About

This album continued the reinforcement of Coltrane’s importance as a stylist. As in Coltrane and John Coltrane and the Red Garland Trio, his first two albums as a leader for Prestige, the material in Soultrane is away from the ordinary. The Garland–Paul Chambers–Arthur Taylor rhythm section is a perfect accompanying unit for Trane who, by this time, was acknowledged to be — along with Sonny Rollins — one of the two most influential tenor saxophonists in jazz.

Soultrane opens with an exploration at length of "Good Bait," a Tadd Dameron-Count Basie collaboration, first recorded by Dizzy Gillespie in the 1940s. The way Coltrane plays the turns in the melody gives it a slight minuet flavor, complimented by solos by Garland and Chambers in the same, solid groove. "I Want To Talk About You" is a ballad written and originally recorded by Billy Eckstine in the mid-1940s. It’s entirely new to jazz interpretation. – Acoustic Sounds