Africa / Brass

Africa / Brass

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This was Trane's first album with a big band. The unique instrumentation included four French Horns, tuba, two euphoniums, two trumpets, three reed players, and a rhythm section including two bassists. The tight arrangements were primarily penned by Trane and McCoy Tyner, and orchestrated by Eric Dolphy. Martin Williams only gave Africa/Brass a rating of two out of five possible stars. In consonance with Tynan's article quoted above, he highly criticized Trane's playing for his lack of swing, while praising the performance by the rhythm section. It must be admitted, however, that even though Down Beat published this unenthusiastic review, the original liner notes for Africa/Brass were written by another Down Beat collaborator, Don Cerulli, who praised the work. Africa/Brass marks the first collaboration between Coltrane and Eric Dolphy, who on this album played reeds (but didn't solo), wrote all of the orchestrations and conducted the ensemble. The sessions took place on May 23 and June 7 of 1961. Sandwiched between both sessions, Trane and Dolphy recorded the septet album Olé (on May 25, 1961), again with two bassists (Reggie Workman and Art Davis), and also adding Freddie Hubbard on trumpet to McCoy Tyner and Elvin Jones