John Coltrane · I know the classics

Beyond the classics: Coltrane

You own the famous ones. This path goes to the records beside them: the Prestige years with Miles Davis and on his own, the partners he chose, the Atlantic sessions that sat on the shelf, and the Impulse! records where the quartet did some of its most patient work. It runs in order, so you can follow the turns.

0 of 12 heard

01Opens when you've heard step 0
Step 1 of 12
Cookin': the quintet, nearly live
Cookin' With The Miles Davis Quintet The Miles Davis Quintet · Prestige PRLP 7094 · 1957
Miles Davis had signed with Columbia but still owed Prestige records. So on May 11 and October 26, 1956, the quintet went to Van Gelder's in Hackensack and played its club repertoire, tune after tune, enough for four albums. Cookin', from the October day, came out first, in July 1957. Davis said the title told the story: they came in and cooked. With Coltrane were Red Garland, Paul Chambers and Philly Joe Jones. By the time it appeared, the band had broken up, which makes it a snapshot of a working group with nothing to prove.
Start with
- Airegin
- Tune Up
- Blues By Five
Coltrane sits out the opening ballad, "My Funny Valentine," so start with "Airegin," Sonny Rollins's tune, its title Nigeria spelled backward. "Tune Up" runs straight into "When Lights Are Low" as one long track. "Blues By Five" is a ten-minute blues by Davis. Hear how the band plays it all as if on a club stand, with the tunes it knew best.
In the band
Philly Joe Jones · drums
Philly Joe Jones was born in Philadelphia in 1923 and took the city's name to tell him apart from Count Basie's drummer Jo Jones. He gave the Davis quintet its snap and is all over the Prestige and Blue Note records of the late 1950s, Coltrane's among them. He left Davis in 1958, later lived in Europe for a time, and in the 1980s led Dameronia, a band playing Tadd Dameron's music. He died in 1985.
Open the record
02Opens when you've heard step 1
Step 2 of 12
Once with Sonny Rollins
Tenor Madness Sonny Rollins Quartet · Prestige PRLP 7047 · 1956
On May 24, 1956, Sonny Rollins went to Van Gelder's with the Davis rhythm section: Red Garland, Paul Chambers and Philly Joe Jones. Their bandmate Coltrane joined in on one tune, a blues that gave the record its name. That track is the only known recording of the two of them together. Rollins was the established star, fresh from the Clifford Brown and Max Roach quintet; Coltrane was still the new man in Davis's band. It came out that October. Twelve minutes, two tenors, the same rhythm section: as fair a comparison as you will find.
Start with
- Tenor Madness
Coltrane is on the title track only. It is a blues usually credited to Kenny Clarke, first recorded in 1946 as "Royal Roost." The two tenors take long solos in turn and then trade shorter phrases. Without looking it up, try to tell them apart by sound and by the shape of their ideas, then check yourself against the order of solos.
In the band
Sonny Rollins · tenor sax
Sonny Rollins was 25 that spring, four years younger than Coltrane and already further along. A month later he recorded Saxophone Colossus. He twice stepped away from performing to practise and rethink, the first time from 1959 to 1961, when he worked out on the Williamsburg Bridge. He kept playing in public until 2012, in 2020 said he had stopped for good, and died in 2026, aged 95.
Open the record
03Opens when you've heard step 2
Step 3 of 12
His first record as leader
Coltrane John Coltrane · Prestige PRLP 7105 · 1957
In April 1957 Davis fired Coltrane over his drug habit, and he went home to Philadelphia to quit. Prestige offered him a contract that month: three albums a year at $300 each. On May 31, at Van Gelder's, he led a session on his own for the first time. The band mixes Davis men and friends: Johnnie Splawn on trumpet, Sahib Shihab on baritone, Red Garland or Mal Waldron on piano, Paul Chambers, and the young drummer Albert Heath. It came out that October, simply called Coltrane, and was later reissued as The First Trane!.
Start with
- Straight Street
- Violets For Your Furs
- Bakai
"Straight Street" and "Chronic Blues" are Coltrane's own, played with the horns and Waldron. "Violets For Your Furs" is a ballad for quartet with Garland. "Bakai" is by his Philadelphia friend Cal Massey. Listen to him as an arranger for three horns, a different job from soloing in someone else's band.
