Both Directions at Once: The Lost Album

John Coltrane - Both Directions at Once: The Lost Album
Critic Score
Based on 12 reviews
2018 Ratings: #7 / 890
User Score
Based on 252 ratings
2018 Rank: #69
Liked by 19 people
June 29, 2018 / Release Date
LP / Format
Verve / Label
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CRITIC REVIEWS

100
The Line of Best Fit

It’s a most welcome and inevitably stunning missing chapter from one of jazz’s finest quartet.

90
Drowned in Sound

Whatever the plan was, Both Directions at Once isn’t just a treat for the hardcore, either in terms of Coltrane or jazz more broadly.

90
Rolling Stone

Regardless of the intent, 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.

86
Pitchfork
The newly discovered, unreleased album from 1963 featuring the “classic quartet” finds the jazz giant thrillingly caught between shoring up and surging forth.
85
Spectrum Culture

Here is a great band, finding new footing even as it sits at a moment that we all thought was a temporary respite from change.

80
AllMusic

Both Directions at Once is truly a rare thing: an important discovery from the vault that's also a blast to hear.

80
The Guardian

These on-the-fly Coltrane experiments were part of a 1960s step-change in the evolution of jazz and much else in contemporary music, still making waves from those long-gone analogue days to the eclectic present.

SeanPassmore
99

55 years ago on March 6th, 1963, 36-year-old American jazz composer and saxophonist John Coltrane entered his favorite vaulted, wood-and-masonry-block recording studio at 445 Sylvan Avenue, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey for a five-hour long recording session with engineer Rudy Van Gelder. Session producer Bob Thiele had originally scheduled Coltrane (tenor/soprano saxophone) and his quartet McCoy Tyner (piano), Jimmy Garrison (bass) and Elvin Jones (drums) from 2:00pm in the afternoon until ... read more

Kucingjpg
95

words that women think men want to hear :
"You are sexy" "Damn, you are strong"

words that men want to hear :
"it's an original isn't it?" "11382--uhh 383 original"

Midline
85

I think it should be commended on how clean this sounds for being a "lost recording" The music here from Coltrane and the Quartet is outstanding as usual and 55 years later new music from them still impresses. 11386 is definitely the stand out. Everyone here is on there a game. This doesn't drive the genre forward any as much as more modern stuff does now cause we've heard Coltrane excell the genre at the same time this was recorded but man this one still bops and there's a somewhat ... read more

NicoIsntFunny
98

Glad this was found.

Kucingjpg
95

words that women think men want to hear :
"You are sexy" "Damn, you are strong"

words that men want to hear :
"it's an original isn't it?" "11382--uhh 383 original"

ConnorDunnoMe
73

This is a nifty album, and I think it's great, but I can see why this material was not released. Not Coltrane's best, but still very, very, very good. The Coltrane textures you usually expect aren't as prominent and the arrangements could use a bit a work. Even so, I even learned a couple of these untitled tracks, I think they are really strong heads with great form but I don't necessarily think this is a great recording of them. I impulse bought this vinyl and haven't come back except for the ... read more

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Track List

1Untitled Original 11383
5:41
95
2Nature Boy
3:23
88
3Untitled Original 11386
8:38
93
4Vilia
5:32
93
5Impressions
4:30
90
6Slow Blues
11:25
93
7One Up, One Down
7:58
95
Total Length: 47 minutes

Year End Lists

#8/ABC News
#43/The Line of Best Fit
#44/Treble
#58/Fopp
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Added on: June 22, 2018