Ballads (John Coltrane album)

Ballads
Studio album by John Coltrane
Released	End of January/early February 1963[1]
Recorded	December 21, 1961; September 18 and November 13, 1962 Van Gelder Studio, Englewood Cliffs
Genre	Jazz
Length	32:18
Label	Impulse! A-32
Producer	Bob Thiele
John Coltrane chronology
Duke Ellington & John Coltrane (1962) Ballads (1962) John Coltrane and Johnny Hartman (1963)

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
Down Beat (Original Lp release)	[2]
Allmusic	[3]
The Penguin Guide to Jazz	[4]
The Rolling Stone Jazz Record Guide	[5]

Ballads is a jazz album by John Coltrane. It was recorded in December 1961 and 1962, and released on the Impulse! label in 1963 as A-32 (mono) and later AS-32 (stereo). Critic Gene Lees stated that the quartet had never played the tunes before. "They arrived with music-store sheet music of the songs" and just before the recordings, they "would discuss each tune, write out copies of the changes they'd use, semi-rehearse for a half hour and then do it". Each piece was recorded in one take, except for "All or Nothing at All".^[6] In 2008, the album was a recipient of the Grammy Hall of Fame award.^[7]

Track listing

1. "Say It (Over and Over Again)" (Frank Loesser)– 4:18
2. "You Don't Know What Love Is" (Gene DePaul)– 5:15
3. "Too Young to Go Steady" (Jimmy McHugh, Harold Adamson)– 4:23
4. "All or Nothing at All" (Arthur Altman)– 3:39
5. "I Wish I Knew" (Harry Warren)– 4:54
6. "What's New?" (Bob Haggart)– 3:47
7. "It's Easy to Remember" (Richard Rodgers)– 2:49
8. "Nancy (With the Laughing Face)" (Jimmy Van Heusen)– 3:10

Personnel

• John Coltrane – tenor saxophone
• McCoy Tyner – piano
• Jimmy Garrison (#1-6, 8), Reggie Workman (#7) – bass
• Elvin Jones – drums

Additional personnel

• Rudy Van Gelder – recording engineer
• Jim Marshall – photography

References

1. Billboard Feb 16, 1963
2. Down Beat: March 28, 1963 vol. 30, no. 8
3. Allmusic review
4. Cook, Richard; Morton, Brian (2008). The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings (9th ed.). Penguin. p. 288. ISBN 978-0-141-03401-0.
5. Swenson, J. (Editor) (1985). The Rolling Stone Jazz Record Guide. USA: Random House/Rolling Stone. p. 46. ISBN 0-394-72643-X.
6. Original liner notes by Gene Lees
7. Grammy Hall of Fame website, retrieved 9 November 2013.