JOHN COLTRANE

RETROSPECTIVE: THE IMPULSE! YEARS

 Disc three :
  9/  Offering                                   (J. Coltrane)                 8.27

          Recorded at Van Gelder Studio, Englewood Cliffs, NJ on February 15, 1967
          Engineered by Rudy Van Gelder
          Produced by Bob Thiele & John Coltrane
          Compilation produced by Michael Cuscuna
          Executive Producers: Dave Grusin & Larry Rosen

John Coltrane: tenor sax; Alice Coltrane: piano; Jimmy Garrison: bass; Rashied Ali: drums.

          1992 - Impulse!/GRP/MCA (USA), GRD-3-119 (3CD)

REVIEWS :

Each album John Coltrane released on Impulse Records had a specific mood and tone; often, they were sequenced in a specific order to maximize the emotional impact of the music. Consequently, a compilation isn't the best way to hear these records, and Retrospective: Impulse proves that. There's certainly a lot of wonderful, timeless music on this collection, from "Naima" to "Alabama," but this disc isn't the way to appreciate it, since its sequencing doesn't have the same impact or context as the original albums. Some casual fans or curious listeners might use this as an introduction, and it isn't necessarily bad, since it does have an abundence of good music. However, it's not as good an introduction to the Impulse records as the original records themselves.

Stephen Thomas Erlewine (courtesy of the All Music Guide website)