Olatunji Concert

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The Olatunji Concert: The Last Live Recording
The Olatunji Concert: The Last Live Recording cover
Live album by John Coltrane
Released 2001
Recorded April 23, 1967
Genre Free jazz
Length 63:38
Label Impulse! Records
Producer(s) Bryan Koniarz
Professional reviews

All Music Guide 4/5 stars [1]

The Olatunji Concert is the Impulse! Records-released last live recording of saxophonist John Coltrane, recorded April 23, 1967 at the Olatunji Center of African Culture in New York and released posthumously on CD. The album consists of two songs, Ogunde, which Coltrane also recorded for his final self-approved album, Expression, and an especially free-form My Favorite Things, which Coltrane had performed live regularly since 1960. The recording was done for broadcast on MC Billy Taylor's local station, WLIB.

On the recording, Coltrane performs intense and lengthy, if poorly recorded solos. Sonically, the album is notable for its overwhelming din of multiple drummers.

Rumors of Coltrane being deathly ill and unable to stand during the gig are dispelled in Lewis Porter's John Coltrane: His Life and Music. Rashied Ali opines that Coltrane might have simply been tired that day. It was not until May - about a month after this show - that Coltrane began to complain of intense abdominal pain; he died two months after that, in July. It is important to note that the Olatunji Concert was not Coltrane's last show, but rather, his second-last - he would play one more on 7 May 1967 in Baltimore.

[edit] Track listing

  1. Introduction - 0:35
  2. "Ogunde" - 28:25
  3. "My Favorite Things" - 34:38

[edit] Personnel