Kenny Burrell & John Coltrane
Kenny Burrell & John Coltrane

One of the unique and beautiful aspects of jazz is that sometimes from a casual and spontaneous session, a masterpiece can emerge. Maybe it's not the case to talk about a masterpiece for this collaboration between Kenny Burrell and John Coltrane, but it's definitely a great album. It's a great album because you can immediately and always hear that the musicians are inspired. The musicians are: Tommy Flanagan on piano, Paul Chambers on double bass, Jimmy Cobb on drums, along with Burrell on guitar and Trane on tenor sax. You know who we are dealing with. Take musicians like that and, if they're in the mood, Music (with a capital M) is guaranteed. Among bop inspirations ("Freight Trane" by Flanagan and "Lyresto" by Burrell), more lyrical passages ("I Never Knew" and the guitar-sax duet of "Why Was I Born") and a beautiful final 14 minutes of "Big Paul" to close, the five give us these 40 minutes of splendid jazz, inspired Jazz, not bland. Original Jazz.

John Coltrane is on fire, he shows it especially in "Lyresto", where he starts in high gear, maintains an average of one hundred ninety km/h, then goes into his (intentional) skids, typical of his sound. He's in it completely, even when it's time to bring out the lyrical vein and dive into introspection ("Why Was I Born"), not to mention the confidence he shows throughout the album. Kenny Burrell dedicates himself here, with the exception of the duet where he accompanies Coltrane, to the role of soloist, leaving the accompaniment to the piano. And Burrell as a soloist is no joke, on the contrary, he's among the best ever. Example? "Freight Trane". As I was saying, Flanagan dedicates himself to rhythm as well as solos, but he must have been quite pumped too because the intro of "Big Paul" is textbook. Also on "Big Paul", worthy of mention is the solo by Big Paul (indeed) Chambers, who finally, backed by audio that does him justice (a factor not always present in Miles Davis's records), can let loose and have his say, both with the pizzicato and with the beloved bow ("Lyresto"). The only one a bit in the shadows is Jimmy Cobb, who does his part, but does not show a particular desire to impose himself (a characteristic that rarely belongs to him anyway).

In short, to summarize, this is an album played as God intended, by people who know how to play (to say the least...) and who woke up on the right side of the bed that morning, if they ever went to sleep.