Editing John Coltrane (section)

===1961–1962: First years with Impulse! Records===
[[File:JohnColtrane1961.jpg|upright|thumb|Coltrane in Amsterdam, 1961]]

In May 1961, Coltrane's contract with Atlantic was bought by [[Impulse! Records|Impulse!]].<ref name="Ratliff">{{cite book |last1=Ratliff |first1=Ben |title=Coltrane: The story of a Sound |url=https://archive.org/details/coltranestoryofs0000ratl |url-access=registration |date=2007 |publisher=Farrar, Straus and Giroux |location=New York |isbn=978-0-374-12606-3 |edition=1st}}</ref> The move to Impulse! meant that Coltrane resumed his recording relationship with engineer [[Rudy Van Gelder]], who had recorded his and Davis's sessions for Prestige. He recorded most of his albums for Impulse! at Van Gelder's studio in [[Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey]].

By early 1961, bassist Davis had been replaced by [[Reggie Workman]], while [[Eric Dolphy]] joined the group as a second horn. The quintet had a celebrated and extensively recorded residency at the [[Village Vanguard]], which demonstrated Coltrane's new direction. It included the most experimental music he had played, influenced by Indian [[ragas]], [[modal jazz]], and [[free jazz]]. [[John Gilmore (musician)|John Gilmore]], a longtime saxophonist with musician [[Sun Ra]], was particularly influential; after hearing a Gilmore performance, Coltrane is reported to have said, "He's got it! Gilmore's got the concept!"<ref>{{cite journal |last=Corbett |first=John |title=John Gilmore: The Hard Bop Homepage |journal=[[DownBeat]]}}</ref> The most celebrated of the Vanguard tunes, the 15-minute blues "Chasin' the 'Trane", was strongly inspired by Gilmore's music.<ref name="kofsky">{{cite book |first=Frank |last=Kofsky |title=Black Nationalism and the Revolution in Music: John Coltrane: An Interview |publisher=Pathfinder Press |year=1970 |page=235 }}</ref>

In 1961, Coltrane began pairing Workman with a second bassist, usually [[Art Davis (bassist)|Art Davis]] or [[Donald Garrett]]. Garrett recalled playing a tape for Coltrane where "I was playing with another bass player. We were doing some things rhythmically, and Coltrane became excited about the sound. We got the same kind of sound you get from the East Indian water drum. One bass remains in the lower register and is the stabilizing, pulsating thing, while the other bass is free to improvise, like the right hand would be on the drum. So Coltrane liked the idea."<ref>{{cite book | last = Porter | first = Lewis | author-link = Lewis Porter | title = John Coltrane: His Life and Music | publisher = The University of Michigan Press | year = 1999 | pages=198–199 }}</ref> Coltrane also recalled: "I thought another bass would add that certain rhythmic sound. We were playing a lot of stuff with a sort of suspended rhythm, with one bass playing a series of notes around one point, and it seemed that another bass could fill in the spaces."<ref name="wilmerinterview115">{{Cite book|title=Coltrane on Coltrane: The John Coltrane Interviews |last=Wilmer |first=Val |editor-last1=DeVito |editor-first1=Chris |chapter=Conversation with Coltrane |date=2010 |pages=115 |publisher=Chicago Review Press }}</ref> According to [[Eric Dolphy]], one night: "Wilbur Ware came in and up on the stand so they had three basses going. John and I got off the stand and listened."<ref name="wilmerinterview115" /> Coltrane employed two basses on the 1961 albums ''[[Olé Coltrane]]'' and ''[[Africa/Brass]]'', and later on ''[[The John Coltrane Quartet Plays]]'' and ''[[Ascension (John Coltrane album)|Ascension]]''. Both Reggie Workman and [[Jimmy Garrison]] play bass on the 1961 Village Vanguard recordings of "India" and "Miles' Mode".<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.discogs.com/release/1196907-Coltrane-The-Complete-1961-Village-Vanguard-Recordings |title=John Coltrane – The Complete 1961 Village Vanguard Recordings |website=Discogs |year=1997 |access-date=July 30, 2022 |archive-date=July 30, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220730143947/https://www.discogs.com/release/1196907-Coltrane-The-Complete-1961-Village-Vanguard-Recordings |url-status=live }}</ref>

During this period, critics were divided in their estimation of Coltrane, who had radically altered his style. Audiences, too, were perplexed; in France he was booed during his final tour with Davis. In 1961, ''DownBeat'' magazine called Coltrane and Dolphy players of "anti-jazz" in an article that bewildered and upset the musicians.<ref name="kofsky" /> Coltrane admitted some of his early solos were based mostly on technical ideas. Furthermore, Dolphy's angular, voice-like playing earned him a reputation as a figurehead of the New Thing, also known as free jazz, a movement led by [[Ornette Coleman]] that was denigrated by some jazz musicians (including Davis) and critics. But as Coltrane's style developed, he was determined to make every performance "a whole expression of one's being".<ref>Nisenson, p. 179.</ref>