New York, NY (Top40 Charts) 55 years after it was recorded, John Coltrane's studio album Both Directions at Once: The Lost Album is finally available today on Impulse! (Verve Label Group)/Universal Music. Recorded at Van Gelder Studios in 1963 with the Classic Quartet (John Coltrane, Jimmy Garrison, McCoy Tyner, Elvin Jones), the album is in the top ten charts with
Drake and Florence + The Machine. Clocking in the top 10 overall iTunes (#9 so far), and #4, #8, #11 (in different formats) on Amazon Bestsellers, and hitting #1 on the iTunes jazz charts in the US, UK, Japan, Germany and France, Both Directions at Once: The Lost Album is an incredible success for this lost album finally seeing the light of day.
Lady Gaga, Billy Joel,
Sheryl Crow and RuPaul have all tweeted about this historic release, and The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, The New Yorker, NPR, Rolling Stone, Variety, Billboard and more are all talking about the album, released today on all streaming partners, and on CD and vinyl in standard and deluxe formats. Listen to Both Directions At Once: The Lost Album HERE.
As the legendary saxophonist
Sonny Rollins so rightly put it upon hearing this music for the first time, "This is like finding a new room in the Great Pyramid."
That
John Coltrane is in the top ten charts with
Drake and Florence + the Machine is a meaningful statement about jazz's place in today's music world.
Danny Bennett, President and CEO of the
Verve Label Group and home of Impulse! Records, says, "Jazz is more relevant today than ever. It's becoming the alternative music of the 21st century, and no one embodies the boundary-breaking essence of jazz more than John Coltrane. He was a visionary who changed the course of music, and this lost album is a once-in-a-lifetime discovery. It gives us insight into his creative process and connects us to his artistry. This album is a cultural moment and the release coincides perfectly with our relaunch of the iconic Impulse! label."
Both Directions at Once: The Lost Album is a major addition to the Coltrane catalogue and the most important jazz discovery in recent memory.
This historic session resulted in 14 tracks in total. On the standard edition, there are 7 takes, chosen by Ravi Coltrane. The rest of the takes exist on the second disc of the deluxe set. The standard CD and LP and a deluxe CD and LP available now on Impulse! The deluxe edition exists on all digital streaming platforms as well.
"There are seven tunes on this collection, a well-hewed mix that clearly suggests Coltrane had his sights on creating a full album that day. From the sound of it, this would have been an important one." - The New York Times
"The 'Both Directions' session provides significant insights into the highly charged sound of the
John Coltrane Quartet." - Wall Street Journal
"Its performances reflect Coltrane's profound musical ideas—his intricate motivic distillations and harmonic expansions—and his majestic sound." - The New Yorker
"John Coltrane's lost album [is] a 'buried treasure' for jazz fans."- NPR All Things Considered
"The improbable new release by John Coltrane, Both Directions at Once: The Lost Album, arrives with the excitement of a rare celestial event."- NPR Music
"Despite Drake's much-awaited Scorpion album dominating most of the music headlines today, there was also another long-anticipated project that released today that's been over fifty years in making." - Hypebeast
"There's plenty to savor here, from an era when the saxophonist was edging ever further from the center of jazz and closer to the increasingly ambitious and ecstatic approach he would take in the three years before his death in 1967." - Rolling Stone
"Coltrane's work on both tenor and soprano sax is astonishing. The solos soar, yet he never seems to be straining. The songs build in familiar ways, but he manages to surprise." - Top40-Charts.com
"Is the collection's belated arrival a godsend? Absolutely." - Variety
"The great thing about this material is that it's all somewhat lighthearted, by Coltrane standards… everyone sounds like they're having fun." - STEREOGUM
"It simply does not get better than this quartet, during that year, endlessly in transition, completely fearless." - Billboard
Standard Edition Track List:
Untitled Original 11383 (5:41)
Nature Boy (3:24)
Untitled Original 11386 (8:43)
Vilia (5:32)
Impressions (4:36)
Slow Blues (11:28)
One Up, One Down (8:01)
Deluxe Edition Track List:
CD1
Untitled Original 11383 (Take 1) (5:41)
Nature Boy (3:24)
Untitled Original 11386 (Take 1) (8:43)
Vilia (Take 3) (5:32)
Impressions (Take 3) (4:36)
Slow Blues (11:28)
One Up, One Down (Take 1) (8:01)
CD2
Vilia (Take 5) (4:37)
Impressions (Take 1) (4:06)
Impressions (Take 2) (4:37)
Impressions (Take 4) (3:40)
Untitled Original 11386 (Take 2) (8:41)
Untitled Original 11386 (Take 5) (8:23)
One Up, One Down (Take 6) (7:17)