In the band
Albert Heath · drums
Albert "Tootie" Heath was the youngest of three Philadelphia brothers: Percy played bass with the Modern Jazz Quartet and Jimmy played tenor. This session fell on his 22nd birthday and was his first record. He went on to work with Yusef Lateef and many others, and in 1975 formed the Heath Brothers with Jimmy and Percy. He died in 2024, aged 88.
Open the record
04Opens when you've heard step 3
Step 4 of 12
Back with Miles, now a sextet
Milestones Miles Davis · Columbia CL 1193 · 1958
At the end of 1957 Davis took Coltrane back, clean and fresh from his months with Monk. The band was now a sextet, with Cannonball Adderley on alto, and this was its first record, made at Columbia's 30th Street Studio on February 4 and March 4, 1958. The title track, first called "Miles," is built on scales rather than chord changes, an idea Davis would take further. Garland, Chambers and Philly Joe Jones are still the rhythm section. It came out that September. The Penguin Guide called it one of the great modern-jazz albums.
Start with
- Milestones (as Miles)
- Straight, No Chaser
- Sid's Ahead
On the title track, Davis plays flugelhorn, and the soloists hang on one scale for long stretches before shifting. "Straight, No Chaser" is Monk's blues, with all three horns taking turns. On "Sid's Ahead" Garland was absent, so Davis plays piano behind the saxophones and Chambers.
In the band
Cannonball Adderley · alto sax
Julian "Cannonball" Adderley was a Florida schoolteacher who caused a stir sitting in at New York's Café Bohemia in 1955. He joined Davis in late 1957, and this was his first session with Coltrane. They shared the front line for nearly two years. Afterward he led his own band with his brother Nat and had a pop hit with "Mercy, Mercy, Mercy." He died in 1975, aged 46.
Open the record
05Opens when you've heard step 4
Step 5 of 12
A meeting with Milt Jackson
Bags & Trane Milt Jackson & John Coltrane · Atlantic LP 1368 · 1961
On January 15, 1959, Coltrane met the vibraphonist Milt Jackson at Atlantic Studios in New York. Jackson was the star soloist of the Modern Jazz Quartet and signed to Atlantic through it, so he led the date, with Hank Jones on piano, Paul Chambers on bass and the MJQ's Connie Kay on drums. Nesuhi Ertegün produced. Atlantic held the record back until mid-1961, by which time Coltrane had left the label and his name had grown. It is the only record the two made together, and the title joins their nicknames.
Start with
- Bags & Trane
- The Late Late Blues
- The Night We Called It A Day
"Bags & Trane" and "The Late Late Blues" are Jackson's blues. "The Night We Called It A Day" is a ballad by Matt Dennis and Tom Adair, and "Three Little Words" an old standard. Listen to the vibes ringing beside the tenor. A Down Beat reviewer at the time blamed the rhythm section and thought it could have been better; see if you agree.
In the band
Milt Jackson · vibes
Milt Jackson, from Detroit, made the vibraphone a bebop instrument in Dizzy Gillespie's bands of the 1940s. From the early 1950s he was the soloist in the Modern Jazz Quartet, whose polished chamber music framed his love of the blues. He made records outside the quartet all his life, with partners from Ray Charles to Wes Montgomery, and died in 1999.
Open the record
06Opens when you've heard step 5
Step 6 of 12
Between two rhythm sections
Coltrane Jazz John Coltrane · Atlantic LP 1354 · 1961
Most of this record was made in November and December 1959, after Giant Steps, with the Davis rhythm section of the day: Wynton Kelly, Paul Chambers and Jimmy Cobb. Coltrane was still in Davis's band. One track is different. "Village Blues" comes from October 21, 1960, with his own new quartet of McCoy Tyner, Steve Davis and Elvin Jones, cut during the week of sessions that produced his biggest hit. Atlantic put the record out in early 1961. It catches him between two bands, one foot in hard bop and one in something new.
Start with
- Village Blues
- Like Sonny
- Harmonique
"Like Sonny" is a tribute to Sonny Rollins, built on a phrase Rollins played on a Kenny Dorham record in 1957. "Harmonique" is a Coltrane original from the December 1959 date. Then play "Village Blues," the only track with Tyner, Davis and Jones, and compare its feel with the Kelly, Chambers and Cobb tracks around it.
