FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
SHEETS OF SOUND:
A Jazz at Lincoln Center Listening Session Celebrating
Coltrane ’58: The Prestige Recordings,
The New Box Set Highlighting John Coltrane’s Breakout Year
Wednesday, April 3rd, 7:00 p.m.
Los Angeles, CA – John Coltrane’s breakout year, when his mature saxophone sound first grabbed ears and his own recordings began to sell consistently, was 1958. The box set Coltrane ’58: The Prestige Recordings, out March 29th (5-CD & digital formats) and April 26th (8-LP format) on Craft Recordings, chronicles that exciting year session by session, featuring all 37 tracks Coltrane recorded as a leader or co-leader for the independent Prestige label in those 12 months. The collection captures Coltrane in creative high gear—developing the signature improvisational style that journalist Ira Gitler famously dubbed “sheets of sound.” In addition, Coltrane ’58: The Prestige Recordings comes on the heel of the 60th anniversary of that breakthrough year, and serves as the cornerstone release marking the 70th anniversary of Prestige Records.
On Wednesday, April 3rd at 7:00 p.m., Jazz at Lincoln Centerin New York City will host a free listening session with a panel of experts and enthusiasts, including Coltrane biographers Lewis Porter and Ashley Kahn. Special guests will play selections and display historical images from Coltrane ’58, engaging in a discussion filled with musical revelations and historical insights. Panelists will address the term “sheets of sound,” which refers to Coltrane’s singular approach that caused shock and awe in 1958—and eventually deep appreciation, when he pushed the bebop ideal of slaloming through a tune’s chordal pathways to its extreme. Coltrane ’58 is also more than that: it’s the sound of Coltrane working and smoothing out those sheets and decreasing the intensity, caressing and embellishing a melody, an aspect that could calm the toughest critics.
Join the panelists as they play tracks from this historical collection, take questions from the audience, and examine how 1958 helped John Coltrane become the legend we now revere and why the music he made then still influences how jazz is played today. It may be a challenge to imagine how radical Coltrane sounded 60 years ago, yet there’s an enduring relevancy in Coltrane’s bold chance-taking, as a creative artist and as an African American. “In the context of current headlines and an overriding sense of déjà vu, Coltrane’s music rings clearer than ever, with even greater meaning than it had in 1958,” writes Ashley Kahn in the liner notes to Coltrane ’58. “What he was playing then never felt less than urgent and relevant—subversive even. It still sounds that way.”
The box set is now available to pre-order in 8-LP, 5-CD & digital formats: Click here
Special bundle packages featuring a limited edition Prestige T-shirt are available exclusively via the Craft Recordings online store: Click here
Collective Personnel:
John Coltrane (tenor saxophone), Kenny Burrell (guitar), Donald Byrd (trumpet), Paul Chambers (bass), Jimmy Cobb (drums), Tommy Flanagan (piano), Red Garland (piano), Wilbur Harden (trumpet, flugelhorn), Louis Hayes (drums), Freddie Hubbard (trumpet), Art Taylor (drums)
Coltrane '58: The Prestige Recordings Track List:
8-LP SET
DISC ONE
Side A
- Lush Life
- Come Rain or Come Shine
Side B
- The Believer
- Nakatini Serenade
DISC TWO
Side A
- Lover
- Russian Lullaby
- Theme for Ernie
- You Say You Care
Side B
- Good Bait
- I Want to Talk About You
DISC THREE
Side A
- Lyresto
- Why Was I Born
- Freight Trane
- I Never Knew
Side B
- Big Paul
- I See Your Face Before Me
DISC FOUR
Side A
- Rise and Shine
- Little Melonae
Side B
- If There Is Someone Lovelier Than You
- By the Numbers
DISC FIVE
Side A
- Black Pearls
- Lover Come Back to Me
Side B
- Sweet Sapphire Blues
