Search - John Coltrane :: Soultrane (20 Bit Mastering)

In February of 1958, John Coltrane was once again ensconced in Miles Davis's group after a stimulating six-month stay with Thelonious Monk's quartet. He was also at the beginning of one of the greatest periods of sustained creativity that any jazz musician would ever know. Practicing constantly, sometimes using harp exercise books, the tenor saxophonist was extending his technique to somehow execute a new vision, moving toward modal improvisation by extending bop's already dense harmony. On this date, Coltrane was matched with a superb rhythm section and some of the players who knew him best: pianist Red Garland and bassist Paul Chambers, from the Davis quintet, and drummer Art Taylor, who worked regularly in trio with Garland and Chambers. A fine but reluctant composer, Coltrane concentrated on a repertoire of jazz and pop standards for the session. Tadd Dameron's "Good Bait" still moves with a perfect swing as Coltrane explores its harmonies, while "Theme for Ernie" is a deeply etched, moving elegy for altoist Ernie Henry. "I Want to Talk About You," written by singer Billy Eckstine, was a favorite ballad vehicle (one which Coltrane would record to greatest effect on Live at Birdland in 1963), and he plays it here with an astonishing sweetness. The concluding version of Irving Berlin's "Russian Lullaby" is taken at an ironically breakneck tempo, with Coltrane virtually pouring runs over the rhythm section in the style that would be called "sheets of sound." Soultrane is one of Coltrane's most beautifully balanced statements, compounding his restless experimentation with his immense, traditional skills. --Stuart Broomer