Live at the Half Note: One Down, One Up is a 2005 double CD compilation of two previously unreleased 1965 Friday radio broadcasts – March 26 and May 7 – at the Half Note Club in New York City, featuring John Coltrane with McCoy Tyner, Jimmy Garrison, and Elvin Jones.
The recordings were made by the radio station WABC-FM, in 1965, for a Friday radio show called “Portraits in Jazz” with Alan Grant (né Abraham Grochowsky; 1919–2012). Coltrane’s group played at the Half Note from March 19–April 4 and again from May 4–9 of that year. The Half Note recordings were made shortly after the February 17–18 studio recordings, and shortly before the May 17 studio recordings, that would appear on The John Coltrane Quartet Plays.
According to critic John Fordham, the recording uses “tapes discovered in the 1990s by ‘Trane’s sax-playing son Ravi, but which had already been circulated and studied by many awestruck saxophonists, including Mike Brecker, Steve Grossman and Dave Liebman. Liebman and Archie Shepp have vividly recalled the experience of hearing Coltrane’s legendary group in full cry in the Half Note’s tiny space, Shepp remarking that ‘it was like being in church’ and Liebman remembering an occasion when the audience ‘started to put their hands up to the ceiling and the whole place stood up’.” The 2005 release was produced by Ravi Coltrane, who also, with Ashley Kahn, wrote the liner notes….read more.
Album Data
Released: 2007
Recorded: March 26th & May 7th, 1965
Record Label: Impulse! Records
Location Recorded: The Half Note, New York City
Producer: Ravi Coltrane
Album Length: 86 min / 31 sec
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