The House That Trane Built: Best of Impulse Records

Given that these tracks were taken from the four-disc box set House That Trane Built: Best of Impulse Records to accompany Ashley Kahn's excellent book of the same name, it is difficult to place this music in context given its diversity (a goal from the jump at Impulse). It does give an overview of the avant-garde side of the label with tracks by John and Alice Coltrane, Archie Shepp, and Albert Ayler. It is balanced with cuts by Art Blakey and Earl Hines, Oliver Nelson, John Handy, and Charles Mingus. The sequencing is troublesome and problematic: placing Hines' read of Duke Ellington's "Black and Tan Fantasy" after Albert Ayler's "Our Prayer" is just plain strange, as is John Handy's funky "Hard Work" after Alice's "Journey in Satchidananda" (and these are the last four cuts on the disc).The most beautiful transition here is from Mingus' "Theme for Lester Young (Goodbye Pork Pie Hat)" to the first section of John Coltrane's "A Love Supreme." Given its length of only 61 minutes, it is truly puzzling that more music wasn't added to shed further light on Impulse's range. There's nothing here by Gil Evans, Chico Hamilton, Gabor Szabo, Gary McFarland, Tom Scott, Pharoah Sanders, or Ben Webster, and the reason, on the surface at least, is inexplicable. This is the only truly shoddy volume in the set. ~ Thom Jurek, All Music Guide

Note: this is a general synopsis. Each listing is further described below.