Jun 17, 2025 11:12 AM
Kandace Springs Sings Billie Holiday
When it came time to pose for the cover of her new album, Lady In Satin — a tribute to Billie Holiday’s 1958…
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
“There’s nothing quite like it,” Springs says of working with an orchestra. “It’s 60 people working in harmony in the moment. Singing with them is kind of empowering but also humbling at the same time.”
Jun 17, 2025 11:12 AM
When it came time to pose for the cover of her new album, Lady In Satin — a tribute to Billie Holiday’s 1958…
James Brandon Lewis earned honors for Artist of the Year and Tenor Saxophonist of the Year. Three of his recordings placed in the Albums of the Year category.
Jul 17, 2025 12:44 PM
You see before you what we believe is the largest and most comprehensive Critics Poll in the history of jazz. DownBeat…
Galper was often regarded as an underrated master of his craft.
Jul 22, 2025 10:58 AM
Hal Galper, a pianist, composer and arranger who enjoyed a substantial performing career but made perhaps a deeper…
Chuck Mangione on the cover of the May 8, 1975, edition of DownBeat.
Jul 29, 2025 1:00 PM
Chuck Mangione, one of the most popular trumpeters in jazz history, passed away on July 24 at home in Rochester, New…
“Hamiet was one of the most underrated musicians ever,” says Whitaker of baritone saxophonist Hamiet Bluiett.
Jul 8, 2025 7:30 AM
At 56, Rodney Whitaker, professor of jazz bass and director of jazz studies at Michigan State University, is equally…
