Coltrane (1962 album)

Updated on Dec 04, 2024

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Released August 1962 Release date August 1962 Label Impulse! Records		Length 39:55 Producer Bob Thiele Genres Jazz, Modal jazz

Recorded April 11, June 19, 20, and 29, 1962; Van Gelder Studio, Englewood Cliffs Artists John Coltrane, John Coltrane Quartet Similar John Coltrane albums, Jazz albums

Coltrane is a 1962 studio album by jazz saxophonist John Coltrane. When reissued on CD, it featured a Coltrane composition dedicated to his hero "Big Nick" Nicholas which Coltrane would record later the same year with his Ellington collaboration Duke Ellington & John Coltrane.

Coltrane impulse as 21

Critical reception

Allmusic's Michael G. Nastos gave the album four-and-a-half out of five stars and called it "a most focused effort, a relatively popular session to both his fans or latecomers, with five selections that are brilliantly conceived and rendered." He found Coltrane "simply masterful" on tenor saxophone with a "fully formed instrumental voice" that "shine[s] through in the most illuminating manner", and wrote of the album's standing in his catalog:

Even more than any platitudes one can heap on this extraordinary recording, it historically falls between the albums Olé Coltrane and Impressions — completing a triad of studio efforts that are as definitive as anything Coltrane ever produced, and highly representative of him in his prime.

Francis Davis of The Village Voice felt that, apart from the "modal, three-quarter time novelty hit" "The Inch Worm", consumers should buy the album for "the gorgeous 'Soul Eyes' and a shattering 'Out of This World'".

Original LP

"Out of This World" (Harold Arlen) — 14:06
Johnny Mercer wrote lyrics for this song, but this recording is instrumental
"Soul Eyes" (Mal Waldron) — 5:26
"The Inch Worm" (Frank Loesser) — 6:19
"Tunji" (Coltrane) — 6:33
"Miles' Mode" (Coltrane) — 7:31

Bonus tracks on 1997 CD reissue (IMPD-215):

"Big Nick" (Coltrane) — 4:04
"Up 'Gainst The Wall" (Coltrane) — 3:13

Tracks 1-2 recorded on June 19, 1962; #3, 6 on April 11; #4 on June 29; #5 on June 20; #7 on September 18, 1962. Bonus track "Not Yet" recorded on June 20 of the same year.