John Coltrane: The Best Of John Coltrane [CRAFT RECORDINGS]

Why you'll love it

Craft Recordings assembled this vinyl-exclusive set with the support of the John Coltrane Estate, picking six tracks from his formative Prestige years. It pulls from Soultrane, Lush Life, Black Pearls and his sessions with the Red Garland Trio and Thelonious Monk.

This edition

• Vinyl-exclusive compilation
• Prestige-era recordings, 1957 to 1958

About the album

Before the sheets of sound and A Love Supreme, there was a young tenor player making records at a remarkable clip for Prestige, most of them cut at Rudy Van Gelder's studio in Hackensack. This set gathers six of the best from those two years, when Coltrane was working out the voice that would change jazz.

Side A opens with "I Hear A Rhapsody" from Lush Life, then the long, loping "Traneing In" with Red Garland on piano, Paul Chambers on bass and Art Taylor on drums. "Theme For Ernie," from Soultrane, is a ballad guitarist Fred Lacey wrote for saxophonist Ernie Henry, and Coltrane plays it with real tenderness. Side B brings "I Love You," a bright "Lover Come Back To Me" with Donald Byrd on trumpet from Black Pearls, and "Trinkle, Tinkle," Thelonious Monk's knotty tune from their time together, with Wilbur Ware and Shadow Wilson in the rhythm section.

It's a tidy introduction for newcomers and a handy one-disc set for anyone who already owns the originals and wants the highlights in one place. Six tracks is roughly how many it takes us to stop talking and just listen.

Also at Kops: more John Coltrane on vinyl · browse Classic Jazz

Listen

On Craft Recordings / Prestige, a reissue of the 2026 compilation.