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A lot of latter day revisionism takes place with Coltrane...

fueled by the horrible job Verve have been doing of dumbing down his catalog, and exemplified by many of the responses below.

Coltrane recorded for Prestige in the 1950's. He was a drug addict for most of this period and erratic, but even more a problem for him was that his teeth were completely rotten and his ideas and technique were not yet fully formed. The Prestige recordings show the intonation problems mainly caused by his teeth, and the as yet not very fluid, often halting attempts to get his "sheets of sound" concept realized. Contrast the Prestige "I Want To Talk About You" with the Impulse Birdland version. Also, the Prestige/Weinstock arrangement gave Coltrane little artistic freedom, forcing him to do popular tunes of the day. Some Prestige recordings are good mainstream hardbop, but none show a fully formed artist.

In the 60's and 70's, Coltrane fans mostly ignored or dismissed the Prestige recordings, generally believing as I do that Coltrane really became himself starting with Giant Steps. This is the seminal tenor recording. MFSL reissued it in great sound. With Atlantic Coltrane was able to do his own stuff. Giant Steps is the milestone. Coltrane Jazz is primarily Giant Steps leftovers, and not as inspired. My Favorite Things you know, a better version of that tune is on the Impulse "Selflessness" album. Coltrane Plays The Blues on Atlantic is also essential.

Moving to Impulse, Coltrane had a complete free hand. The pop albums like Ballads are not representative, it was well known at the time that Coltrane had his Otto Link metal mouthpiece disastrously refaced, forcing him to a rubber Link temporarily until he could find a satisfactory replacement. Hence, he was not as facile for a time, Ballads is an example. Crescent is possibly the greatest Impulse record. A Love Supreme is good, but has been overblown if one looks purely at it's artistic merits. Good, but there's much better.

Some people despise later Coltrane, which is admittedly difficult as he was trying to break the shackles of the hardbop formula. It's not a starting point, but the greatest rewards with Coltrane generally lie with the later stuff, once you get there. Eventually try Sunship, Transition and Stellar Regions.

In my opinion, your next choice must be Giant Steps. After that, Crescent, followed by Live At Birdland, A Love Supreme, and Coltrane Plays The Blues.

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