John Coltrane - Like Sonny

The first three tracks on this record are the first commercially available cuts of a Coltrane band with McCoy Tyner on the bench. These dates, for Roulette, are from September 1960, about one month before their first sessions for Atlantic.

The pianist had been playing live with Trane, mainly around Philadelphia and New York, for a couple of years while the horn man was still in the great Miles Davis band. The story goes that Coltrane told Tyner to hold tight, that when he left Davis they would play together. The earliest recorded document is from the Jazz Gallery, also in 1960, but Tyner has stated that they had started playing together when he was only 17, which would have been 1955!

It is incredible to listen to these tracks in the context of Tyner's other work from 1960. While all of it is above-average hard bop, there is no denying that he simply plays and sounds somehow different when playing with Trane, even this early.

Tracks: One And Four (aka Mr. Day); Exotica; Like Sonny (aka Simple Like); Essii’s Dance; Doxy; Oleo; I Talk To The Trees; Yesterdays; Angel Eyes

Personnel: John Coltrane - tenor sax; McCoy Tyner - piano; Steve Davis - bass; Billy Higgins - drums

Recorded September 8, 1960, United Recorders, Los Angeles, California

Tracks: Essii’s Dance; Doxy; Oleo; I Talk To The Trees; Yesterdays; Angel Eyes

Personnel: John Coltrane - tenor sax; Ray Draper - tuba; John Maher - piano; Spanky DeBrest - bass; Larry Ritchie drums

Recorded November, 1958 in New York City

Download:
John Coltrane - Like Sonny