Offering: Live At Temple University by John Coltrane

2014 | Jazz

'Offering: Live At Temple University' documents a legendary concert by John Coltrane at Temple University in his hometown, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on November 11, 1966, six weeks after his fortieth birthday and nine months before his untimely death.

'Offering', available in a deluxe format 2-CD digipack, incorporates a look that is contiguous with the graphic identity of Impulse! Records, Coltrane's exclusive label from 1961 until the end of his life. This is the first officially sanctioned release of an undiscovered, complete Coltrane performance since 2005.

It captures Coltrane in exemplary form, navigating the language he had developed during the last phase of his musical path with passion and pellucid logic. Operating at equivalent levels of invention and energy are three members of his working quintet of one year's standing, his wife, Alice Coltrane, on piano; Pharoah Sanders on reeds and flute; and Rashied Ali on drums.

'Offering' is emblematic of the efflorescent energies and radical ideas that Coltrane himself had much to do with bringing forth during the seven years after 1960, when he left the employ of Miles Davis to pursue his vision as a leader. There are versions of Coltrane's 1960 hits "Naima" and "My Favorite Things", a transformational reworking of the 1964 ballad "Crescent", a spirit-raising rendering of "Leo", which he had recorded on several previous occasions during 1966, and the hymnal "Offering", which he would record on a February 15, 1967 studio session that Impulse! would release during the '90s as 'Spiritual Offering'.

On 'Offering', Resonance Records achieves the highest possible audio quality, using direct transfers of original master reels from a location recording by Temple's WRTI-FM, remastered at 96kHz/24 bit, that were tracked down by Coltrane scholar Yasuhiro Fujioka.

Personnel: John Coltrane (soprano and tenor saxophones, flute and vocals), Pharoah Sanders (tenor saxophone and piccolo), Alice Coltrane (piano), Sonny Johnson (bass), Rashied Ali (drums)

Additional musicians: Steve Knoblauch, Arnold Joyner (alto saxophone), Umar Ali, Algie DeWitt (conga), Robert Kenyatta (bata drum)

John Coltrane (Artist/Musician)