John Coltrane

The classic quartet at their devotional peak. McCoy Tyner, Jimmy Garrison, Elvin Jones. Four parts, recorded in a single December 1964 session at Van Gelder Studios. The most celebrated jazz album of the post-bop era.

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Coltrane's only date as a leader for Blue Note, recorded September 1957 with Lee Morgan, Curtis Fuller, Kenny Drew, Paul Chambers, and Philly Joe Jones. The title track became a jazz standard.

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The harmonic gauntlet. Coltrane debuts the major-third cycle that bears his name, with Tommy Flanagan, Paul Chambers, and Art Taylor on the title cut. Includes Naima and Mr. P.C. The technical peak of his bop period.

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Quartet date with Red Garland, Paul Chambers, and Art Taylor cut at Van Gelder Studios in February 1958. Four standards plus Fred Lacey's Theme for Ernie. The lyrical, balladic side of the early Coltrane voice.

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The soprano saxophone revelation. Coltrane reworks the Rodgers and Hammerstein show tune into a thirteen minute modal vamp that would change his playing for the rest of his life. With McCoy Tyner, Steve Davis, and Elvin Jones.

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A deliberately tender record. It is often read as an answer to critics who had branded his recent work "anti-jazz," though other accounts credit Coltrane's own wish for a standards album and Impulse!'s wish for broader appeal. Eight Tin Pan Alley ballads with the classic quartet (Reggie Workman plays bass on It's Easy to Remember), recorded across three sessions in late 1961 and 1962.

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