John Coltrane

100 Best Albums

Essential Albums

  • A Love Supreme
    A Love Supreme
    A Love Supreme

    100 Best Albums Recorded on 9 December 1964 in the iconic New Jersey studio of Rudy Van Gelder, A Love Supreme is the crowning achievement of John Coltrane’s Impulse period and arguably the most representative album by his classic quartet with pianist McCoy Tyner, bassist Jimmy Garrison and drummer Elvin Jones. More than anything else, A Love Supreme raised the bar in terms of what jazz could strive to express. It is devotional in intent, with a long religious poem printed on the sleeve, and a liner note in which Coltrane alludes to his overcoming addiction (“a period of irresolution”) and pinpoints his “spiritual awakening” in 1957. (He doesn’t overtly mention his intensive work with Thelonious Monk that year, but it played a big role in his recovery and regaining of artistic focus.) There’s an aura of solemnity, therefore, surrounding A Love Supreme, and it’s clear from the first riveting notes of the opener, “Acknowledgement”. Here and throughout the album, there’s an evocative play between tempo and nontempo. Coltrane weaves incantational tenor sax phrases to begin, until Garrison takes up the main four-note “A Love Supreme” motif on bass and Jones drops a driving, multi-layered beat with the subtlest Afro-Latin tinge. Tyner’s spiky, transparent voicings help cement the rhythm before Trane enters again—six yearning notes systematically expanding into a turbulent sea of notes. That group sound, that moment, became etched into jazz history like scripture on a stone tablet. Coltrane ultimately sings the words “a love supreme” over the groove before the first movement gives way to “Resolution”, a surging, anthemic midtempo swing piece animated by one of Coltrane’s most powerful, noble melodic themes. “Pursuance” is much faster, bookended by Jones’ 90-second drum intro and Garrison’s full three minutes of deeply felt solo bass. “Psalm” then concludes the work with a tenor benediction, mournful and floating in time, with Tyner’s shimmering chords and Jones’ whooshing cymbals—in some sense reminiscent of “Alabama” from Live at Birdland. The full programme is quite concise, although the Deluxe Edition tacks on the only known live version of the suite, plus alternate takes—two of which feature Archie Shepp and Art Davis on second tenor and bass, respectively, moving strongly in the direction of what would become Ascension. By 1964, Coltrane was long past the fast chord-change acrobatics of “Giant Steps” that had obsessed him in 1959. Following logically from his work with Miles Davis on Kind of Blue, he was exploring harmonic stasis, structures with far fewer chords and a different way of organising improvisational thought. This was “modal jazz”, which serves somewhat imprecisely to describe the music on A Love Supreme. It’s in a zone similar to “Impressions” from 1961, but it’s less abstract, more tonally based, than the famous “Chasin’ the Trane” from ’61 as well. It’s astonishing to think of what Coltrane achieved in 10 short years, between his debut as a leader in 1957 and his death from liver cancer in 1967 at age 40. The official lifetime releases don’t tell the whole story: From three posthumous albums we learn what the core A Love Supreme quartet was undertaking right after its December 1964 triumph. Transition, First Meditations (for quartet) and Sun Ship give an indication of where Coltrane was leading the quartet post-A Love Supreme, had he chosen to stay on that route. Instead, in June of ’65 he recorded Ascension, a far more radical free improvisation with an expanded edition of the classic quartet. Kulu Sé Mama and Meditations also found Trane moving away from the textural sparsity of A Love Supreme while still retaining its core personnel. But by 1966, the classic quartet had dissolved. Though Garrison remained in place, Alice Coltrane and Rashied Ali entered on piano and drums, respectively. The music grew ever freer, edgier, more experimental, and a new classic quartet was born.

  • John Coltrane and Johnny Hartman
    John Coltrane and Johnny Hartman
    John Coltrane and Johnny Hartman

    1963

  • Thelonious Monk With John Coltrane
    Thelonious Monk With John Coltrane
    Thelonious Monk With John Coltrane

