John Coltrane: Coltrane (1957) [ORIGINAL JAZZ CLASSICS/PRESTIGE]

Why you'll love it

This Original Jazz Classics LP presents the album in its original mono. Coltrane had just stepped away from Miles Davis's quintet, and this Prestige date shows him leading his own band through his own tunes for the first time.

This edition

• Mono
• Original Jazz Classics series

About the album

Spring 1957 was a turning point for John Coltrane. He had been the tenor voice in Miles Davis's quintet, and now Prestige gave him a session of his own: one day at Rudy Van Gelder's studio with a sextet of Johnnie Splawn on trumpet, Sahib Shihab on baritone sax, Red Garland and Mal Waldron sharing the piano chair, Paul Chambers on bass and Albert Heath on drums.

Cal Massey's "Bakai" opens on a dark, minor-key swagger, "Violets For Your Furs" and "While My Lady Sleeps" show off his tender ballad sound, and "Straight Street" and "Chronic Blues" are Coltrane originals that hint at the harmonic searching to come. "Time Was" swings easily in between. Garland and Chambers were his bandmates from the Davis quintet, so the rhythm section arrives already in step, and Van Gelder's engineering gives the horns a warm, close-up glow.

Within months he was playing with Thelonious Monk and recording Blue Train, and Giant Steps was not far behind. All of this was done in one day's work, which is roughly how long it takes us to alphabetise the jazz section.

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

Tracklist

Listen

On Prestige / Original Jazz Classics (cat# OJC-020), a reissue of the 1957 album.