he phrase “At Yoshi’s” conjures up countless memories for me. Yoshi’s nightclub had been around for a few years before its Claremont Avenue venue in Oakland, California, began hosting big-name jazz artists in 1979, and for the next twenty years or so it was the San Francisco Bay Area's preeminent jazz venue. In 1997, it moved to fancier digs near the Port of Oakland, but by then SFJazz in San Francisco was taking over as the area’s biggest jazz festival, and with the construction of SFJazz’s dedicated performance venue in 2013, there was little question that the center of the universe had shifted. But for those who were around to enjoy jazz in the Bay Area in the late 20th century, nothing else came close. I will forever remember Yoshi’s as the place where I last heard Pharoah Sanders play, an evening when legend Wadada Leo Smith stood behind me in line to hear Sanders.

Yoshi’s, in its Claremont Avenue location, was also situated in a hot bed of used record stores, three within a few blocks, now all gone. Across the street was a tiny storefront, D. B. Brown, at that time the area’s best used-jazz-LP store. I can still remember a day in the 1980s when, prior to a concert at Yoshi’s, I acquired an original mono pressing of Blue Train displayed on the wall at D. B Brown. I had been eyeing it for weeks, building up the courage to break my own self-imposed rule of never spending more than $100 on an LP. The record stores, and Yoshi’s Claremont location, are gone, but I still have that copy of John Coltrane’s only Blue Note title.

George Coleman is best remembered as a sideman, and his time with Miles Davis can be savored on Seven Steps To Heaven, My Funny Valentine and Four & More; or with a host of others, including Chet Baker and Charlie Mingus. He never signed a recording contract with a major label, however, and made do with occasional sessions on more obscure labels. Perhaps his best work as a leader, like At Yoshi’s, can be found on the small Theresa label.

Coleman was born and raised in Memphis, Tennessee, where he went to school with a who’s-who of jazz, including Harold Mabern, Booker Little and Charles Lloyd. Lloyd shot to fame and quickly became (and remains) too big a name for small jazz venues like Yoshi’s. Little was on a trajectory to fame until he died in his early twenties. Mabern, a self-taught pianist, had a lengthy career as a leader and sideman, including several records with Coleman. In August 1987, Mabern joined Coleman, along with drummer Alvin Queen and bass player Ray Drummond, for an appearance at Yoshi’s, as well as a studio recording session, probably at San Francisco’s Different Fur Recording Studio. Theresa Records released these sessions in 1989 on both LP and CD. The original one-disc LP contained five songs, and the longer CD version added two. This new two-LP set brings the full CD contents to vinyl for the first time.

Side one is devoted to two well-known and much-loved jazz standards: Irving Berlin’s “They Say It’s Wonderful” and Irene Higginbottom’s “Good Morning Heartache.” Coltrane and Johnny Hartmann opened their Impulse! release with the same Berlin piece, and this rendition is the first of several places in the performance that have you stopping to consider how much Coltrane and (this) Coleman drew from each other. “Good Morning Heartache” is a song owned by Billie Holiday, but the At Yoshi’s performance is remarkable in its own way -- starting out slow and then turning up the heat. There is not a throwaway number on the entire album, and it closes strong with the side-four, 17-minute-long “Soul Eyes,” composed by Mal Waldron with Coltrane in mind. Left off the original LP, for the obvious reason of its length, the ballad perfectly closes the album in drawing parallels between the two men. The playing on this album should remind us of Coleman’s greatness, not just as a sideman (where he is acknowledged as such) but as a leader. This is an album I have played many times; the music is so fresh and, dare I say, inspirational. It is an album of ballads that take the level of playing and creativity to a much higher level than most. It is truly one of the great live jazz LPs.