In the band
Wynton Kelly · piano
Wynton Kelly was born in Brooklyn to Jamaican parents, and at 16 played on Hal Singer's "Cornbread," a number one R&B record. He accompanied Dinah Washington and worked with Dizzy Gillespie before joining Davis in 1959. His crisp, blues-based swing made him a favorite of horn players. He later led a trio with Chambers and Cobb, and died in Toronto in 1971, aged 39.
Open the record
07Opens when you've heard step 6
Step 7 of 12
The rest of an October week
Coltrane's Sound John Coltrane · Atlantic LP 1419 · 1964
In October 1960 the new quartet, with McCoy Tyner, Steve Davis and Elvin Jones, recorded for several days at Atlantic Studios in New York. Some of the music came out quickly; the rest sat on the shelf. In 1964, with Coltrane long gone to Impulse!, Atlantic assembled this record without his say, with notes by Ralph J. Gleason. It doesn't sound like leftovers. Four of the six tunes are his own, and the band, only months old, already sounds like itself. It reached listeners almost four years late, which is why so many people miss it.
Start with
- Equinox
- Central Park West
- Body And Soul
"Equinox" is a slow minor blues and the longest track here. "Central Park West" is a quiet ballad of his own, played on soprano. "Body And Soul" is the old tune Coleman Hawkins made famous in 1939, reworked by the new quartet. "Satellite" is the one track without piano.
In the band
Elvin Jones · drums
Elvin Jones joined Coltrane in 1960, the year of these sessions. He came from Pontiac, Michigan, the younger brother of pianist Hank Jones and trumpeter Thad Jones, started out in Detroit and played in Sonny Rollins's trio. His drumming, thick with cross-rhythms, gave the quartet its surge. The critic Albert Goldman called him "the world's greatest rhythm drummer." He left in early 1966 and led his own bands until his death in 2004.
Open the record
08Opens when you've heard step 7
Step 8 of 12
Spain, Africa and a farewell
Ole Coltrane John Coltrane · Atlantic LP 1373 · 1961
On May 25, 1961, two days after the first Africa/Brass session, Coltrane made his last Atlantic album under his own supervision, at A&R Studios in New York. The quartet, with McCoy Tyner and Elvin Jones, was joined by Freddie Hubbard on trumpet, two bassists, Art Davis and Reggie Workman, and Eric Dolphy on alto and flute, credited as "George Lane" because of his contract with Prestige. The title piece borrows the Spanish folk song "El Vito," perhaps sparked by Davis's Sketches of Spain. It came out that November.
Start with
- Ole
- Dahomey Dance
- Aisha
"Olé" fills side one, a long piece over a Spanish-flavored vamp, with Coltrane on soprano. "Dahomey Dance" is his own, named for the old West African kingdom and reflecting his interest in African forms. "Aisha" is a ballad by McCoy Tyner, named for his wife.
In the band
Freddie Hubbard · trumpet
Freddie Hubbard came to New York from Indianapolis in 1958, aged 20. By 1961 he had made his first Blue Note record, Open Sesame, and played on Ornette Coleman's Free Jazz. He also played on the first Africa/Brass session that week. Later in 1961 he replaced Lee Morgan in Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers, and he became one of the leading trumpeters of the decade. He died in 2008.
Open the record
09Opens when you've heard step 8
Step 9 of 12
The classic quartet settles in
Coltrane John Coltrane Quartet · Impulse! A-21 · 1962
In 1962 Jimmy Garrison replaced Reggie Workman, Eric Dolphy moved on, and the quartet of Coltrane, McCoy Tyner, Garrison and Elvin Jones was set. This record comes from four days between April and June 1962 at Van Gelder's in Englewood Cliffs, with Bob Thiele producing. It came out that July, while critics were still attacking Coltrane and Dolphy, and it was largely overlooked. It is now heard as one of the band's most focused records: a long Harold Arlen song, a Mal Waldron ballad, a Frank Loesser tune and two of Coltrane's own.
Start with
- Out Of This World
- Soul Eyes
- The Inch Worm
"Out Of This World" and "Soul Eyes" fill side one, and the critic Francis Davis picked them as the record's high points. "Soul Eyes" is Mal Waldron's slow ballad. "The Inch Worm" is a children's song from a film, played on soprano. "Tunji" is dedicated to the drummer Babatunde Olatunji.
