Featured Book: Coltrane: The Story of a Sound, by Ben Ratliff

Copy at Case Memorial Library
Mr. Ratliff writes in Chapter 3, "Prestige": "[In 1957] he went in to make a record for Blue Note, while he was hot. With rehearsal time paid for by the company, as was its custom, the preparation in the music is obvious. Coltrane organized five tunes, including four of his own, making it the most forthright display of his own music up to that point. … [T]he first track, 'Blue Train' … is agitated, driving, splintered music, reaching to the very end of his lung capacity. It was also a blues, and for a player with progressive tendencies, Coltrane had begun to establish himself as a specialist in the blues — possibly, at that time, the most inventive blues player in jazz. 'Moment's Notice' and 'Lazy Bird' are the first of Coltrane's études — short and perfect pieces with quickly moving chords connected in unusual relationships. With the Jerome Kern–Johnny Mercer song 'I'm Old-Fashioned,' Coltrane showed that he was also growing rapidly as a ballad player. … By now he was making his spooky, thick-textured, long notes in the middle register, with their minimal vibrato — the iconic texture of what was to be Coltrane's sound."