Music CD - John Coltrane: The Very Best of John Coltrane

	Music CD: The Very Best of John Coltrane Artist: John Coltrane List Price: $11.98 Our Price: $4.92 Your Save: $ 7.06 ( 59% ) Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours Manufacturer: Atlantic / Wea
Average Customer Rating:
Tracks: 1. Giant Steps 2. Cousin Mary 3. Naima 4. Like Sonny 5. My Shining Hour 6. My Favorite Things 7. Central Park West 8. Summertime 9. Mr. Syms 10. Equinox 11. Body And Soul
Binding: Audio CD EAN: 0081227977825 Label: Atlantic / Wea Manufacturer: Atlantic / Wea Number Of Discs: 1 Publisher: Atlantic / Wea Release Date: 2000-02-15 Studio: Atlantic / Wea
Related Items Kind of Blue The Essential Charlie Parker A Love Supreme Best of Miles Davis & John Coltrane Birth of the Cool
Spotlight customer reviews: Customer Rating: Summary: Best saxophonist ever Comment: This music is completely brilliant and I was really impressed by the terrific clarity and sound quality on this compilation CD of 11 of the finest cuts by the USA's master saxophonist John Coltrane. I had never heard this man's music before , but was aware of his very high status in the music world, so I thought I'd try out this collection to see if I liked his style. This is a real gem of an album , and I will definitely be playing this many more times on my CD player here at home. John Coltrane is without any doubt the best saxophone player I have ever heard . I'm sort of new to reviewing jazz instrumental albums and don't have much knowledge in this style of music, but this will spur me into trying out more "classic jazz" artists whom I never heard before and learning more about this exciting field of music. A timeless recording that will always sound marvellous. 5 stars. Customer Rating: Summary: Actually, this is pretty good Comment: It's tempting to laugh at a John Coltrane compilation, simply because so many of the man's albums are essential. However, even though this neglects Trane's awesome Impulse! albums, focusing instead on his Atlantic years, it's a great introduction to Trane before he revolutionized free jazz and turned himself into one of the jazz world's most controversial musicians as a result. Material from five albums is featured here: Giant Steps (a must-have album), My Favorite Things (ditto), Coltrane Plays the Blues (very solid album), Coltrane Jazz (right in the middle) and Coltrane's Sound (his weakest studio album, though it has its moments - all of them are found here). And the only questionable song on the album is Summertime, a standard I'm pretty well tired of: the Coltrane version is okay, but by far the weakest song on My Favorite Things (I'd rather either Ev'ry Time We Say Goodbye or If Not For Me). Other than that one dud, my only complaint about this album is its rather limited scope: The Ole Coltrane album is entirely ignored, which is a shame because its title track (Well, semi-title track) would definitely qualify as "very best", and the fact is you can't get an idea of what Coltrane's like just by listening to his Atlantic recordings: you need the Impulse! ones too if you want the full picture. Still, as a summary of the Atlantic recordings, it's hard to go wrong with this one: you get a few of his most widely known originals (Equinox; Giant Steps; Naima; Cousin Mary; Like Sonny; Central Park West), and a couple superb covers (My Favorite Things; My Shining Hour; Body and Soul - hard to ruin a song with such a beautiful melody!!), as well as a dark horse that's got my blessing, Mr. Syms. And this does for the most part offer the peak of the man's Atlantic recordings. Customer Rating: Summary: "Giant Steps" "Equinox" and "My Favorite Things" are enough for 10 stars alone. Comment: This is a good intro to Coltrane, he has too much amazing stuff to put into a single CD but this is a great place to start off. You'll get a little sample of all his sounds from this CD. And for those of us who own more than 10 Coltrane Albums, it's still nice to have all these excellent songs on one high quality CD. Customer Rating: Summary: The Very Best of John Coltrane -- Not To Be Missed! Comment: In this recording of John Coltrane, there are several songs that stand out in my mind as I write this: The incredibly complex "Giant Steps", the child-like version of "My Favorite Things", the on-again/off-again sad to happy blues song "Equinox", and the business day blues of "Mr. Syms". Each of these standout songs is different and unique among the other songs on the recording, but it is to these I want to draw your attention as those that captured mine when I listened to the CD. I am a guitarist who wants to learn Coltrane's interval and melodic technique, but I am always perplexed by his ever changing exploration of the note, in and around the note, wrenching it of its juice like a squeezed lemon, until there is no more; and then Coltrane changes his