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John Coltrane’s Last Performance At Newport out on CD
John Coltrane’s Last Performance At Newport July 2, 1966 has been released on the Free Factory label. This is the first time that this material is issued on any format.
Coltrane performed three extended tunes at the festival, including a version of “My Favorite Things” that is much freer than ever, a beautiful reading of his ballad “Welcome” and a powerful version of “Leo”, a song he had taped in the studio six months earlier. Coltrane was too ill to perform at the following edition of the Newport Festival, and he died shortly after at the age of 40 on July 17, 1967.
John Coltrane had played at Newport in 1958, 1961, 1963 & 1965. Coltrane’s 1966 appearance at the festival would be his last. By the time the 1967 edition took place, in July of that year, Coltrane was at the hospital fighting the liver cancer that eventually killed him on July 17, 1967.
The 1966 Newport set, which appears here for the first time ever on CD, showcased Coltrane with the last group he fronted, which was moving further and further in the direction of free jazz. From the classic quartet, only bassist Jimmy Garrison remained. Coltrane’s wife Alice McLeod (aka Alice Coltrane) is at the piano, Rashied Ali is on drums, and Pharoah Sanders (who had also collaborated with Coltrane on his 1965 album Ascension) plays tenor sax, piccolo and percussion. Portions of this performance were filmed in color on 8mm without sound and appeared on various documentaries of Coltrane. The music, however, was recorded separately.
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