Thursday, November 30, 2006
The 100 Greatest Songs of the 1970s, Part IX.
058. Chi Coltrane “Thunder and Lightning”
(Chi Coltrane)
Chi Coltrane, 1972
I really had
no idea what to expect when I found this record in the Female Vocal
section of one of the local vinyl paradises. I bought for two reasons:
I’m a compulsive collector of music from 1972,
and I wondered if she might somehow be related to that other Coltrane.
(Answer: unless her ancestors owned his, probably not.) Apparently
this hit the charts back when, but I’d never heard it; it’s
gospel-pop not unlike Carole King’s “I Feel The Earth
Move,” but harder-rocking and less beholden to Brill Building
tradition. And she’s got a better voice, a honeyed growl that
owes as much to deep soul singers like Barbara Acklin and Irma Thomas
as to white singer-songwriters like King or Laura Nyro. But this
is no Sixties pastische: the piano-thumping velocity of the thing,
the honking saxophone, the streamlined, bubbly production all smell
like crisp 70s vinyl to me. (That’s not so much synesthesia
as sense-memory, actually.) Aside from her one-hit-wonderish debut,
Coltrane was only somewhat successful; she released a handful of
albums and like many, found more fame, adulation, and money on the
European circuit, where being white didn’t preclude her from
being a soul singer, and being female didn’t preclude her from
rocking. But she never bothered the U.S. charts again.
http://jbogart.blogspot.com/2006/11/100-greatest-songs-of-1970s-part-ix.html
by Charles Donovan
It's clear from
the opening moments of Chi Coltrane's self-titled debut that she's
a singer/songwriter a few musical cuts above the rest. Primarily,
this is down to her piano-playing. Where even the most respected
artists of the genre could only play basic block chords or arpeggios
(Laura Nyro and Joni Mitchell, respectively), Coltrane is a player's
player, and an equal of any session musician. The eleven songs
on Chi Coltrane give her ample opportunity to show off. "Thunder
and Lightning" (an absolute white soul gem) was her first single,
and a top 20 hit, but it tells only a fraction of the story. The
rest of the album displays a complete mastery and understanding of
gospel ("Go Like Elijah"), as well music of both the Classical
and Romantic periods ("The Wheel of Life"), and in addition,
she comes up with a few hybrids of her own ("You Were My Friend").
Her vocals, alternatively tender, spirited, angry, and with a wonderful "on-the-verge-of-tears" quality,
are at odds with the dreamy inertia of most mid-70s performers. They
invest every cut with a compelling sense of drama and anxiety. Coltrane
may not be a top-drawer wordsmith (although she's certainly quite
good), but her lyrics are clear-headed, unpretentious and direct.
For subject matter, she draws mainly on love, friendship, religion
(tentatively), and philosophy. Although much press attention focussed
on her glacial, blonde good looks (think a less scary, pre-heroin
Nico), this album was a triumph of style and substance in equal measure.
http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:4fja7i4jg7or
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Chi Coltrane's
name was bounced around the airwaves for a while, courtesy of a
heavy advertising and promotion campaign by Columbia Records, and
her larger-than-life voice deserved more success, but if she was
only to be remembered for one hit, she could have done a lot worse
than "Thunder and Lightning" -- an original by the singer
with a powerful horn and sax arrangement that fits her singing
perfectly.
Bruce Eder , All Music Guide
http://www.answers.com/topic/super-hits-of-the-70s-have-a-nice-day-vol-9?cat=entertainment
Chi Coltrane brings a perfect blend of 'White Soul',Gospel and Rock.
Carole King or Laura Nyro meets Dan Penn and Spooner Oldham.
Famous session musicians(Jim Gordon,Larry Knechtel,Lee Sklar...)help
to make this a great album.
Some of the songs were released as a 'single' and became big hits
in The Low Countries;'Go like Elyah'topped the charts
'You're my best friend ' and 'Thunder And Lightning' were big hits
too.
The other songs are above average as well
Chi:sings,plays piano and organ.
With a trailblazing voice Coltrane steers us through up tempo ingots
laden with brass and virtuoso piano and solemn ballads. Her voice
soars with a navigational finesse that charts a course so brazen
it defies others to follow. And not many have, even chi struggled
to maintain this kind of form on her subsequent efforts.
http://rateyourmusic.com/release/album/chi_coltrane/chi_coltrane/
A year on from her first album,
Coltrane took over production for Let it Ride, recorded at London's
Trident Studios. The sound isn't vastly different, although there
is more backing vocal support (from vastly talented stalwart Merry
Clayton). Her songwriting was taking new and interesting turns.
The debut had shown a gift for pastiche, but Let it Ride frees
her skills to run a little wilder. "Flyaway
Bluebird" creates an aural playground out of only a piano and
a handful of vocalists, and is her finest moment. The title track
opens as a rather routine ballad, only to transmogrify into an untamed,
anguished masterpiece, remeniscent of Laura Nyro's best work. Coltrane
reaches back to her classical training for "Forget Love" -
an icily sophisticated composition with a clever, almost Germanic
piano accompaniment. The only criticism it's possible to level at
Let It Ride is Coltrane's tendency to eat up musical genres and spit
out instant, bite-size, expert examples of them. "Shortnin'
Bread" sounds like an exercise from a "How To Play the
Blues" textbook, and is the only time Coltrane's undoubted expertise
is potentially tiresome. But when the only fault you can find with
an artist is her own virtuosity, there's little point in finding
it. ~ Charles Donovan, All Music Guide
http://www.midomi.com/index.php?action=main.album&album_id=bf375d079c06d7e898d19db0bd6a6484&from=artist_albumtab
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In the years between Let It Ride and Road to Tomorrow, Chi Coltrane
had suffered financial misfortune at the hands of a neglectful manager.
Not that you could tell from these songs, all relentlessly upbeat
and optimistic. Released on the small Clouds label, Road to Tomorrow
has none of the appealing darkness of earlier Coltrane, but thankfully,
the musicianship and instant melodies remain.
Nearly every
song is about either romantic or spiritual satisfaction (with only
the curious "Slow Driver," in
which Coltrane berates a slack motorist, breaking the mould). The
pieces wouldn't sound out of place on a mid-period Carole King
album, and there's not a note on the record that isn't a pleasure
to hear, but everything - from the drab front cover to the chronic
prettiness of the songs - lacks the bite she had before. By the
time the album closes (with the title track), you'll feel either
blissfully purged of all unpleasant thought, or as though you've
just eaten twice your own weight in meringues. But give Coltrane
points for avoiding the more obvious maudlin tack beloved of singer/songwriters.
~ Charles Donovan, All Music Guide