DISC SIX
Side A
- Spring Is Here
- Invitation
Side B
- I'm a Dreamer (Aren’t We All)
- Love Thy Neighbor
DISC SEVEN
Side A
- Don't Take Your Love From Me
- Stardust
Side B
- My Ideal
- I'll Get By (As Long as I Have You)
- Do I Love You Because You Are Beautiful
DISC EIGHT
Side A
- Then I'll Be Tired of You
- Something I Dreamed Last Night
Side B
- Bahia
- Goldsboro Express
- Time After Time
5-CD SET
DISC ONE
1.Lush Life
2.Come Rain or Come Shine
- The Believer
- Nakatini Serenade
- Lover
- Russian Lullaby
- Theme for Ernie
- You Say You Care
DISC TWO
1.Good Bait
2.I Want to Talk About You
3.Lyresto
4.Why Was I Born
- Freight Trane
- I Never Knew
- Big Paul
- I See Your Face Before Me
DISC THREE
1.Rise and Shine
2.Little Melonae
- If There Is Someone Lovelier Than You
- By the Numbers
- Black Pearls
- Lover Come Back to Me
DISC FOUR
1.Sweet Sapphire Blues
2.Spring Is Here
- Invitation
- I'm a Dreamer (Aren't We All)
- Love Thy Neighbor
- Don't Take Your Love From Me
- Stardust
DISC FIVE
1.My Ideal
2.I'll Get By (As Long as I Have You)
3.Do I Love You Because You Are Beautiful
4.Then I'll Be Tired of You
5.Something I Dreamed Last Night
6.Bahia
7.Goldsboro Express
8.Time After Time
###
About Craft Recordings:
Craft Recordings is home to one of the largest and most prestigious collections of master recordings and compositions in the world. Its rich and storied repertoire includes legendary artists such as Joan Baez, Ray Charles, John Coltrane, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Miles Davis, Bill Evans, Vince Guaraldi, John Lee Hooker, Little Richard, Nine Inch Nails, Thelonious Monk, Otis Redding, R.E.M. and Traveling Wilburys, to name just a few. Renowned imprints with catalogs issued under the Craft banner include Concord, Fania, Fantasy, Milestone, Musart, Nitro, Prestige, Riverside, Rounder, Specialty, Stax, Sugar Hill, Vanguard and Vee-Jay Records, among many others. Craft creates thoughtfully curated packages, with a meticulous devotion to quality and a commitment to preservation-ensuring that these recordings endure for new generations to discover. Craft Recordings is the catalog label team for Concord Music. For more info, visit CraftRecordings.comand follow on Facebook, Twitter,Instagram,YouTube, and Spotify.
Media Inquiries: Chummy | Aaron Feterl | [email protected]
Radio Inquiries: Concord Music | Ayappa Biddanda | [email protected]
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
COLTRANE ’58: THE PRESTIGE RECORDINGS BOX SET
CAPTURES LEGENDARY SAXOPHONIST’S GENIUS IN FIRST FLOWER
DURING HIS BREAKTHROUGH “SHEETS OF SOUND” YEAR
AVAILABLE MARCH 29TH ON CRAFT RECORDINGS
2019 MARKS 70THANNIVERSARY OF PRESTIGE RECORDS
Los Angeles, CA - Though it’s been 52 years since his tragic passing, John Coltrane’s importance and influence have never been greater. Though active for a relatively short period—from 1957 to ’67—he was an intrepid spirit who developed at a feverish pace. Coltrane’s breakout year, when his mature sound first grabbed ears and his own recordings began to sell consistently, was 1958. Coltrane ’58: The Prestige Recordings, out March 29th on Craft Recordings,is a box set (8-LP, 5-CD & digital formats) that chronicles the exciting story session by session, featuring all 37 tracks Coltrane recorded as a leader or co-leader for the independent Prestige label in those twelve months. This collection captures him in creative high gear—developing the signature improvisational style that journalist Ira Gitler famously dubbed “sheets of sound.”
The timely release of Coltrane ’58marks the 70thyear since the founding of Prestige Records and comes just after the 60thanniversary of these recordings. It also follows on last year’s successful release of Both Directions at Once, which debuted at No. 21 on the Billboard200, the highest chart position of his career.
