Africa/Brass was John Coltrane’s first album for Impulse Records and his first release made from a position of authority after the success of his back-to-back Atlantic Records hits, Giant Steps and My Favorite Things. Not wanting to simply retread, Coltrane drew an arguable line in the sand with Africa/Brass, adding somewhat unusual and ambitious big-band instrumentation on top of his basic quartet structure, including French horn, baritone sax, bass clarinet, and tuba.
This September 1961 LP has long been sought after by many fans, as it is regarded as an important work in the evolution of Coltrane’s sound leading up to his masterwork, A Love Supreme. Accordingly, it’s only gotten more difficult to find original pressings in decent condition at any price. There is no doubt that a high-quality reissue was in order, and this new one from Universal Music’s Acoustic Sounds Series is just what the doctor ordered.
As with most albums in the series, Africa/Brass was supervised by Chad Kassem (Analogue Productions), with new disc-pressing lacquers cut by Matthew Lutthans at The Mastering Lab. The 180-gram vinyl albums were pressed at Quality Record Pressing (QRP) and come housed in an audiophile-grade, plastic-lined inner sleeve. The beautiful gatefold cover is manufactured to exacting standards, recreating the look and feel of original editions, including glossy laminated cover artwork. They have also recreated the original 1961-era Impulse Records label design.
If you don’t have a good, clean original and, like me, have been frustrated trying to locate an affordable, decent copy, this reissue may signal that it is high time for you to give in and just get one of these. It sounds and looks great!
In fact, I compared it to my 1967-era third pressing (red-ring Impulse label with Van Gelder stamp in the deadwax), and this new edition compares favorably. It may even be better, as the vinyl is super quiet and the mastering highly sympathetic to the music (it’s a little bit quieter, so when you turn up the volume, things do open up). Perhaps a little bit brighter, the music sounds fuller, rounder, and overall more natural.
You can get Africa/Brass on Amazon for a very reasonable $28.78 at Amazon (which is an absolute steal, frankly! Consider that buying vintage pressing on the collector’s market (such as on Discogs) would cost you well over $100 for a copy approaching mint condition.
If you love John Coltrane’s music and have been waiting to “find” a clean original, this new Acoustic Sounds edition is a very affordable and sonically strong option that will get you enjoying the music sooner rather than later. In fact, I am going to purge my 1967-68 pressing now that I have this in the collection (although I will still hold onto my well-loved orange-label mono pressing).
Our Ratings
★★★★★★★★★★ Music
★★★★★★★★★★ Sound
★★★★★★★★★★ Packaging
Where to Buy
Mark Smotroff is a deep music enthusiast / collector who has also worked in entertainment oriented marketing communications for decades supporting the likes of DTS, Sega and many others. He reviews vinyl for Analog Planet and has written for Audiophile Review, Sound+Vision, Mix, EQ, etc. You can learn more about him at LinkedIn.
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