John Coltrane’s Cat In The Bag: Blue World

on Impulse!
Reviewed by Henry Cherry

John Coltrane died from liver cancer 52 years ago. Nevertheless, in the last two years, he has released two new recordings. Both were lost, one forgotten in the attack of a relative, the other hidden in a Canadian film archive, protected from the devastating Universal Studios Fire of 2008 that destroyed more than 100,000 master tapes, some Coltrane recordings among them.

This year’s release, Blue World, is the only soundtrack the musician recorded across his entire career. It dates from his most fertile period, recorded in the lead up to the creation of A Love Supreme, his landmark work. Because Blue World contains no new songs, it is a departure for Coltrane, who generally sought to explore and write new compositions for his albums. By examining songs he had previously recorded, this release also delivers track by track comparison and a window into the legendary saxophonist’s Classic Quartet as they cruised along at high altitude. That’s a staggering discovery to get any year. That it comes directly on the heels of last year’s Both Direction at Once, a lost session from 1963, is extraordinary. In 2018, dead 51 years, John Coltrane reached the highest chart position of his career. Compounding the uniqueness of these two newly rediscovered recordings is the aforementioned Universal fire of 2008, which reduced the work of nearly 1000 recording artists to cinder. Perhaps that devastation is at the heart of these finds, the loss having prodded people to…