In 1957 John Coltrane recorded his first masterpiece, Blue Train; in 1967, he recorded his last masterpiece, Interstellar Space. Within 5 months of recording these duets with drummer Rashied Ali, he would die of liver cancer.

Though it gets lumped with other "late", post-1965 or avant-garde Coltrane recordings, this album sounds very little like any other Trane recording. Even if you dislike Meditations or Ascension, there's a chance that you'll like this -- and vice versa. The absence of Pharoah Sanders makes this record easier on the ears, and a lot less ferocious. On the other hand people who love the hardcore intensity of stuff like Meditations or Sun Ship may find Interstellar Space to be a little too abstract or austere. The absence of piano creates a lot of space, which may be a good or a bad thing depending on your tastes.

There are still some similarities to Meditations, Sun Ship, etc. -- Coltrane's playing is very free, disregarding harmony and melody for sound. The themes are short and range from serene beauty ("Venus") to dense fury ("Leo"). Though it might seem that this music is random or without structure, the order and structure are just in a different musical language. In some parts, Coltrane is conducting a saxophone dialogue with himself.

I'm a fan of course, and must say that the music is unbelievable. If you're a fan of Trane's saxophone playing, keep in mind that he just PLAYS on this album, with none of his abilities impaired in the least. Rashied Ali is obviously not Elvin Jones, but he complements Trane perfectly and fuels his ideas. As long as you know what you are getting into, this should be one of the first purchases if you want to explore Coltrane's late music. And though very little of his other work sounds like it, the quartet sessions composing Stellar Regions and Expression come from the same time period.

This disc is 60 minutes of some of the most impassioned free jazz you will hear from an innovating giant in the field. Of the myriad posthumously released recordings of John Coltrane, _Interstellar Space_ is certainly one of the most profound.

Part of what makes the album intriguing is that the lineup is unlike anything else Coltrane did. Jazz duos became more common later. The entire album is improvised in duo format with Rasheid Ali on drums. Coltrane could have found no drummer more empathetic than Ali, who is a very different beast than the mighty Elvin Jones. Ali abandons the role of rhythmic anchor and follows Coltrane directly into the free vortex, and the two play against one another in a dazzling swirl of spattering cymbals, clattering rolls, tonally-straining honks and sqruawks, and spitfire runs of 16th notes. The sparse texture purifies the focus on the rich dynamics, intensity, and magical interplay. Meter exists in this music only by implication. The music is played around time signatures, but only rarely do they overtly appear. It's brutally passionate ("Mars"), shockingly beautiful and emotional, (the final third of "Venus"), and wickedly swingin' (for about 15 glorious seconds near the end of "Saturn"). And it's all dangerously jazzy and movingly spiritual.

If you want another masterpiece of monstrous duo free jazz, hunt down _Spots, Circles, and Fantasy_, Cecil Taylor on piano and Han Bennink on drums.

Wow. My uncle is a Coltrane worshipper like myself, and also a jazz drummer, a really smart and wonderful man, but he quits on Coltrane after 1965. We argue about this music from time to time, he refers to it as idiotic or says it doesn't make musical sense, but he's calmed down because he knows how strongly I feel about this music. My ex wife would leave the house every time I put this record on. I confess these points of view just astound me. Here Coltrane breaks through yet again into musical territory that is virgin soil, he was the first here, and really no one has come close since (With all due respect mister Dorward I don't think the Prevost/Parker recordings come close, I love those guys, and I love that recording, but man this music is just too far ahead of anyone else. All the same I agree with you though that people should check those and their other works out too). From this record alone I will say Rashid Ali is the greatest drummer to use a Western drum kit I have ever heard. He doesn't play like a drummer, he plays like a pianist,like Cecil Taylor really, he is concerned with sounds, with novelty, I could listen to a thousand drummers and know him every time, he never really repeats himself, never finds a recurring beat and always sounds new and interesting (it's a shame he never recorded with Derek Bailey or Sonny Sharrock my god what that would have been like!). This record is a duet between Saxophone and drums, how bold is that? Not a sax record with drums keeping the time, but a true duet, with each musician changing, moving, making sounds of beauty, new tones, new rhythm, new space, new moods. Yes, the drums make moods, they even have a sensitive side! My favourite of the pieces is Venus, but I love them all, some of the sounds Coltrane made that are dearest to my heart are on these recordings. God bless John Coltrane and Rashid Ali for this music, it is demanding, intricate, difficult, but it is worth the effort. Back to Prevost, he demands you listen to his "metamusic" and AMM the same way you would read a book,give it your total attention and focus, not a new idea, but to those who view music as entertainment or a mood enhancer/alteration it is good advice. Listen to this music carefully, clear your mind, hear each event, let it speak to you, move through you, let go of all the preconceptions about music that have been put in your head if you haven't already. It doesn't have to communicate verbally or obviously, it doesn't have to have the structures codified by Europeans five centuries ago or time restraints that date back to the running time of a 45 rpm record. Give this a chance like this, just as an experience, it's not meant for entertainment, but for enlightment. Rashid and Coltrane transcend their egos on this one, it can do it for you too, Coltrane beleived the listener was part of the process. And beleive me, the music of John Coltrane can change your life forever. Even if you don't get it at first the effort alone will do so much for your soul and your life. This is one of the key works of Coltranes, and is essential to any record collection, for it is an essential piece of the music of humanity.

If you are interested in late Coltrane, this is the place to start. Essentially, the album consists of Coltrane going nuts on his saxophone for an hour accompanied by Rashid Ali on drums.
Trane takes simple motives and builds them up to brilliant heights. The album is endlessly listenable, because there are many layers of structure to the improvisations.
Sometimes Trane seems to wander without a tonal centre; other times he clearly uses a tonal centre, sometimes playing things that recall his earlier playing with the "Classic Quartet".
Ali's drumming is fine. It sort of melts into the background, which is just the way it should be. He moves smoothly with Trane's changes in tempo and dynamics. He takes a few relatively short solos.
This album is essential listening for people interested in late Coltrane, free jazz, and modern music in general.

I don't even know how to describe this album. I still don't feel like I should be writing a review for it because I still don't feel like I have gained everything I could from it at this point. This album holds a wealth of so many treasures on it, I sincerely think that you could listen to it thousands of times and gain something new each time. This album is like having a job, the more you put into it, the more you get from it and vice versa. This album isn't going to hand itself to you. You have to subconsiously want to gain something from it. Many will call it noise or racket, true, a tenor saxophone and drums don't seem to make the most complimentary pair to begin with and on this album, Rashied Ali and John Coltrane blast their instruments out of any sterotypical roles they may have had. Ali uses his drumset as more of a tonal palette than a rhythmic timekeeper and Coltrane completely destroys the notion of what a jazz saxophonist "should" play. This was one of the last recordings Coltrane ever made and it is definitely one of his finest. It may seem like atonal noise the first, second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth and maybe even tenth listen, but give it time, patience and perseverence and this recording will give you more than you could ever imagine.