John Coltrane recorded many blues songs as a session musician before his career really took off with Atlantic Records and then with Impulse Records with his famous quartet. Trane's Blues is not the record that Coltrane recorded with Blue Note (that would be Blue Train), but he was a session man on many Blue Note recordings. This album is a compilation of 8 of the best Coltrane blues songs in the Blue Note catalog.

The Songs

As the album cover states on the back this CD is Eight Distinctive Views of the Blues by one of the most inventive musicians of the century

Two songs Blue Train and Locomotion are from the album Blue Train the remaining six are from other's albums. Trane's Blues, Sonny's Crib, Just for the Love, Blue Train, One and Four (a.k.a. Mr. Day), Smoke Stack and Shifting Down are the other six songs here. For a compilation album, it is actually quite good capturing 8 of Trane's great blues songs. The first six songs are all compositions of Coltranes, only Smoke Stack (Johnny Griffith) and Shifting Down (Kenny Durham) were not composed by Coltrane.

My Thoughts

Overall, I enjoyed listening to these 8 songs, they are mellow and laid back jazz blues. They are all instrumentals, no vocals to be heard. Most of the songs are sax, piano bass and drums. A notable exception is Just for the Love where we have Byrd on trumpet and some nice jazz guitar from Kenny Burrell. It is the only song on the album with guitar, but it works great with the trumpet and sax of Byrd and Coltrane, a really great mellow sound. The ten minute Blue Train features Lee Morgan on Trumpet and Curtis Fuller on Trombone, rounding out Kenny Drew's piano, so I got a really nice full sound on that song and enjoyed Fuller's trombone especially.

If I had to state a problem with the album it is that, although the album states it is 8 distinctive songs, the songs aren't that distinctive from one another especially having listened to Coltrane's other blues albums, including the aforementioned Blue Train with Blue Note, and also John Coltrane plays the Blues on Atlantic.

Sound Quality

The sound quality of this Blue Note album is quite good, I felt as if I was in the studio on these various songs. Stereo separation is good, you get a sense of the musicians spread out before you with the piano to your right, bass to the left, drums in the back, and the various wind instruments center stage or just off to the sides. I listened, playing this on my Meridian CD player using a Rotel for power, Yamaha 5280 for processing and 2 Polk Audio Monitor 70 speakers.

Summary

Although I found this collection to be above average, because it is Coltrane, I couldn't help feeling a little bit like Blue Note just cashed in on the Coltrane name and rounded up 8 songs in which he played to release them, two already released on his one Blue Note album. Moreover, all the songs are from his early career before he really started to get interesting. Yes they are all good songs, but don't show the daring of much of his work. Nevertheless, I give it four stars.

Recommended: Yes

Great Music to Play While: Getting ready to go out