Africa/Brass

Infobox Album
Name = Africa/Brass
Type = Album
Artist = John Coltrane


Released = 1961
Recorded = May-June 1961
Genre = Jazz, Free Jazz
Length = 33:29
Label = Impulse! Records
Producer = Bob Thiele
Reviews =
* Allmusic Rating|4.5|5 [http://allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:alozefqk8gf1]
* Jazz Shelf [http://www.jazzshelf.org/traneimpulse.html]
Last album = "My Favorite Things"
(1961)
This album = "Africa/Brass"
(1961)
Next album = "Olé Coltrane"
(1961)

"Africa/Brass" is a 1961 album by John Coltrane, his first for the new Impulse! label. It features Coltrane's five-piece working band (which at the time included two bassists - Reggie Workman and Art Davis), backed by a fifteen-piece brass band including, among others, trumpeters Freddie Hubbard and Booker Little, and bass clarinetist Eric Dolphy. The brass arrangements were originally credited to Dolphy, but in the years since the album was released it has emerged that they were, in fact, primarily the work of pianist McCoy Tyner (misspelled "Turner" on the original issue). Tyner wrote out the arrangement for the English traditional song, "Greensleeves"; for the two original pieces, "Africa" and "Blues Minor", Dolphy and Coltrane adapted Tyner's piano voicings for the orchestra.

A second LP, culled from the same sessions, was released in 1974. It was titled "Africa/Brass Sessions, Volume 2". It featured a version of the slavery-era spiritual-cum-code-tune, "Follow the Drinkin' Gourd" (retitled "Song of the Underground Railroad") as well as alternate takes of "Greensleeves" and "Africa". There also exist outtakes from the sessions - a version of Cal Massey's "The Damned Don't Cry", and additional alternate versions of "Africa" and "Greensleeves".

Both albums have since been combined onto one compact disc. As well, all existent takes (including both albums, and the three outtakes) from the sessions have been compiled in order of recording on the double-CD collection, "The Complete Africa/Brass Sessions".

Track listing

# "Africa" (Coltrane) 16:31
# "Greensleeves" (trad.) 9:39
# "Blues Minor" (Coltrane) 7:19

"Africa/Brass Sessions, Volume 2" Track Listing

# "Africa" (alternate take) (Coltrane) 16:08
# "Greensleeves" (alternate take) (trad.) 10:53
# "Song of the Underground Railroad" (trad.) 6:44

"The Complete Africa/Brass Sessions" Track Listing

Disc 1
# "Greensleeves" (trad.) 9:57
# "Song of the Underground Railroad" (trad.) 6:44
# "Greensleeves" (alternate take) (trad.) 10:53
# "The Damned Don't Cry" (Cal Massey) 7:34
# "Africa" (first version) (Coltrane) 14:08Disc 2
# "Blues Minor" (Coltrane) 7:20
# "Africa" (alternate take) (Coltrane) 16:08
# "Africa" (Coltrane) 16:29

Personnel

* John Coltrane — tenor saxophone, soprano saxophone
* Booker Little — trumpet
* Freddie Hubbard — trumpet
* Britt Woodman — trombone
* Carl Bowman — euphonium
* Julian Priester — euphonium
* Charles Greenlee — euphonium
* Julius Watkins — french horn
* Donald Corrado — french horn
* Bob Northern — french horn
* Robert Swisshelm — french horn
* Jim Buffington — french horn
* Bill Barber — tuba
* Eric Dolphy — alto saxophone, clarinet, flute, arranger
* Pat Patrick — baritone saxophone
* Garvin Bushell — baritone saxophone
* McCoy Tyner — piano, arranger
* Reggie Workman — bass
* Art Davis — bass
* Elvin Jones — drums