The Atlantic Years (In Mono)

CD1 GIANT STEPS

1. Giant Steps
2. Cousin Mary
3. Countdown
4. Spiral
5. Syeeda’s Song Flute
6. Naima
7. Mr P.C.

CD2 BAGS & TRANE (WITH MILT JACKSON)

1. Bags & Trane
2. Three Little Words
3. The Night We Called It A Day
4. Be-Bop
5. The Late Late Blues

CD3 OLE COLTRANE

1. Olé
2. Dahomey Dance
3. Aisha

CD4 COLTRANE PLAYS THE BLUES

1. Blues To Elvin
2. Blues To Bechet
3. Blues To You
4. Mr. Day
5. Mr. Syms
6. Mr. Knight

CD5 THE AVANT-GARDE (WITH DON CHERRY)

1. Cherryco
2. Focus On Sanity
3. The Blessing
4. The Invisible
5. Bemsha Swing

CD6 THE COLTRANE LEGACY

1. 26-2
2. Original Untitled Ballad
3. Untitled Ballad
4. Centerpiece
5. Stairway To The Stars
6. Blues Legacy

While John Coltrane first gained attention for his revolutionary ‘sheets of sound’ technique, it was the deep spirituality of his music that really made his recordings as a bandleader such classics.  The albums Coltrane recorded for Atlantic in 1959 and 1960 represent the heart of his unparalleled legacy. 

John Coltrane’s life will be the subject of a new documentary, Chasin’ Trane, out later this year, and now, for the first time since their original release, Rhino has assembled 6 of his mono albums from the Atlantic vaults for CD and LP boxed set.

The John Coltrane Atlantic Mono Boxed Set allows a chance to not only understand better how Coltrane’s music first appeared to dedicated listeners through the 1960s.  When these recordings first made it to the retail shelves, a majority of consumers were taking the discs home and listening to them on equipment that played the music monaurally. Commercial stereo releases first began to appear in 1958—meaning that all of Coltrane’s Atlantic recordings were released simultaneously in both mono and stereo formats. By ’68 the label began to phase out mono releases.

Musical preferences are always subjective, yet the value of The John Coltrane Atlantic Mono Boxed Set far exceeds musical nostalgia; it offers historical validity, the same aural experience that greeted fans when these albums were first released.  Unfortunately the mono masters of three albums—My Favorite Things, Coltrane Jazz, and Coltrane’s Sound—were lost in a fire, thus explaining their omission from this box.