roio » Blog Archive » SET THE CONTROLS FOR THE HEART OF THE SUN: “JOHN COLTRANE QUARTET
The Sun Ship Sessions 1965 [no label, 1CD]
Sessions at RCA-Victor Studios, New York City, August 26, 1965. Broadcast on WKCR, Sept 23, 2001. Ex FM stereo.
‘In 2001, WKCR made a broadcast containing the unreleased takes of the Sunship Album. These takes have never been released officially.’ – Maurizio.
Sun Ship was an album that followed in the same vein as the late 1964 album, A Love Supreme. That was Coltrane’s famous album dedicated to the Supreme Being, God. After A Love Supreme, Coltrane continued with his spiritual journey which gave power to his music. The albums that followed, Ascension, Meditations, Kulu Se Mama and the post-humously released Om and Infinity, all recorded in 1965, displayed a man describing his faith and beliefs through music and chants. Sun Ship was recorded in August of that year.
Coltrane chose free jazz as the vehicle for his searching. Although neither Albert Ayler nor Archie Shepp or Pharoah Sanders, the free jazz advocates, sit in on these sessions, Tyner, Garrison and Jones felt the music just as deeply.
Sun Ship is an underrated album in the Coltrane canon but as the reviewers at the Penguin Guide To Jazz suggest, ‘it’s high time this fine record was better known’.
Thanks to Maurizio and u014945 who uploaded the show on Dime, April, 2012.”