Graz 1962, Revisited  
  (ezz-thetics by Hat Hut Records Ltd) 


  
   review by John Eyles
  2025-02-10
John Coltrane Quartet: Impressions From Graz 1962, Revisited (ezz-thetics by Hat Hut Records Ltd)

The eight tracks which comprise this album were recorded at Stefaniensaal, Graz, Austria, on November 28th 1962, during a European tour by John Coltrane and his classic quartet with McCoy Tyler on piano, Jimmy Garrison on double bass and Elvin Jones on drums — the line-up which remained together for years and recorded A Love Supreme. The 1962 tour visited Paris, Stockholm, Helsinki, Copenhagen, Graz and Milan, with the quartet playing a similar repertoire at each city. Between 1992 and 2020 at least six versions of the album The Complete Graz Concert '62 were released in different parts of the world; each comprised all eight tracks recorded at Graz.

In 2019, having licensed the original tapes from ORF Steiermark, who made the original 1962 recordings in Graz, the ezz-thetics by Hat Hut Records, Ltd label released Impressions Graz 1962, a single disc which featured four of the eight Graz tracks — "The Inch Worm", "I Want To Talk About You", "Autumn Leaves" and the Coltrane composition "Impressions". Now, as promised in the sleeve notes of the 2019 album, ezz-thetics releases Impressions From Graz 1962, Revisited a two-disc album which contains all eight of the Graz recordings, adding the Coltrane composition "Mr. P.C." plus "Every Time We Say Goodbye", "Bye Bye Blackbird" and "My Favorite Things". All are in first rate sound which is second to none.

Anyone familiar with original versions of the Graz tracks (opening with "Bye Bye Blackbird" and closing with "My Favorite Things") will find that Executive Producer Werner X. Uehlinger decided "not simply to reproduce the concert but to present the music from a dramatic perspective". So, the second disc ends with the two longest tracks, "Bye Bye Blackbird" and "My Favorite Things", over forty-five minutes together. Although the Graz recordings have never been cited as essential Coltrane, their focus on extended energetic soloing make them irresistible and deserving of greater attention.



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