a bookend supreme

JD Considine on Coltrane (and a nice Diana Krall concert review). [via Don't Explain] Generally good article, covers some basics, with special mention of how jazz education has assimilated Coltrane.

One sentence is pure nonsense, though: "his initial work with Davis and later ventures in the avant garde are generally seen as mere bookends to his recordings in the late fifties [1959-1961] for Atlantic Records." That means that, apart from two or three studio dates (that are far from its best work), the Classic Quartet is a "mere bookend."

Considine does nuance his statement a little bit, saying that that period "was what cemented his popularity as a soloist and bandleader." Perhaps at the time, the Impulse! recordings cemented more than just popularity, and I'd guess that they have long since become more popular than the Atlantics.