THE JOHN COLTRANE QUARTET PLAYS

Recorded in two sessions just a few months after working on A Love Supreme, this album makes for a perfect introduction to Coltrane’s final period as a leader. Though Art Davis plays second bass on ‘Nature Boy’, the classic quartet of Coltrane with McCoy Tyner (piano), Elvin Jones (drums) and Jimmy Garrison (bass) is at full heat, leaning hard into more free improvisation with a matter-of-fact confidence that will become more normalized over his concluding two years. Verve’s Acoustic Sounds Series features transfers from analog tapes and remastered 180-gram vinyl in deluxe gatefold packaging.