Over the years, there has been more than one LP titled either "The Best of John Coltrane" or -- if the label is especially aggressive when it comes to marketing -- "The Very Best of John Coltrane." In the case of this Pablo release,
The Best of John Coltrane is a misleading title because it isn't really a best-of, which would have offered the most essential, well-known recordings that
Trane provided for Prestige, Atlantic, or Impulse!, and this album (which first appeared on vinyl in 1983) does not fit that description. Pablo's
The Best of John Coltrane is actually a 44-minute collection of live performances from the saxman's 1963 tour of Europe, where Pablo founder
Norman Granz handled the concert promotion in Sweden, Germany, and France. For this release,
Granz picked some of the highlights of that tour -- and even though the album falls short of essential, all of the performances are solid.
Coltrane's trailblazing quartet --
Trane on tenor and soprano sax,
McCoy Tyner on piano,
Jimmy Garrison on bass, and
Elvin Jones on drums -- is in fine form on performances of "Chasin' the Trane" and "The Promise" as well as post-bop versions of "Bye Bye Blackbird,"
Mongo Santamaria's "Afro Blue," and
Cole Porter's "Every Time We Say Goodbye." The people who will get the most out of this LP are hardcore fans who hold his modal period of 1960-1964 in especially high regard. Although not in a class with
Live at the Village Vanguard or
Live at Birdland,
The Best of John Coltrane is an exciting document of
Coltrane's 1963 European tour.