Coltrane (1962 album)

The album was released in July 1962 through Impulse! Records.^[1] According to All About Jazz writer Mark Werlin, Coltrane was initially overlooked in the music press, and later by music historians, because of the "hostility and incomprehension" that had met the saxophonist's controversial performances alongside fellow saxophonist Eric Dolphy at the Village Vanguard in 1961 and on tour in the US and Europe: "[The album] was intentionally shadowed—at the time of its recording—by a campaign of uninformed music criticism and personal attacks on Coltrane and Dolphy published in prestigious American newspapers and the preeminent jazz magazine Down Beat."^[4]

In 2002, Impulse! reissued Coltrane as a two-CD deluxe edition with the disclaimer that it used "second-generation, compressed and equalized tapes of all tracks", except "Miles' Mode", whose original master was still in existence, along with bonus tracks and alternate takes mastered from original recordings.^[5] In 2016, the Verve Label Group rereleased the album in commemoration of Coltrane's 90th birthday, as a 192 kHz/24bit digital download.^[4]

More information Review scores, Source ...

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Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[6]
Down Beat	[7]
Encyclopedia of Popular Music	[8]
New Record Mirror	[9]
The Penguin Guide to Jazz	[10]
The Rolling Stone Jazz Record Guide	[11]
Tom Hull – on the Web	A−[12]

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According to Werlin, "The music of Coltrane is modal jazz, but far from the cerebral music advanced by George Russell or the comparatively restrained work by the Miles Davis Sextet on Kind of Blue." Ultimately, Werlin regards the album as a "major" work of Coltrane and his quartet.^[4] AllMusic's Michael G. Nastos calls the album "a most focused effort, a relatively popular session to both [Coltrane's] fans or latecomers, with five selections that are brilliantly conceived and rendered."^[6] He found Coltrane "simply masterful" on tenor saxophone with a "fully formed instrumental voice" that "shine[s] through in the most illuminating manner", and wrote of the album's standing in his catalog:

Even more than any platitudes one can heap on this extraordinary recording, it historically falls between the albums Olé Coltrane and Impressions — completing a triad of studio efforts that are as definitive as anything Coltrane ever produced, and highly representative of him in his prime.^[6]

Francis Davis of The Village Voice feels that, apart from the "modal, three-quarter time novelty hit" "The Inch Worm", consumers should buy the album for "the gorgeous 'Soul Eyes' and a shattering 'Out of This World'."^[13]