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Title: A masterful Coltrane-and-beyond event
Review: Here's a classic conundrum: how would John Coltrane have reacted to the music of Jimi Hendrix? Trane died in 1966, and since then some of his best extrapolators have been guitarists, not saxophonists. But here in one dramatic session we have Sonny Sharrock, who plays guitar like Coltrane played the sax in his late years; Pharoah Sanders, who really played in Coltrane's last bands, and always plays like he's falling off a mountain; and Elvin Jones, whose drum work anchored the classic Coltrane quartets of '60-'65. Sharrock wrote the tunes, which are surprisingly catchy like rock anthems (I kept thinking of Santana) but then the improv goes berserk in the best possible way. Jones and young bassist Charnette Moffett supply the driving rhythm behind this hyper-energy, magical event.
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