John Coltrane
I’ve checked, and to date, I’ve only mentioned John Coltrane twice on my blog. Let me clarify: this lack of coverage is not for lack of admiration, it is after all not by chance that I’ve listed the amazing album My Favorite Things in My 25 Essential Jazz Albums.
It is just that overall, so much more has been written about the Jazz legends, both online and offline, than about current contemporary musicians.
Therefore, I try to focus a lot of my Jazz writing here on recordings of the last 2 decades.
That said, every once in a while the record industry finds a smart way of re-releasing existing content, which gives me a nice excuse to write about it.
Coltrane’58 – The Prestige Recordings (Prestige Remaster 2019)
To make it clear: there is no new content on this box that hasn’t been released previously. What is interesting about it is essentially two things: a remaster of the original recordings, and the chronological ordering of all of his recordings.
You get 37 tracks, all recorded in the year of 1958 when Coltrane signed with Prestige, and started to emerge as the star and legend he was bound to become in the following years. They are taken from albums such as Soultrane, Lush Life, or Kenny Burrell & John Coltrane.
Personally, I don’t think this year is as great as some of his all time masterpieces, be it Giant Steps (1959), My Favorite Things (1960) or obviously A Love Supreme (1964).
That said, this is nevertheless a box of thoroughly enjoyable music, uniting such fantastic musicians such as Tommy Flanagan, Red Garland, Paul Chambers, Jimmy Cobb, Louis Hayes or Art Taylor as the rhythm section, and great soloists such as Kenny Burrell and Freddy Hubbard.
Furthermore, the remastering really is quite well done, apparently taken directly from the original master tapes. Prestige unfortunately never was one of the “audiophile” labels, that said, for a 60 year old recording, this entire box really is fully enjoyable.
Before buying it, you may want to check out which of the original albums you may already own, or if you already (like me) have the Complete Prestige Recordings box set, in which case the only reason for buying would be the remastering.
If you don’t have any of these albums yet, this is a purchase I can recommend without any hesitation.
My rating: 4 stars
You can find it here (Qobuz)
musicophilesblog - From Keith Jarrett to Johannes Brahms 
Hi there. I guess I like just about everything he did during his career, from the subdued to the very far-out. Do you know Crescent, for instance, a quiet and beautiful album on the Impulse label? Interstellar Space, which was released posthumously, is an intense series of duets between Coltrane and the drummer Rashied Ali. Take care —
Neil S.
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I do have Crescent but not Interstellar Space. Will have to check that out!
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I’ve been listening to this for the past three hours. Wow, what a great collection. I think that of everything I’ve listened to from your site over the past few years, classical included, this is hands-down my favorite. Smooth Coltrane, sheets-of-sound Coltrane, jazz guitar. cello? Great, great stuff. I’d like to reblog this one.
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Thanks Jim for your kind words and sure feel free to reblog!
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I may not be able to. Your design doesn’t allow for reblog and I don’t see any good, easy way to do this minus that function.
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Never mind. I found it.
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Reblogged this on Music Enthusiast and commented:
Chris over at Musicophile (jazz and classical) has been one of my longest followers and was, I think, one of the first to come over and make a comment on one of my posts which I found encouraging when I had, like, zero followers. I always find something tasty on his site but nothing tastier than this Coltrane collection. I listened to it for about four hours straight the other day and that’s saying something. This has got the mellow Coltrane, the outside Coltrane, piano, guitar – you name it. Give it a spin. It’s great.
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I’m on the same page as Neil with his comment. I have a couple of the individual recordings you mention from this set. In my travels I will scoop this up if it gets in my way.
I have been to your takes before and didn’t take the time to lay down some comments. Will bracket some time and change that. Later
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Thanks! Really appreciate any feedback, positive or negative.
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Just had a quick glance at a few of your takes and seen ‘Night Train’ by Oscar Peterson. Will check that out for sure. I had a neighbor (a very good neighbor) just lay the vinyl lp on me. How’s that for a nice guy?
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You’ll have fun. It’s one of Peterson’s all time greats.
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Yeah i have it on CD but the vinyl was a great surprise that dropped into my lap. It really is a good one. I’ll save my comments for your experience with it.
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I’ve never had this on vinyl but it is one of those albums that feels like it should be on vinyl as the only appropriate medium
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I agree. But hey, the music on ‘Night Train’sounds good from whatever device you have.
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Thanks for reviewing this. I’m a big Coltrane fan and looking forward to getting this collection. I usually play Coltrane or Miles while I work because I like music without lyrics so it doesn’t distract me. I especially like the fact that the music of sequences chronologically. I’ve heard a lot of his music but not all of it. Thanks again.
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Thank you so much for your kind words! I agree this box is really worth having!
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