John Coltrane - The Best of John Coltrane [Prestige]

Title: The Best of John Coltrane [Prestige] Artist: John Coltrane Release Date: 11/9/2004 Re-Released On: 1/17/2005 Label: Prestige Records, Fantasy/Prestige Album Type(s): Greatest Hits UPCs: 025218351720, 0090204925766, 090204925766 Genre: Jazz Styles: Hard Bop, Jazz Instrument, Saxophone Jazz Moods: Cerebral, Complex, Confident, Dramatic, Elegant, Epic, Freewheeling, Searching, Stately, Atmospheric, Bittersweet, Cathartic, Circular, Fiery, Hypnotic, Intense, Literate, Passionate, Poignant, Reflective, Sophisticated, Spiritual, Uncompromising, Warm, Wistful, Earnest, Gentle, Intimate, Lush, Organic, Refined/Mannered, Romantic, Calm/Peaceful, Enigmatic, Ethereal, Exuberant, Manic, Plaintive, Provocative, Sad, Tense/Anxious, Visceral, Volatile, Difficult, Gritty, Playful, Reserved, Reverent, Rollicking, Rousing, Soothing, Sprawling, Urgent, Yearning, Amiable/Good-Natured, Earthy, Laid-Back/Mellow, Nocturnal, Restrained Total Copies: 0 Members Wishing: 1 Number of Discs/SwapaCD Credits: 1

1. Russian Lullaby
2. The Way You Look Tonight
3. On a Misty Night
4. Come Rain or Come Shine
5. Dakar
6. I'll Get By (As Long as I Have You)
7. Theme for Ernie
8. Bahia
9. Lover, Come Back to Me
10. I Hear a Rhapsody
11. Trane's Solo Blues (AKA Slowtrane)

Year Type Label Catalog # 2005 CD Prestige Records 57172 2005 CD Fantasy/Prestige 57172 2004 CD Prestige Records 5717

No other editions were found for this album.

A look at the dates and the label easily give the story away, for on this single disc, you are going to hear the formative Coltrane when he was still working for Miles Davis and Thelonious Monk, not the spiritual visionary of the 1960s. Nevertheless, there are plenty of indications of what was to come in these sessions, as distilled from the massive 16-CD Prestige Recordings box. To cite just one of many examples where Coltrane seems to be leaving his sidemen and the era behind, on "Come Rain or Come Shine," Coltrane's sheets of sound are already blazing, while the rest of the expert rhythm section and trumpeter Donald Byrd seem stuck in the 1950s. Trane also rips up-tempo into as unlikely a vehicle as Irving Berlin's "Russian Lullaby," and the alternating latin and straight-ahead grooves of the rhythm section in "Bahia" play as foils to the increasingly outside flurries of the restless leader. The gentle side of Coltrane took shape in the 1950s as well; that wonderfully majestic yet compassionate tone can be felt in the ballad "Theme for Ernie." Coltrane is also heard as a sideman on albums by Mal Waldron ("The Way You Look Tonight"), Tadd Dameron in a rare quartet setting ("On a Misty Night"); Trane sounds more clearly his own man in the latter than the former, though the recording date is earlier. There's no work with Miles here; you can find some of that on the Best of Miles Davis volume in this series. And there is no attempt at putting things in chronological order, in the service of better pacing. For those unable, or unwilling, to invest in the big box, this single disc will do fine as a stopgap. ~ Richard S. Ginell, All Music Guide

Name Credits Albert "Tootie" Heath Drums Art Taylor Drums Bob Weinstock Audio Production, Producer Cecil Payne Sax (Baritone) Donald Byrd Trumpet Earl May Bass Ed Thigpen Drums Esmond Edwards Photography Idrees Sulieman Trumpet Jamie Putnam Art Direction Jimmy Cobb Drums Joe Goldberg Liner Notes John Coltrane Saxophone Julian Euell Bass Kirk Felton Remastering Louis Hayes Drums Mal Waldron Piano Paul Chambers Double Bass Pepper Adams Sax (Baritone) Philly Joe Jones Drums Red Garland Piano Rudy Van Gelder Engineer, Audio Engineer Sahib Shihab Sax (Alto) Tadd Dameron Piano Teddy Charles Audio Production, Producer Wilbur Harden Trumpet