John Coltrane - Soultrane (Mono) / Analogue Productions

This album further cemented Coltrane's importance as a style-defining musician. As with 'Coltrane' and 'John Coltrane And The Red Garland Trio', his first two albums as bandleader on the Prestige label,

the material on 'Soultrane' is beyond the ordinary. The rhythm section of Red Garland, Paul Chambers and Arthur Taylor is a perfect accompaniment to Trane, who at the time was widely regarded as one of

the two most influential tenor saxophonists in jazz - the other being Sonny Rollins.

"Soultrane" opens with an extended variation on "Good Bait", a Tadd Dameron/Count Basie collaboration first recorded by Dizzy Gillespie in the 1940s. The way Coltrane plays the twists and turns of this tune

gives it a hint of a minuet, complete with 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 - a

completely new jazz interpretation.

The second side begins with a piece by Joe Stein and Leo Robin, "You Say You Care", which has never been heard in a jazz version before. Trane usually changes the key in a medium fast swinging tempo.

"Theme For Ernie" is a smoldering ballad by Philadelphia-born Freddie Lacey, dedicated to ex-Gillespie alto saxophonist Ernie Henry, who died suddenly in December 1957. Garland begins the last piece,

"Russian Lullaby", with an introduction in a different time signature before Coltrane's entrance. With this, and Coltrane's earlier interpretation of "Soft Lights And Sweet Music", it seems as if the boys are particularly

keen to play their Irving Berlin at high speed.

Because of Coltrane's astonishing solo work that precedes and follows Soultrane - especially "Lush Life" and "Blue Train" - the All Music Guide comments that this album "may not have received the exclusive attention

it so richly deserves".

Title

Side One

1. Good Bait

2. I Want To Talk About You

Side Two

1. You Say You Care

2. Theme For Ernie

3. Russian Lullaby