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Rating:
Talking about artists like John Coltrane is always difficult; one can fall into unrestrained ovation with little substantive content, offer poorly informed criticism that is hard to support, or get "bogged down" in technical discussions about that great subject, jazz (musical style? Way of life? Cultured genre? I don't know... for me, it's excellent music and as a layman, that's enough for me), which are not always understood by everyone. Therefore, my goal is simply to try to narrate, with simplicity and wistfulness, what an album like "Ballads" stirs in my heart and soul.
The album in question features not only Coltrane (obviously on tenor sax) but also McCoy Tyner on piano, Jimmy Garrison on bass, and Elvin Jones on drums, a lineup that appears well-cohesive and ready to follow good John in his sweet and delicate narration. Already a story... that's precisely what I think when I listen to this album, a continuous narrative that unfolds on various layers, levels, planes, and so on, which brings to mind distant memories, beautiful places that have been visited, glances that in the mind could have become wonderful love stories but in the end lasted only the time of a blink of an eye. All of this flows through the mind like a stunning black-and-white film, accompanied by an exceptional soundtrack made of penetrating yet gentle melodies, melancholic but not sad (with this album by Coltrane, one smiles at the past, not cries for its end), which relax, make one reflect, and reconcile with the rest of the world.
The music expressed here is, in my opinion, of exceptional elegance and envelops you in an embrace from which it is truly difficult to escape. Therefore, among the tracks I want to mention are "Say It (Over And Over Again)" and "Nancy (With The Laughing Face)", not because the others are inferior, but only to indicate the beginning and unfortunately the end of that splendid narrative I mentioned above, which becomes increasingly precious because it is different for everyone who listens, breathes, and lives a musical masterpiece like this.
Tracklist and Lyrics
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