Track Listing

1. Giant steps
2. Cousin mary
3. Naima
4. Like sonny
5. My shining hour
6. My favourite things
7. Central park west
8. Summertime
9. Mr Syms
10. Equinox
11. Body & soul

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #25168 in Music
• Released on: 2000-03-06
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .24 pounds

Amazon.co.uk Review
Two factors make this collection. First, The Very Best of is from a series of recordings for the Atlantic label (1959/60). Secondly, these recordings were made in that crucial transition between the Miles Davis quintet and the seminal quartet that accompanied Coltrane in the following years. It celebrates the maestro playing originals and standards, extending their meaning far beyond the usual scope and every track is a landmark. It is fitting that this album ends with "Body and Soul" because it really speaks of and to both. From the eternal "Giant Steps" with its spirited virtuosity, we move to the gutsy, soulful portrait "Cousin Mary" then onto a luminous recording of the classic "Naima". These performances hit to the heart and their integrity remain uncompromised. On "My Favourite Things" and "Summertime", Coltrane is joined by McCoy Tyner and Elvin Jones respectively, unveiling a deep fascination with the modal. Through John Coltrane's music, through his authoritative voice, through his keenly listening imagination, Jazz finds a mystical dimension. This record can change lives. --Ben Clarke

CD Description
The importance of John Coltrane as an inexhaustible, groundbreaking improviser cannot be overstated. His distinctive sound, melodic imagination and storied dedication to the craftremain an inspiration both to other saxophonists, and to later generations of jazz musicians.
These landmark sessions--a highly accessible, essential core of the Coltrane legacy--were recorded just after his bracing work with Miles Davis and Thelonious Monk, and signaled Coltrane's emergence as a dominant and enduring musical force. He reshaped standardslike "Body & Soul" and "Summertime" into his own heady, harmonic image. The classic recording of "My Favorite Things", probably Coltrane's most popular, introduced his soaring soprano sax and had pianists scrambling to decipher McCoy Tyner's revolutionary chord voicings. Coltrane's trademark "sheets of sound" cover "Central Park West", and the Afro-Cuban bump of "Like Sonny" (a nod to tenor-titan Sonny Rollins), while other original compositions such as the highly influential "Giant Steps" present radical ideas that musicians still grapple with today.

Customer Reviews

Excellent introductory compilation
This was the first Coltrane record I bought after seeing it offer. Well being called 'The Very Best of' I was expecting too much, but this isn't just hyperbole. A great selection of tracks and really stand out performances too (best version of 'My Favorite Things' I've heard).

Certainly a great introduction to the trane, highly accessible. I wouldn't consider myself a connoisseur of the genre, by any stretch, but I imagine this would be a worth while purchase to the more seasoned listeners too.

The poetry of cool
If you are new to Coltrane, this is a wonderful starting point. Not really the 'very best of' as it's drawn from his recordings on the Atlantic label, and doesn't include the later, classic 'Impulse' cuts. But who cares? It's a sensational selection from this inspired middle period of his musical career, and by now Coltrane is the complete master of mood and tone, going off like a firework in Giant Steps, wistfully poetic in central Park West, full of joy in My Shining Hour. Naima - so dreamy and gentle. So much sheer beauty pours from his playing. And some really great tunes tunes! Stand by to be blown away...