John Coltrane (tenor sax), McCoy Tyner (piano), Steve Davis (bass) and Elvin Jones (drums). From the album Coltrane’s Sound (1964).
The Republic of Liberia is a country located in western Africa next to Sierra Leone, Côte d'Ivoire and Guinea. It has more than four million inhabitants. Although English is usually spoken, there are some thirty indigenous languages. As a result of two civil wars, its economy is shattered. Now it has as president the first woman who governs an African country. Liberia is also a Costa Rica's canton.
The theme describes destruction and war, damn luck ours. The corpses crowd in the streets. But the shootings continue. The Coltrane solo begins in a heartbreaking way. Snipers look out the windows and violence spreads everywhere. The survival of the day to day becomes very difficult. And Coltrane describes everything with his masterful tenor saxophone. The anguish of people can be felt in the environment. Tyner continues the description of the events. Coltrane re-exposes the theme remembering that all of this is really happening somewhere in this moment.
© Atlantic Records
