John Coltrane – Soultrane (LP, Analogue Productions)

This album further deepened Coltrane’s importance as a style-defining musician. As in “Coltrane” and “John Coltrane And The Red Garland Trio,” his first two albums as a bandleader on the Prestige label, the material in “Soultrane” is beyond the ordinary. The Red Garland-Paul Chambers-Arthur Taylor rhythm section is a perfect accompaniment for ‘Trane’, who was widely recognized at the time as one of jazz’s two most influential tenor saxophonists – the other being Sonny Rollins. “Soultrane” opens with a sprawling variation of “Good Bait,” a Tadd Dameron/Count Basie collaboration first recorded by Dizzy Gillespie in the 1940s. The way Coltrane plays the twists and turns of this tune gives it a touch of a minuet, complete with solos from Garland and Chambers in the same solid groove. “I Want To Talk About You” is a ballad written and originally recorded by Billy Eckstine in the mid-1940s – completely new as a jazz interpretation.