John Coltrane
Tenor Sax Solo on
Like Sonny

About

John Coltrane's tenor sax solo is the first of three solos on this recording. Spanning three choruses of the 24-bar ABA form in E♭ at a brisk 156 BPM with a swing feel, Coltrane's three-chorus tenor saxophone solo takes a different improvisational path than the released version, demonstrating how his creative process could yield distinctly different musical narratives from identical starting points. Coltrane's tenor saxophone work reflects a balance of technical fluency and melodic storytelling, building intensity through the course of the improvisation.

John Coltrane was 32 to 33 years old at the time.