A brilliant encapsulation of what was best about Trane’s Atlantic stint. What you get, complete with their individual liner-notes, are the albums Giant Steps (spring 1959 with Flanagan), Coltrane Jazz (winter 1959 with Kelly), My Favourite Things, Coltrane Plays The Blues and Coltrane’s Sound (the last three, though released over a period of three years, were all recorded within five days in autumn 1960). All these are quartets, so what you don’t get is Dolphy (Olé) or Don Cherry (The Avant-Garde) or Milt Jackson (Bags And Trane) – or any of the original unissued titles or alternate takes from this period, previously included in Rhino’s The Heavyweight Champion 7-CD set.

The fascinating angles on this music include Trane’s increasing loosening-up with the arrival of Elvin for the 1960 sessions, not only rhythmically but in terms of tonal distortions. Tyner’s blend of open voicings and traditional blues-oriented sounds is clearly stimulating too but, as early as Coltrane Jazz (plus the version of ‘Naima’ added to Giant Steps just before its release), Kelly already matches Trane’s playing in the current Miles Davis group. Then there’s the material, with Giant Steps being the first album consisting solely of originals, some of which Coltrane saved up till he escaped his Prestige publishing contract, with each of the seven pieces from the title-track to ‘Mr. P.C.’ being significantly different. While Coltrane Jazz incorporates three fairly obscure standards along with the originals, the three 1960 albums are a triumph of marketing – the first entirely songbook-oriented with ‘Favourite Things’ a current hit, the second entirely blues (three out of six being themeless) and the third consisting of two standards including ‘Body And Soul’, two “pure” originals and two standard-based originals (‘Satellite’ from ‘How High The Moon’ and ‘Liberia’ from ‘Night In Tunisia’). If you don’t possess or have forgotten, please obtain pronto.