John Coltrane - Coltrane Plays The Blues

Here is yet another record Atlantic culled from the same three days' worth of sessions which yielded My Favorite Things. October 21, 24 and 26, 1960 would ultimately give us upwards of 25 commercially released tracks.

Like all of the other albums released from these dates except the aforementioned My Favorite Things, Coltrane Plays The Blues was released after Coltrane had left Atlantic for Impulse. It is fair to argue that if opportunism was the motivation for the releases, there was no barrel scratching. The majority of these cuts were well worth making available.

The curating on this release in particular is quite impressive. Stylistically, the tracks fit very nicely and it is hard to imagine them being simply interchanged with those from the other albums resulting from these dates.

The period from 1959 - 1961 is one of Coltrane's most intriguing. It saw him break for good with Miles Davis, establish the initial incarnation of his own classic quartet, write some of his most interesting and enduring compositions and expand past the horizons of hard bop, going deep into a more modal, spiritual jazz - all while having some of his greatest commercial success.

Download:
John Coltrane - Coltrane Plays The Blues

Tracks:
Blues to Elvin
Blues to Bechet
Blues to You
Mr. Day
Mr. Syms
Mr. Knight

Personnel: John Coltrane — soprano and tenor saxophone; McCoy Tyner — piano; Steve Davis — bass; Elvin Jones — drums.