Coltrane ’58brims with the shared jazz repertoire of the day—blues, bebop standards and familiar ballads—as well as original compositions and obscure tunes Coltrane rediscovered. Together they offer an array of emotional depth and instrumental prowess, showing how the rising saxophonist was actively stretching sound and increasing the intensity, and shifting the direction of what jazz performance was about. Included are definitive versions of “Lush Life,” “Lover Come Back to Me,” “Stardust,” “Good Bait” and “Little Melonae”; first recordings of originals like “Nakatini Serenade,” “The Believer,” “Black Pearls” and the heartfelt “Theme for Ernie”; and extended tenor saxophone tours-de-forcesuch as “Russian Lullaby,” “Sweet Sapphire Blues” and “I Want to Talk About You” that anticipate the stratospheric heights Coltrane would reach in the 1960s.
In 1958 Coltrane was still two years away from emerging as a bandleader, but his membership in ensembles led by Miles Davis and Thelonious Monk had propelled him into the spotlight as one of jazz’s most exciting and controversial figures. Coltrane ’58serves as a window onto the shock and awe—and eventually deep appreciation—Coltrane generated during this period, when his sheets of sound approach pushed the bebop ideal of slaloming through a tune’s chordal pathways to its extreme.
To be sure, Coltrane ’58is more than sheets of sound: It’s the sound of Coltrane working and smoothing out those sheets and exploring other ideas as well. For example, he frequently played in double-time—as if the chords were moving twice as fast as the rest of the band—and, if the music called for it, he’d decrease the intensity, caressing and embellishing a melody, an aspect that could calm the toughest critics.
Produced by Nick Phillips, the vinyl box includes eight 180-gram LPs, remastered from the original analog tapes by Paul Blakemore (all of which were recorded by renowned engineer Rudy Van Gelder)and cut by Clint Holley from 24-bit/192kHz transfers. The lavish, linen-wrapped, portfolio-style book features an eye-catching design and includes 40 pages containing extensive liner notes by Grammy®-winning American music historian Ashley Kahn, rare ephemera and historical photographs of the saxophonist and his collaborators, including several taken by renowned jazz photographers Francis Wolffand Esmond Edwards. The 5-CD edition, containing a 76-page book, is a faithful replica of the 8-LP vinyl box.
Coltrane ’58reveals other significant aspects of Coltrane’s emergence, too, like his growing status in the hard bop brotherhood of the day. He recorded with contemporaries (many future legends in their own right), including pianist Red Garland; guitarist Kenny Burrell; trumpeters Donald Byrd, Freddie Hubbardand Wilbur Harden; bassist Paul Chambersand drummers Art Taylor, Jimmy Cobband Louis Hayes. The sessions all took place in Rudy Van Gelder’slegendary home studio in Hackensack, New Jersey, where so much of the best jazz of that era was recorded. Coltrane’s music of 1958 benefits from a marked blue-collar, pressure-cooker aesthetic: Born in three-hour sessions with minimal rehearsal, head arrangements and mostly first takes, these tracks provide a true and transparent view of the talent Coltrane was able to draw upon and the timeless, improvised magic they created together.
It’s a challenge today to imagine how radical Coltrane must have sounded sixty years ago to jazz listeners accustomed to a gentler, lyrical flow. In his liner notes, Ashley Kahn sees an enduring relevancy in Coltrane’s bold chance-taking, as a creative artist and an African-American: “In the context of current headlines and an overriding sense of déjà vu, Coltrane’s music rings clearer than ever, with even greater meaning than it had in 1958. What he was playing then never felt less than urgent and relevant—subversive even. It still sounds that way.”
Remarkably, the majority of this music wasn’t released until the ’60s on various albums after Coltrane’s emergence as a bandleader, denying these 37 tracks the chance to tell their own collective story. By sequencing this music in the order of its original creation, Coltrane ’58clearly delineates Coltrane’s first full year as a recording artist, finally allowing fans to experience—track by track—the emergence of a master improviser in his first great career crest.
The box set is now available to pre-order in 8-LP and 5-CD (digital formats available on 2/1): Click here
Special bundle packages featuring a limited edition Prestige t-shirt are available exclusively via the Craft Recordings online store: Click here
Collective Personnel:
John Coltrane (tenor saxophone), Kenny Burrell (guitar), Donald Byrd (trumpet), Paul Chambers (bass), Jimmy Cobb (drums), Tommy Flanagan (piano), Red Garland (piano), Wilbur Harden (trumpet, flugelhorn), Louis Hayes (drums), Freddie Hubbard (trumpet), Art Taylor (drums)