John Coltrane-Blue Train

In September of 1957, John Coltrane entered the studio to record his sole album as a leader for Blue Note Records. The result, Blue Train, is a post hard bop tour de force. Not having developed his “sheets of sound” style yet, Coltrane, along with Lee Morgan on trumpet and Curtis Fuller on Trombone, flat out blow the roof off the place. This album has fury, not of the screaming type heard in his Village Vanguard gig of 1961, but rather a powerful conveyance of the beauty and majesty of hard bop. Completing the band’s rhythm section is Kenny Drew on piano, Paul Chambers on bass, and Philly Joe Jones on drums. Besides the title track, which fully affirms the need for a volume switch that goes to “11", Coltrane’s composition Moment’s Notice defines the concept of “swing” as it incorporates the rhythmic styling of the 40's big band sound with the melodic improvisation of the bop pioneers like Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker. Penguin’s Guide to Jazz on CD (Seventh Edition) provides an apt description of Coltrane’s sound at this juncture of his career, stating: “[o]nce heard, it’s a sound that is not easily forgotten, at once plaintive and urgent, hard edged but also vulnerable.” P. 334. So true.