Blue Trane - John Coltrane

Recorded in a single session on September 15, 1957 at Rudy Van Gelder's studio in Hackensack, New Jersey, Blue Train is John Coltrane's only album as a leader for Blue Note Records, arranged through an oral agreement with label founder Alfred Lion. The sextet features Lee Morgan on trumpet, Curtis Fuller on trombone, Kenny Drew on piano, Paul Chambers on bass, and Philly Joe Jones on drums — a larger front line than Coltrane's typical quartet format. Four of the five tracks are Coltrane originals, with the standard "I'm Old Fashioned" the sole exception. Coltrane brought the material to the session mostly unrehearsed, and the band worked through the compositions in about three hours before recording. The title track, a bluesy hard bop anthem whose master take was spliced from two attempts, became one of Coltrane's most recognizable compositions. "Moment's Notice," named after trombonist Curtis Fuller's complaint about the lack of preparation time, is a driving, complex piece that entered the jazz standard repertoire. "Lazy Bird" previews the rapid harmonic movement Coltrane would develop further on Giant Steps. The album stands as Coltrane's first undisputed masterpiece and a key document of late-1950s hard bop.