Kenny Burrell & John Coltrane - Kenny Burrell & John Coltrane

Recorded on March 7, 1958 at Rudy Van Gelder's studio in Hackensack, New Jersey, this hard bop session pairs guitarist Kenny Burrell and tenor saxophonist John Coltrane in a quintet rounded out by pianist Tommy Flanagan, bassist Paul Chambers, and drummer Jimmy Cobb. Though captured in a single date, the album was not released until 1963 on the New Jazz label, by which time Coltrane had already formed his classic quartet and become one of the most prominent voices in jazz. The session documents a transitional moment for Coltrane, who had recently overcome personal struggles and was moving between his sideman work with Miles Davis and Thelonious Monk toward bandleading. He and Burrell had a history stretching back to Dizzy Gillespie's band in 1951, and this was their final studio collaboration. The program mixes originals by Flanagan and Burrell with standards, ranging from the uptempo blues blowing of "Freight Trane" and the extended groove of "Big Paul" to the intimate saxophone-guitar duet on "Why Was I Born?," performed without the rhythm section. AllMusic awarded the album four stars, praising the interplay between the co-leaders, and a DownBeat reissue review gave it five. The album was reissued in 1967 on Prestige under the title The Kenny Burrell Quintet with John Coltrane.