Like his greatest predecessors--Louis Armstrong, Charlie Parker, Miles Davis--John Coltrane forged a genuinely original relationship to the standard repertoire, whether he was simply embellishing a familiar melody with his luminous tone or transforming the rhythmic and harmonic underpinnings of a song to turn it into a vehicle for extended exploration. Those sides of Coltrane's art are both well-represented on this compilation of his Impulse recordings from the early '60s. On the lyrical side, his tenor saxophone exposition of "What's New" achieves a barely adorned perfection, while there's similar grace in his pairing with another consummate balladeer, singer Johnny Hartman, on "Lush Life" and "Autumn Serenade." A throbbing bass ostinato and a potent brass ensemble join with the serpentine coil of Coltrane's soprano to turn the traditional ballad "Greensleeves" into a hypnotic brew, while "Inch Worm," with Coltrane also on soprano, has a laughing humor all its own. It's on tenor, though, that Coltrane unleashes his greatest forces. "I Want to Talk About You," recorded live at Birdland, ends with a titanic cadenza (almost half the length of the performance) that's unrivalled in jazz recordings, testimony to Coltrane's invention as well as his sheer technical brilliance. "Out of This World" is recast with modal harmonies and polyrhythms into an extended performance of soaring power and searing intensity. At his best here, Coltrane wasn't just transforming his material; he was extending the expressive possibilities of music.

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