John Coltrane - John Coltrane With The Red Garland Trio (Original Jazz Classics Series)

John Coltrane With The Red Garland Trio catches Trane just as his tone was hardening into something unmistakable, here on a 180 gram pressing from the Original Jazz Classics series.

Cut in a single session at Rudy Van Gelder's Hackensack studio and released by Prestige in 1958, the date reunites Coltrane with two familiar faces from the Miles Davis Quintet, pianist Red Garland and bassist Paul Chambers, with Art Taylor on drums. Nobody is feeling anybody out here; the rhythm section simply locks in and lets the saxophonist roam. Prestige later reissued the album as Traneing In, a nod to its sprawling opener.

That opener is the main event. "Traneing In" stretches past twelve minutes, an unhurried blues that gives Garland plenty of room before Coltrane pours in long, searching lines. "Bass Blues" keeps the temperature up, while the ballad "You Leave Me Breathless" reveals the tender, burnished side of his tenor that often gets drowned out by talk of his later fire. Irving Berlin's "Soft Lights and Sweet Music" closes the set on a standard.

For anyone tracing the road from Prestige sideman to bandleader legend, this is an essential stop: five tracks, one session, and a quartet that sounds completely at home in each other's company. Put it on late and let Chambers do the walking.