The Definitive John Coltrane on Prestige and Riverside compiles studio tracks recorded between 1955 and 1958 with the tenor saxophonist as sideman and leader. The 21 tracks follow Coltrane's artistic development from his first record with Miles Davis, The New Miles Davis Quintet, to his last sessions as a leader for Prestige, Bahia, in December 1958. Aimed at the casual listener, the majority of these tracks, taken from 18 different albums, are a nice balance of standards including "Come Rain or Come Shine," "I Want to Talk About You" and "Time After Time," with such modern jazz classics as "Oleo," "Round Midnight," and "Lush Life." Coltrane appears with an extraordinary roster of musicians on these dates: Miles Davis, Thelonious Monk, Red Garland, Philly Joe Jones, and Art Taylor. This is an excellent sampler spotlighting Coltrane's development from hard bop master prior to his innovative "sheets of sound" style for Atlantic records and his most challenging Impulse dates of the mid 60s.
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