Impressions

One of John Coltrane’s most popular and influential recitals, Impressions draws its two extended blowing tracks from the saxophonist’s celebrated November 5, 1961 gig at New York’s Village Vanguard. The brief, charming blues and ballad were recorded later, in the fall of 1962 and the spring of 1963 respectively. Across Impressions, Coltrane acknowledges his roots while pushing into new territory. The title track is an affectionate uptempo nod to his earlier modal flights with Miles Davis, and Jimmy Garrison’s commanding pulse makes it clear that Trane had found his bassist. Coltrane’s new conception loosened rhythm sections from the old metronomic role, and Garrison and Elvin Jones answer Trane’s run of short phrases and torrid cries with a loose, counterpunching kind of conversational 4/4. Garrison’s ability to move seamlessly between vamp and swing beats, along with his innate sense of form on non-metric material, gave the quartet room to leave strict timekeeping behind in favour of a more freely breathing pulse. Jazz would never be the same.