John Coltrane - Blue Train

Blue Train is a studio album by American jazz saxophonist and composer John Coltrane, originally released in 1958 via Blue Note Records.

The album was released via Blue Note Records when Coltrane was signed to Impulse Records, to honour a verbal promise made with Blue Note founder Alfred Lion.

The album was recorded during Coltrane's residency at the Five Spot as a member of the Thelonious Monk quartet. The personnel include Coltrane's Miles Davis bandmates, Paul Chambers on bass and Philly Joe Jones on drums, both of whom had worked before with pianist Kenny Drew. Both trumpeter Lee Morgan and trombonist Curtis Fuller were up-and-coming jazz musicians, and both would be members of Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers, working together on several of Blakey's albums.

All of the compositions were written by Coltrane, with the exception of the standard "I'm Old Fashioned". The title track is a long, rhythmically variegated blues with a sentimental [quasi minor; in fact based on major chords with flat tenth, or raised ninth] theme that gradually shows the major key during Coltrane's first chorus. "Locomotion" is also a blues riff tune, in forty-four-bar form.

 During a 1960 interview, Coltrane described Blue Train as his favorite album of his own up to that point.

The album is rated as a classic jazz album and Allmusic's Lindsay Planer sums up the album - "Without reservation, Blue Train can easily be considered in and among the most important and influential entries not only of John Coltrane's career, but of the entire genre of jazz music as well."

The album was produced by Alfred Lion and the musicians that recorded the album were:

• John Coltrane – tenor saxophone
• Lee Morgan – trumpet
• Curtis Fuller – trombone
• Kenny Drew – piano
• Paul Chambers – bass
• Philly Joe Jones – drums

Check out a couple of tracks from the album:  Blue Train, Locomotion and Lazy Bird.

This LP Record is a Limited Edition Blue Note Records 75th Anniversary Series, Remastered Audio on 180 Gram Heavyweight Vinyl with a Digital Download Code, pressed in Europe.