melodic structure and has another entire lemon to work with. Please don't misunderstand this illustration as to make it sound like his music is sour like the lemon, although that's what you may be thinking! Coltrane's unique use of intervals has always what has been his hallmark, some slow and bluesy, others as in the changes of "Giant Steps" blindingly fast and complex. There are other songs I would have liked to have seen appear on this recording, but as advertised as "The Very Best of John Coltrane", this CD doesn't fall that short. If you are new to Coltrane's work, this is an excellent place to start. I gave it 4 out of 5 stars because of the fact there should be other more recognizable songs of his on this recording, and I would have gladly paid for a 2-CD set if "The Very Best of John Coltrane" delved more into his vast repertiore of work. All that being said, the songs on "The Very Best of John Coltrane" will not disappoint or denegrate the recording in its entirety. Again, the CD should be taken for its whole, not just the standout songs I mentioned above. Classic Jazz enthusiasts already know Coltrane, and this is a welcome addition to my collection, almost always in rotation on my CD carousel if not uploaded to my iTunes. Customer Rating: Summary: All The High Points of the Atlantic Years Comment: This is an excellent introduction to John Coltrane. The music is very accessible for even a casual listener. If you listen to this and Coltrane's vibe gets to you then you're going to be picking up the actual releases that this best of was drawn from. Personally, I actually favor Coltrane's work on the Impulse label, but this Atlantic collection is great. I purchased it because, though I'm an avid jazz collector and listener, I am embarrassed to admit that I do not own a copy of Giant Steps or My Favorite Things, two of Trane's landmark releases. The Very Best of John Coltrane has all the high points of those Atlantic years including the incredible Giant Steps that sent Sonny Rollins back out to the Brooklyn Bridge for more late night practicing and My Favorite Things which brought Trane legions of ,albeit temporary, fans and great commercial success. Naima has always been a favorite and it's included here along with all the other wonderful stuff from those Atlantic releases. Actually there just are not any dull tracks on this CD, it's all great though more laid-back than the Impulse stuff. My actually wife lets me play this one in the house (ha ha). Nice packaging too, the booklet includes a discography of Coltrane's Atlantic releases and an essay by the famous jazz critic and writer Nat Hentoff. There's really nothing else that can be said about this CD. This release perfectly captures Coltrane in his groundbreaking, transitional years, perfecting his "sheets of sound" approach to playing. You know, listening to Coltrane is actually very much like riding on a real train. The stuff on this CD could be compared to having left the station a few miles back but not yet up to full speed. Things start picking up around the time that "Live at the Village Vanguard" was released, and full speed is achieved right at and immediately after "A Love Supreme". Some people don't care for the train ride at full speed. I love it. It's really quite amazing to compare the music on this CD to a release such as Sun Ship (December 1966) and realize there is only about 7 years time that passed between these sessions. So this is really a great place to start if you've been hearing Coltrane's name (from your musician friends perhaps) and don't know where to start. Buy More Reviews
Editorial Reviews: With his inexhaustible technique, trademark sound, and limitless imagination, tenor and soprano saxophonist John Coltrane was one of jazz's most dominant musicians. This collection covers his important Atlantic Records sessions recorded from 1959 to 1960 (chronicled in their entirety on Heavyweight Champion). The tunes signal an important transitional phase from Trane's stints with Miles Davis and Thelonious Monk to his emergence as a leader in his own right. "Giant Steps" "Naima," and "Cousin Mary"--featuring pianist Tommy Flanagan and drummer Art Taylor--crystallized Trane's supersonic "sheets of sound" style. "Like Sonny," an Afro-Latin dedication to his friend and contemporary Sonny Rollins with Wynton Kelly on piano, reveals Trane's stylistic debts to Charlie Parker and Coleman Hawkins. His historic renditions of "My Shining Hour," "Body and Soul," "Summertime," and "My Favorite Things" highlight Coltrane's ability to remake a song into his own image, as well as introduce his influential sound on the soprano sax. These landmark recordings show the development of Coltrane's "great" quartet as well as forecast his iconoclastic excursions into the outer limits of rhythm and tonality, which grew during until his death in 1967. --Eugene Holley, Jr.