John Coltrane BLACK PEARLS (LP)

Personnel: John Coltrane (tenor saxophone); Donald Byrd (trumpet); Red Garland (piano); Paul Chambers (bass); Art Taylor (drums).
Recorded at the Van Gelder Studio, Hackensack, New Jersey on May 23, 1958. Originally released on Prestige (7316).
Recorded in the late-1950s, the John Coltrane of BLACK PEARLS is not the shining, legendary beacon of free jazz he eventually became by the mid-'60s. At the time of PEARLS, Coltrane was a member of the Miles Davis Quintet, and this was one of his solo ventures. Like many Prestige discs of this period, it's a straight-ahead hard-bop jam session. Featuring sterling accompaniment by Red Garland (also then with Davis) on piano and Donald Byrd's crackling trumpet, PEARLS displays Coltrane's surging sheets-of-sound approach in full flower.

• Format: Vinyl
• Genre: Jazz