    Drug addiction brought John Coltrane’s first historic stint with Miles Davis to an end, so it was the impossibly enigmatic piano genius Thelonious Monk who offered Trane a way forward after getting clean in 1957. Monk’s harmonic mazes stimulated Coltrane’s imagination and dovetailed with his own ambitious explorations on tenor sax. An extended quartet gig with Monk at the Five Spot gave Coltrane the creative stability he needed, and enormous musical growth ensued. Some of the live material is documented (with poor fidelity) on Discovery! Live at the Five Spot, but in 2005 the long-lost and excellent-sounding At Carnegie Hall emerged, shedding a whole new light on the Monk-Coltrane partnership. Apart from that, Thelonious Monk With John Coltrane is just about the only other item to showcase this pairing of jazz giants. Compiled in 1961, the tracks fall into two categories: “Ruby, My Dear”, “Trinkle, Tinkle” and “Nutty” feature Coltrane and Monk in a quartet setting (with bassist Wilbur Ware and drummer Shadow Wilson), stretching out much as they might at the Five Spot. “Off Minor” and “Epistrophy” are alternate takes from the June 1957 sessions that yielded the classic Monk’s Music, which found Coltrane in a septet with other horn players (and Art Blakey on drums). Interestingly, Coleman Hawkins plays “Ruby, My Dear” as a ballad feature on Monk’s Music, so Coltrane’s version here offers a historically significant contrast. Both the extended solo piano blues “Functional” and the reissue bonus track “Monk’s Mood” are from the April 1957 Thelonious Himself sessions, and it’s “Monk’s Mood" on which Coltrane appears, with just Ware on bass and no drummer. This is easily one of Monk’s most arresting ballads, and here it takes on the rare and intimate glow of a chamber piece.

  • Giant Steps (2020 Remaster)
    Giant Steps (2020 Remaster)
    Giant Steps (2020 Remaster)

    1960

  • My Favorite Things (Expanded Edition)
    My Favorite Things (Expanded Edition)
    My Favorite Things (Expanded Edition)

    Saxophonist John Coltrane revolutionised jazz in 1961 with his long, playful and endlessly inventive take on Rodgers and Hammerstein's "My Favorite Things." Coltrane's soprano transforms this musical-theatre chestnut into arguably the most seductive track of experimental jazz ever recorded. An upbeat version of the Gershwins' "Summertime" from Porgy and Bess is the other highlight from this 1961 standards fest that finds Coltrane and the rest of his quartet—McCoy Tyner (piano), Elvin Jones (drums) and Steve Davis (bass)—in sterling form.

  • Blue Train
    Blue Train
    Blue Train

    Beginning with a phrase that’s among the most famous in modern jazz, Blue Train, which John Coltrane called his favourite recording of his own music, is an unqualified hard bop masterpiece. Recorded in September 1957, this is Coltrane’s first major album as a bandleader (and his only one as a leader for Blue Note), and he selected some of the best young jazzmen of the era to join him: fellow Miles Davis band alumni Paul Chambers (bass) and Philly Joe Jones (drums) along with Lee Morgan (trumpet), Curtis Fuller (trombone) and Kenny Drew (piano). Featuring four Coltrane compositions plus the Johnny Mercer ballad “I’m Old Fashioned”, the music is thrilling, passionate and melodic from start to finish. There’s exceptional playing by both Morgan and Fuller: Marvel at how Fuller’s nimble solo on “Locomotion” leads into the flurry of notes that begins Morgan’s own solo, one of the highlights of the album. Coltrane’s solos are muscular and focused, and while the notes often come fast and furious, nothing is wasted here. He’s stretching the limits of the blues form without abandoning its basic structure (as he would later). It’s particularly fascinating to hear the roots of the ideas that Coltrane would explore more fully on his 1959 landmark recording Giant Steps. Powerful and searching yet accessible, this timeless album is a must for jazz aficionados and neophytes alike. 
This album is an Apple Digital Master made from a high-definition audio source, designed to cut noise while maximising clarity and efficiency, bringing you a sound virtually indistinguishable from the original 24-bit studio masters.

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About John Coltrane

The influence of jazz saxophonist John Coltrane remains unparalleled. Born in Hamlet, North Carolina in 1926, he enjoyed a meteoric ascent in Philadelphia following his discharge from the Navy in 1946. Credited with innovating modal and free jazz, Coltrane was also distinguished by his deeply personal style and quest for spiritual enlightenment. Although he recorded a self-titled solo album in 1957, his brilliance was evident alongside trumpeter Miles Davis and pianist Thelonious Monk, with Coltrane's chordal improvisations inspiring critic Ira Gitler to coin the term “sheets of sound”. Coltrane's knack for unleashing flurries of notes reached new heights on 1960 album Giant Steps. His quartet with pianist McCoy Tyner, bassist Steve Davis, and drummer Elvin Jones released the modal jazz sensation My Favorite Things in 1961, the same year he moved from Atlantic to Impulse! Records and began drawing on Indian classical music and the free jazz taking root in New York City. He worked feverishly over the next six years, developing an electrifying rapport with his working band and collaborators like Eric Dolphy and Pharoah Sanders as he pushed from 1965 stunner A Love Supreme (a through-composed suite that captured his search for the divine) to a series of albums that privileged improvisation over compositional frameworks. Coltrane carried on with these explorations until he succumbed to cancer at age 40.

BORN
1926
GENRE
Jazz

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