By Ron Wynn
NASHVILLE, TN — Yet another valuable and previously unreleased recording by legendary jazz musician John Coltrane is finally being issued.
It was announced last week that the album, “Evenings at the Village Gate” will be released in July. The sessions were recorded in 1961, but for decades were assumed to be lost. It now turns out they were discovered at the New York Public Library.
They add some important new material to the early 60s Coltrane legacy. At that time he was working with multi-instrumentalist Eric Dolphy, and he appears on this recording along with two thirds of the artists who would later comprise the immortal John Coltrane quartet.
Pianist McCoy Tyner and drummer Elvin Jones were joined in the rhythm section by bassist Reggie Workman, who frequently played with Coltrane and in later years sometimes subbed for regular quartet bassist Jimmy Garrison.
The album extends over 80 minutes and the musical menu includes both familiar Coltrane selections like “My Favorite Things” plus some different numbers.
This is the second Coltrane collection of recordings to be newly discovered in five years. The studio recording “Both Durections At Once” became his highest charting album when it was unearthed and released in 2018.
