John Coltrane - The European Tour (1980)

In the present set of performances, presumably taken from the Coltrane Quartet's November, 1962, European concert tour, we have the opportunity to hear four pieces that were a regular part of the Coltrane repertoire, played by the best-known and longest-lived of the saxophonist's groups, with McCoy Tyner on piano, Jimmy Garrison on bass, and drummer Elvin Jones, all pieces recorded elsewhere, in both studio and live performance versions, reexamined here in extended concert format, presumably providing an accurate reflection of the way Coltrane preferred to play them, without the restrictions of studio or album programming considerations, and unrestrained by the choices of recording supervisors. These performances also provide an interesting opportunity to explore the changes that took place with the advancement of Coltrane's career, as reflected in the ways the music and his view of it developed.
The opportunity this album provides the curious listener is to compare and contrast the developmental changes in the music of so diverse and exploratory a musical intelligence as John Coltrane by playing the four selections heard here in parallel with his other recorded versions of the same tunes is one of the pleasures made possible by the extensive historical documentation that jazz recording has made available. At this point, almost thirteen years after Coltrane's passing, his music continues to offer us new insights, enlightenment, and possibilities for extending our musical and cultural understanding.