Fully Remastered in Glorious Mono!

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. The John Coltrane: The Atlantic Years In Mono box set gave fans a glimpse into how Coltrane's music first appeared to dedicated listeners through the '60s. Now the remastered mono editions of the sets' Giant Steps (1960), Bags & Trane (1961), Ole Coltrane (1962), Coltrane Plays The Blues (1962) and The Avant Garde (1966) will be available individually.

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 altogether. Musical preferences are always subjective, yet the value of John Coltrane's mono recordings far exceed musical nostalgia; they offer historical validity, the same aural experience that greeted fans when these albums were first released.

Recorded in 1960 and released in 1962, Coltrane Plays The Blues is perhaps a misleading title as Trane is not so much playing the blues as bringing the feeling of blues into the idiom of jazz. This memorable release, featuring McCoy Tyner on piano, Elvin Jones on drums and Steve Davis on bass, hails from Coltrane's first period as leader of his own quartet, and finds the music legend playing then highly unusual soprano saxophone on two numbers - "Blues To Bechet," a pianoless tribute to the great Sydney Bechet, and "Mr. Syms," where Tyner is given the opportunity to really show his stuff, which he does so masterfully.

Musicians:
John Coltrane, soprano & tenor saxophone
McCoy Tyner, piano
Steve Davis, bass
Elvin Jones, drums