Soultrane (recorded just three days after Milestones with Miles Davis) is a showcase for Coltrane's sheets of sound style, the term itself coined by critic Ira Gitler in this album's liner notes. Also featured is a long reading of Billy Eckstine's ballad standard 'I Want to Talk About You' which Coltrane would revisit often during his career, most notably on the album Live at Birdland.

• Limited Edition
• Analogue Productions Prestige Mono Series
• 180 Grams Audiophile Vinyl
• Mastered by Kevin Gray at Cohearent Audio
• Cut from Original Analog Mono Master Tapes
• Plated by Gary Salstrom
• Pressed at Quality Record Pressings (QRP USA)
• Deluxe high-gloss tip-on album cover

This album continued the reinforcement of Coltrane’s importance as a stylist. As in Coltrane and John Coltrane and the Red Garland Trio, his first two albums as a leader for Prestige, the material in Soultrane is away from the ordinary. The Garland–Paul Chambers–Arthur Taylor rhythm section is a perfect accompanying unit for Trane who, by this time, was acknowledged to be — along with Sonny Rollins — one of the two most influential tenor saxophonists in jazz.

Soultrane opens with an exploration at length of "Good Bait," a Tadd Dameron-Count Basie collaboration, first recorded by Dizzy Gillespie in the 1940s. The way Coltrane plays the turns in the melody gives it a slight minuet flavor, complimented by solos by Garland and Chambers in the same, solid groove. "I Want To Talk About You" is a ballad written and originally recorded by Billy Eckstine in the mid-1940s. It’s entirely new to jazz interpretation.

Side Two opens with a Joe Stein-Leo Robin tune, "You Say You Care," never heard before this in a jazz context. Trane makes the most of chord changes in a swinging, medium-up setting. "Theme For Ernie" is a smoldering ballad dedicated by Philadelphian Freddie Lacey to Ernie Henry, the ex-Gillespie alto saxophonist who died suddenly in December 1957. Red begins the final track "Russian Lullaby" with an out-of-tempo introduction before Coltrane comes ripping in. Taking this and Coltrane’s prior interpretation of "Soft Lights And Sweet Music," it seems as though the boys like to play their Irving Berlin at high velocity.

Musicians:

John Coltrane, tenor sax
Arthur Taylor, drums
Red Garland, piano
Paul Chambers, bass

Track Listing:

Side A:
1. Good Bait
2. I Want To Talk About You

Side B:
1. You Say You Care
2. Theme For Ernie
3. Russian Lullaby

Click here to listen to samples on YouTube.com ♫