John Coltrane: Blue Train - The Complete Masters (2LP, Blue Note Tone Poet, 180g, stereo) [BLUE NOTE]

Why you'll love it

This 65th anniversary Tone Poet edition adds a full LP of alternate takes to the original album, in a gatefold jacket on 180g vinyl. Blue Train went gold in 2001, and Coltrane named it his favourite of his own albums up to 1960.

This edition

• 2LP set
• Blue Note Tone Poet series
• 65th anniversary edition
• 180g vinyl
• Gatefold jacket
• Alternate takes included
• Stereo mix

About the album

John Coltrane recorded plenty in the 1950s, but this was his one session as leader for Blue Note, and he made it count. On September 15, 1957, in the middle of his residency with Thelonious Monk at the Five Spot, he went to Rudy Van Gelder's studio in Hackensack with a band Blue Note had paid to rehearse, something his previous label never did.

He wrote four of the five tunes. The title track is a slow, bluesy call to attention, "Moment's Notice" races through tricky changes, "Locomotion" is a blues riff in 44 bars, "Lazy Bird" nods to Tadd Dameron's "Lady Bird," and the standard "I'm Old Fashioned" is pure romance. Lee Morgan's trumpet and Curtis Fuller's trombone fill out the front line, with Kenny Drew, Paul Chambers and Philly Joe Jones behind them.

Blue Note's Michael Cuscuna called it Coltrane's first real mature statement. Paying the band to rehearse beforehand turned out to be one of the better investments in Blue Note's ledger.

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

Tracklist

Listen

On Blue Note (cat# B0035204-01), a reissue of the 1958 album.