Mar 4, 2025 1:29 PM
Changing of the Guard at Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra
On October 23, Ted Nash – having toured the world playing alto, soprano and tenor saxophone, clarinet and bass…
John Coltrane’s Both Directions At Once: The Lost Album (Impulse!) was recorded in 1963 and only now is being released.
(Photo: Chuck Stewart)Walking into the cool interiors of the Van Gelder Studio in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, it’s hard not to feel a sense of awe at its unparalleled legacy of jazz recording. The first thing that catches your eye is the studio’s massive vaulted ceiling, its cedar panels and Douglas fir arches forming a vast cathedral-like space, suitable for recording, meditation or veneration of a historic jazz recording.
This was the setting for a June 11 listening session that gave journalists a preview of an album that was recorded in 1963 in this venerated space: John Coltrane’s Both Directions At Once: The Lost Album (Impulse!). Present for the event was the iconic saxophonist’s son, Ravi Coltrane.
“Some people thought John Coltrane was going to end jazz. That he was anti-jazz. [This music] was different from what the was the norm for jazz musicians at the time,” Ravi noted. “When John went with this music in 1961, particularly ‘Impressions,’ it was such a shift. It’s amazing to hear it today. It’s relevant, it doesn’t sound like old music. It sounds as modern as it did in 1963.”
As Both Directions At Once played over a pair of vintage studio monitors, Ravi closed his eyes and rocked slowly back and forth in his seat.
Coltrane’s beautiful soprano flowed throughout the studio space, leading your mind and eyes to wander. The tools of recording engineer Rudy Van Gelder’s art are hidden in corners and covered under tarps nowadays. Toward the end of his career, Van Gelder (1924–2016) preferred digital over analog recording equipment. Some of the earlier machines still are in the studio: an Ampex reel-to-reel tape deck wrapped in plastic, what appeared to be a McIntosh tube amplifier and an old acetate cutting lathe.
Van Gelder’s control booth was off limits to visitors. (His Neve console is now operated by Maureen Sickler.) The studio walls are adorned with Van Gelder’s nature photographs. Perched atop one of three isolation booths, a stuffed red cardinal stands sentry. Is this taxidermy simply for aesthetihics?
“If the drummer was too loud,” Sickler said, “the bird would fall off the ledge. It was one of Rudy’s testing devices.” DB
As Ted Nash, left, departs the alto saxophone chair for LCJO, Alexa Tarantino steps in as the band’s first female full-time member.
Mar 4, 2025 1:29 PM
On October 23, Ted Nash – having toured the world playing alto, soprano and tenor saxophone, clarinet and bass…
Larry Appelbaum with Wayne Shorter in 2012.
Feb 25, 2025 10:49 AM
Larry Appelbaum, a distinguished audio engineer, jazz journalist, historian and broadcaster, died Feb. 21, 2025, in…
“This is one of the great gifts that Coltrane gave us — he gave us a key to the cosmos in this recording,” says John McLaughlin.
Mar 18, 2025 3:00 PM
In his original liner notes to A Love Supreme, John Coltrane wrote: “Yes, it is true — ‘seek and ye shall…
The Blue Note Jazz Festival New York kicks off May 27 with a James Moody 100th Birthday Celebration at Sony Hall.
Apr 8, 2025 1:23 PM
Blue Note Entertainment Group has unveiled the lineup for the 14th annual Blue Note Jazz Festival New York, featuring…
“You’ve got to trust that inner child, keep exploring, even though people think it’s wrong,” says Fortner.
Feb 25, 2025 11:20 AM
Every week at the Village Vanguard fosters its own sound. No one really knows how the music might evolve by Sunday, but…
