Thank you for buying this record. What follows is its documentation: the
pressing identified, the matrix / runout transcribed by hand from the dead
wax, and the condition as assessed before it was listed. It is yours to keep
with the record.
— Paul, Vinyl Curator
The John Coltrane Quartet
Africa/Brass
1961 · Impulse! A-6 · Mono · US · LP, gatefold · 33 1/3 RPM
Pressing details
| Label | Impulse! |
|---|
| Catalogue number | A-6 |
|---|
| Year | 1961 |
|---|
| Mono / Stereo | Mono |
|---|
| Country | US |
|---|
| Format | LP, gatefold |
|---|
| Speed | 33 1/3 RPM |
|---|
| Genre | Jazz - Hard Bop/Modal |
|---|
| Producer | Creed Taylor |
|---|
| Performer / Orchestra | Orchestra augmenting the Coltrane Quartet (arranged by Eric Dolphy and McCoy Tyner) |
|---|
| Musicians | John Coltrane (tenor & soprano saxophone), McCoy Tyner (piano), Reggie Workman (bass, tracks A1/B2), Art Davis (bass, tracks A1/B2), Elvin Jones (drums), Eric Dolphy (arranger, bass clarinet on A1), Booker Little (trumpet), Freddie Hubbard (trumpet), Julius Watkins (French horn), Bob Northern (French horn), Robert Swisshelm (French horn), Jim Buffington (French horn), Britt Woodman (euphonium), Charles Greenlee (euphonium), Bill Barber (tuba), Garvin Bushell (contrabassoon/oboe), Pat Patrick (baritone sax) |
|---|
Matrix / Runout
Side A: A-6-A RVG LW
Side B: A-6-B RVG LW
Condition
- Cover
- VG+
- Vinyl
- NM-
Variant chronology
1961 - US mono, orange/black target label, RVG stamp + "LW" etch, non-promo <- this copy
1961 - US mono, orange/black target label, white-label promo
1961 - US stereo (AS-6/A-6-S), orange/black target label, gatefold
1963 - US mono/stereo reissue, same-era Impulse label - value tracks with above (no separate documented sale)
1967 - US mono/stereo reissue - value tracks with above (no separate documented sale)
1976 - UK Impulse reissue (IMPL 8015) - no documented sale found
1980 - US MCA/Impulse reissue (MCA-29007) - no documented sale found
2026 - Verve/Acoustic Sounds Series 180g reissue (LDC84604)
This Pressing
1st mono press (1961) - Impulse! orange/black target label; RVG stamp with "LW" etch in the runout, no stereo designation.
The Album
Recorded in May and June 1961, Africa/Brass was John Coltrane's debut for the newly formed Impulse! label and a deliberate departure from the small-group format that had defined his Atlantic years. Coltrane assembled a large ensemble of brass and reeds - trumpets, French horns, euphoniums, tuba and contrabassoon - built around his working quartet, with Eric Dolphy and McCoy Tyner handling most of the orchestration under Coltrane's direction. The three extended pieces, an original blues, a reworking of the traditional "Greensleeves," and the modal centerpiece "Africa" built on a two-bass, drone-based foundation, let Coltrane stretch his solos over dense, slow-moving horn charts rather than conventional chord changes. The album arrived at a pivotal moment in Coltrane's career, bridging the harmonic explorations of his Atlantic period and the modal, spiritually charged music he would pursue for the rest of the decade, and it announced Impulse! as a serious home for adventurous jazz. Contemporary critics were divided over the unorthodox voicings and Coltrane's increasingly abstract improvising, but the record has since been reassessed as a key transitional work, prefiguring the modal and free explorations of his mid-1960s recordings. It remains treasured for the audacity of its orchestration and for capturing Coltrane at the outset of the label association that would produce his most celebrated work.
Tracklist
Side 2
1. Greensleeves
2. Blues Minor
The Label
The label is the classic first-generation Impulse "orange/black target" design: a rust/grey band at top and a black band at bottom, each stamped twice with the "impulse!" logo (one pair upright, one pair inverted), a cream centre field with plain black serif/sans title lettering, and the catalogue number "A-6" with a plain "Side 1"/"Side 2" designation - no "STEREO" wording and no "S" suffix anywhere on the label. This is the design Impulse used on its earliest catalogue entries (A-1 through roughly the low A-40s), c.1961-1963, before the label was reworked with an ABC-Paramount credit band, dating to the label's 1961 launch. Because the label carries no "-S"/"STEREO" designation, this is the mono configuration of A-6, not the stereo AS-6-S pressing. No deep groove; flat label.
Fidelity
Cut by Rudy Van Gelder directly from his own Englewood Cliffs session tapes, this mono pressing carries the RVG stamp associated with his best early-1960s work and is generally rated by collectors on the forums as sonically superior to the contemporaneous stereo mix, which suffers from unusual channel separation of the large brass ensemble. Within the album's fidelity hierarchy this original US mono Impulse! pressing sits at the top for vintage copies, ahead of 1960s stereo repressings and the 1970s-80s ABC/MCA reissues, which used later, more distant metal generations. The modern 2026 Verve/Acoustic Sounds Series 180g reissue, mastered from the analog tapes for audiophile release, is the only pressing likely to rival or exceed this one sonically, though it presents the stereo mix rather than mono.
Notes
1961 Impulse! A-6 mono - the original mono first-pressing configuration. Orange/black target label with four "impulse!" logos (two upright, two inverted) is the earliest Impulse label design; the runout carries the RVG stamp plus "LW" etch and no "S"/"STEREO" marking, distinguishing it from the stereo AS-6-S release. No promo markings (white label, "Demonstration") appear on the cover or labels, indicating a standard commercial mono copy rather than the promo variant.
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