John Coltrane: Blue Train

This 1957 recording is where John Coltrane came into his own as a leader after spending the last couple of years as a rapidly growing member of Miles Davis' great quintet with Red Garland, Paul Chambers and Philly Joe Jones.  It was also the year that Coltrane kicked the heroin habit that inhibited his development and when his half-year stint with Thelonious Monk helped him advance dramatically as a musician,

This was a one-off recording deal with the famed Blue Note Records and the differences between what Alfred Lion offered and what Coltrane got in his contract with Bob Weinstein and his Prestige Records is literally clear.  The production values were so much better and Coltrane took full advantage of working at Rudy Van Gelder's legendary stdio by combining great tunes with an excellent band.

The former included the superb blues title track, the excellent up-tempo "Moment's Notice," "Locomotion," "Lazy Bird," all Coltrane originals and a cover of the old pop chestnut "I'm Old Fashioned."  Then, there's the band, which included Coltrane's mates from the Davis group Chambers and Jones, who were locked in tight on that rhythm, the fine pianist Kenny Drew, and the potent duo of trumpeter Lee Morgan, of "The Sidewinder" fame several years later, and trombonist Curtis Fuller, who is the only living member of this tremendous group.

Coltrane was in what Ira Gitler somewhat dismissively called his "sheets of sound" period, issuing blistering runs on his tenor, while also demonstrating what that moniker overshadowed, his command of phrasing, richness of sound, and deft handling of complicated passages, while his ballad work on "I'm Old Fashioned" showed the tremendous growth he'd made recently.  Morgan is powerful, passionate and intense, demonstrating great technique and power in his playing, while Fuller provides a relaxed and refined counterpoint in his playing against the intensity of the other horn players.  As for Chambers and Jones, they hold everything together beautifully.

Putting together a great slate of pieces, handling five crack musicians in a way that coalesces their talents to the service of the songs and the session, and demonstrating remarkable transformations in his musicianship reveals that Coltrane had really arrived.  There are some very good Prestige recordings in his catalog, but Blue Train stands out as the best of his late Fifties work.

I only have the disc and not the artwork for this album, but, years ago, a friend bought me a framed poster of Blue Train that has hung in my office at work for close to twenty years, so that's what the image shows.