John Coltrane - Both Directions At Once: The Lost Album

by Raquel Pinheiro

How come a fifty five years old, previously unreleased album, is better than pretty much everything being currently released? And that is to say a lot. There has been no shortage of excellent, some even great jazz records, as well as of any other genre of late.
The simply answer may be there is only one John Coltrane and the musicians of his Classic Quartet -  Jimmy Garrison (double bass), Elvin Jones (drums), McCoy Tyner (piano) were amazing, if not extraordinary, ones.

Both Directions At Once: The Lost Album story is the stuff of tales and myths. Forever thought lost, the master tape was destroyed by Impulse Recordings because they needed storage space. Coltrane had given his wife, Juanita Naima, a recording of the tracks. For years, those too were missing. Until her family found them and gave them back to Impulse. The tapes were in good enough state, and, this time, the album was released.

Recorded March 6, 1963 at Van Gelder Studios, New Jersey, Both Directions At Once is exactly that. There are two directions in the record, one towards what was (or is) and one towards what is to come. The songs are superb, from Impressions to Untitled Original 11386 to Slow Blues or Villa, it is rather difficult, if not impossible, to single out one. Having to, I would say Original 11386 gets to be it. There is something in its breaks, freeness, melody, and general groove that make shine even brighter than all the other brilliant pieces in the album.

(Impulse Recordings)