Description
Released on the Impulse label in a gatefold sleeve, Impressions is John Coltrane’s seventh album, which brings together recordings made between 1961 and 1963. The two live numbers “India” and “Impressions,” recorded during “evenings in Hell” (as Rudy Van Gelder called the smoke-filled Village Vanguard), are the highpoints on the LP.
Although he only had a mixing console and a tape recorder placed on two tables next to the stage, Van Gelder managed to make full-bodied, intensive recordings of the quintet. Dolphy plays the bass clarinet in “India” and the alto saxophone in “Impressions”; the result is a new sound coloring, which demands that Coltrane perform with even greater expression. The ballad “After The Rain” has Roy Haynes on the drums and is one of these unmistakable hymn-like solo excursions which became a trademark of John Coltrane in his middle period.
2. Up ‘Gainst the Wall
3. Impressions
4. After the Rain