In the band
Jimmy Garrison · bass
Jimmy Garrison grew up in Philadelphia, Coltrane's home city since the 1940s, and had recorded with Ornette Coleman before formally joining Coltrane in 1962. His bass is the steady floor under Tyner and Jones. He stayed through every change in the band until Coltrane's death in 1967, the only member of the classic quartet to do so, and died in 1976.
Open the record
10Opens when you've heard step 9
Step 10 of 12
Sitting down with Duke
Duke Ellington & John Coltrane Duke Ellington & John Coltrane · Impulse! A-30 · 1963
On September 26, 1962, at Van Gelder's, Bob Thiele put Coltrane in the studio with Duke Ellington, then 63. Ellington made several meetings like this in those years, but this one was a quartet, not his orchestra. They split the rhythm sections: Ellington's Aaron Bell and Sam Woodyard on some tunes, Jimmy Garrison and Elvin Jones on others. Most of the music is Ellington's, with one new Coltrane piece. Coltrane said he was really honored to do it. The record came out in January 1963 and is one of the gentlest he made.
Start with
- In A Sentimental Mood
- Take The Coltrane
- Big Nick
"In A Sentimental Mood" is an Ellington ballad from 1935 and the best-known track here. "Take The Coltrane" is a new Ellington blues, its title a play on "Take The 'A' Train." "Big Nick," Coltrane's tune, on soprano, honors the saxophonist Big Nick Nicholas. Listen to Ellington's piano behind the horn.
In the band
Duke Ellington · piano
Duke Ellington had led his orchestra since the 1920s and written hundreds of tunes. Coltrane had played in Johnny Hodges's band in the 1950s, and Hodges was Ellington's star alto. In the early 1960s Ellington also recorded with Louis Armstrong, Count Basie, Coleman Hawkins, Max Roach and Charles Mingus. He kept leading the orchestra until his death in 1974.
Open the record
11Opens when you've heard step 10
Step 11 of 12
Ballads, mostly in one take
Ballads John Coltrane Quartet · Impulse! A-32 · 1963
Recorded mostly in the autumn of 1962, with one track from December 1961, at Van Gelder's in Englewood Cliffs, this is the quartet playing eight standards softly. Gene Lees wrote in the original notes that the band had never played these tunes before, worked from sheet music bought at a store, and got each in one take except "All Or Nothing At All." It came out in January 1963 and has become one of his best-loved records. The band attacked for its long live solos turns out to play short, tender songs beautifully.
Start with
- Say It (Over And Over Again)
- You Don't Know What Love Is
- I Wish I Knew
Coltrane stays close to the melodies, and most tracks run under five minutes. "Say It (Over And Over Again)" opens the record. "You Don't Know What Love Is" is a torch song from 1941, and "I Wish I Knew" is by Harry Warren. Jimmy Garrison and Reggie Workman each play bass on some tracks.
In the band
McCoy Tyner · piano
McCoy Tyner was 23 when most of this was cut and had been in the band for two years, after about six months in the Jazztet with Benny Golson and Art Farmer. Coltrane had known him since Philadelphia in 1955. His chords, often stacked in fourths, and his strong left hand set the quartet apart from bebop bands. On ballads like these he plays the introductions and keeps out of the singer's way, the singer here being a tenor saxophone.
Open the record
12Opens when you've heard step 11
Step 12 of 12
Live at Birdland, autumn 1963
Live At Birdland Coltrane · Impulse! A-50 · 1964
Three of these tracks come from Birdland in New York on October 8, 1963; two more were recorded in the studio that November and added to the record. One of those is "Alabama," written after the bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham that September, which killed four Black girls. The record came out in January 1964. It shows the quartet stretching out in a club, on a Mongo Santamaría tune, a ballad Coltrane had recorded back in 1958 and a new piece of his own. It ends this path where the band stood just before its most famous year.
Start with
- Afro Blue
- I Want To Talk About You
- The Promise
"Afro Blue" is by the percussionist Mongo Santamaría and became a staple of the band's live sets. On "I Want To Talk About You," Billy Eckstine's ballad, the band drops out at the end and Coltrane plays a long unaccompanied cadenza. "The Promise" is his own, also from the club.
In the band
McCoy Tyner · piano
McCoy Tyner was 24 at Birdland and already a leader on Impulse! himself, with records such as Inception and Reaching Fourth. After leaving Coltrane at the end of 1965 he recorded for Blue Note and Milestone and toured with his own groups for decades. He was named an NEA Jazz Master in 2002 and died in 2020.
Open the record

Sources