Love Call is other half of the
New York Is Now session, which is, in a sense, ridiculous. Blue Note issued two records when they really only had one. There were two dates, April 29 and May 7, 1968. Half the tunes from this volume and half from
New York Is Now were recorded at each session.
Coleman, with
Dewey Redman and the rhythm section of
Elvin Jones and
Jimmy Garrison, work through
Coleman's melodic conceptions and harmonic constructs on five numbers.
Coleman plays alto on four tunes and trumpet on three -- better than violin. "Airborne" is the most successful thing here in that
Coleman's music matches the rhythm section's energy for the only time on the session.
Redman's tenor solo is one of the most bleating and emotionally intense of his career, careening across microphonics as he flats fifths and screeches through a series of arpeggios that cause
Coleman to begin his solo at 60 mph at the very top of a scale, and cruise through six or seven melodic variations on its theme before bringing it back down. Meanwhile,
Elvin barely breaks a sweat and
Garrison creates such a taut harmonic template for
Coleman and
Redman, they have to stretch. The title track is perhaps
Coleman's finest moment on the trumpet. He spatters his notes in such a way that across the B-flat diminished nine scalar invention, he picks up all the tonal qualities in the color palette and chromatically orders them in such a way that they set
Redman up with a prime opportunity to alter the melody of the tune one note at a time. Also, the bluesy theme in "Check Out Time," with its echoes of
Thelonious Monk's "Blue Monk," is a nice touch, but it should have opened or closed the album. ~ Thom Jurek