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Title: Traning Exotic
Review: The opening bars of "Olé" begin a slow, sometimes hypnotic journey through Iberia with Trane as conductor. On soprano sax, he weaves Moorish lines while Eric Dolphy adds an unusual wrinkle, a flute solo that avoids that instrument's usual hippy dippy tweeness. Freddie Hubbard adds to the Spanish feel with his trumpet, and then like two groaning sages, the bass players speak to one another in an obscure, mysterious language. "Olé" has all the yearning of Coltrane's best music. "Aisha", on the other hand, though written by pianist McCoy Tyner, speaks to his gentleness, his celebration of beauty. Inspired no doubt by a soulful woman, the ballad is reminiscent of Trane's "Naima". On the whole, it's a reflective and restrained album that only gives the slightest intimation of the volcanic intensity that would soon follow.
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