Dan Sorrells argues that The John Coltrane Quartet Plays (Impulse, 1965) captures the quartet at a pressured, transitional peak: melodic forms are still present, but Coltrane’s solos and the rhythm section’s responses are already straining those forms toward more radical exploration.
The 1965 John Coltrane Quartet recording balances familiar song forms with increasingly intense, probing improvisation.
On “Chim Chim Cheree” Coltrane quickly departs the melody while Elvin Jones and McCoy Tyner push and resist those departures, creating palpable tension.
Tracks such as “Brazilia” and “Nature Boy” point toward the longer, more exploratory performances Coltrane would pursue later in 1965 and beyond.
Plays (Impulse, 1965) is presented here as a favorite for listeners who prefer the classic Coltrane quartet just before its music and membership moved into more open-ended territory. Dan Sorrells frames the record as a snapshot of a band under pressure: established song structures are still in place, but the lead voice keeps testing and breaking their edges.
Sorrells singles out "Chim Chim Cheree" to illustrate the record's dynamic. The tune begins with an approachable melody—comparable to Coltrane's earlier "My Favorite Things"—but within a minute Coltrane is already "chafing against the melody." His phrasing and the group's response push beyond Tyner's measured vamp. Elvin Jones' drumming and Coltrane's lines often feel poised to burst beyond the piano's repeating patterns, creating a sense of imminent rupture.
Sorrells writes as someone steeped in freely improvised music who nevertheless keeps returning to this quartet phase of Coltrane's output. For listeners who know where Coltrane's work would go later in 1965 and 1966, this record reads as a liminal moment. That hindsight increases the album's dramatic charge: you can hear the future experiments pushing through the quartet's present.
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