According to the liner notes, this is the first time that Coltrane's final Newport Jazz Festival appearance in July 1966 has been released on any format. It could well be, but no doubt Jazzwise readers will let Domino Records know if it's not. The performance, introduced by Father Norman O'Connor (a regular at the early Newport festivals), comprises an extended ‘My Favorite Things,’ plus ‘Welcome’ and ‘Leo,’ three tracks in all. By the time the next Newport Jazz festival was held, in July 1967, Coltrane was in hospital fighting for his life, a battle that finally came to an end on 17 July. It must be said that this 1966 concert attracted unfavourable reviews at the time in the pages of Jazz Journal by Stanley Dance, and in Downbeat by Dan Morgenstern that was reflective of the kind of controversy Coltrane's final period attracted – and continues to attract. The sound is quite good, albeit with occasional imperfections en route. It is worth noting that most discographies – Fuji, Porter and David Wild, for example – list ‘Welcome’ (from Kulu Se Mama) as ‘Peace on Earth’, while discographer Jack Lefton, who was present at the performance, goes for ‘Welcome’, which this release also goes with. Coltrane's music of this period makes no compromises, it explores sound as a thing-in-itself, and when his incredible energy flagged, he had on hand the services of Pharoah Sanders, who, by Coltrane's own admission, was waiting in the wings for such contingencies. However, Coltrane gives no sign that a year later he would be dead; this is high energy stuff that encapsulates the pattern running period that culminated in Giant Steps and the modal period that culminated in A Love Supreme liberally mixed with a large portion of New Thing sturm und drang. It poses a question which can never be answered, but is worth speculating on – if Coltrane had lived, where would he have taken his music from here? More of the same, only louder and longer? Or would he have rowed back (as Archie Shepp did) to a calmer side of his musical personality, such as he revealed on Ballads?