20 Essential John Coltrane Albums Ranked
Introduction: Finding Your Way Into Coltrane
For me, Coltrane isn't just an artist to be admired, and these aren't just great albums. He's a lifetime companion. Every record is part of an ever-deepening conversation between Trane and me. I've absorbed much of this music into my psyche. I listen to these records constantly, or not at all for years, and then suddenly I hear them again as if anew. And there's always more to be heard, felt and learned from this music.
I don't believe there's any single route into John Coltrane's music. His music invites you to step in wherever you happen to be, whichever record you happen upon. That might be the lyrical warmth of Ballads, the storm of Ascension, or the meditative power of A Love Supreme. His early Prestige sessions were steeped in hard bop tradition, where technical fire met a search for voice. On Atlantic, he began to carve new shapes in his music, melodic but restless, bursting with curiosity for new sounds. Then came Impulse!, and with it, transcendence. The saxophonist who once rehearsed obsessively to perfect a solo began to chase something bigger: devotion, liberation, even a direct line to the divine.
I've had a go at ranking Coltrane's essential albums from great to greater still. The ranking is my opinion and heaven knows, there will be people who disagree with the exact order or even the inclusion of some of these titles. But that's the nature of these lists - you can't please everyone. The ranking is determined by how influential I feel the album is to the history of jazz, or how important it was as a milestone in the development of Coltrane as an artist. But it also comes from my gut feeling, which is to say, these are my favourite Coltrane albums. Really, I don't examine the methodology too much. It's a magic that just exists.
I thought about trying to tell you which vinyl pressings are worth buying (and which to avoid), but I haven't even come close to comparing every pressing out there, so really the advice is simple, and it works well as a general rule of thumb: where budget allows and whenever possible, buy the early US pressings in good, clean condition. In my experience, these records sound better than anything that followed. Failing that, get yourself a decent Japanese pressing or a modern audiophile reissue. You can't go wrong with one of these options.
For those new to Coltrane and even for old-hat collectors, I hope this article gives you a clear path through one of jazz's most important catalogues.
Each record here earns its place not only through historical significance, but because it reveals a different side to Coltrane: the craftsman, the visionary, the believer. Collectively, they tell a story that no single album could.
The Rankings
20. Sun Ship (Impulse!, 1971)
Recorded: August 26, 1965
Released: 1971 (posthumous)
Personnel: McCoy Tyner (piano), Jimmy Garrison (bass), Elvin Jones (drums)
Recorded in 1965 but released six years after Coltrane's death, Sun Ship captures the Classic Quartet hurtling toward the unknown. By this point, their telepathy was supernatural. Every phrase seems to come from one shared consciousness, each player following Coltrane's searching energy into the fire.
The title track opens with unrelenting force. Coltrane's tenor tears through clustered chords, Tyner hammers open harmonies, Jones explodes in cymbal storms. But within the chaos there's deep control, a sense of conviction rather than anger.
'Dearly Beloved' and 'Amen' offer small islands of grace, moments where melody surfaces from the sea of rhythm before being swept away again.
Sun Ship feels alive in a way few studio records do. Raw, unfinished, utterly human. It's a document of transition, the sound of a band pushing past form and harmony into something approaching revelation. It might never win over casual listeners, but it's essential for understanding Coltrane's final ascent: the moment when spiritual fire became his entire vocabulary.
19. Both Directions at Once: The Lost Album (Impulse!, 2018)
Recorded: March 6, 1963
Released: June 2018
Personnel: McCoy Tyner (piano), Jimmy Garrison (bass), Elvin Jones (drums)
When this session emerged more than fifty years after it was recorded, it felt like a dispatch from another world. Cut in 1963 with the Classic Quartet, Both Directions at Once shows Coltrane between eras. Moving away from the tight forms of his 1962 album Coltrane and Ballads toward the freer sound that would soon define his music.
It's not a concept album, but a sketchbook. 'Untitled Original 11383', 'One Up One Down', and early versions of 'Impressions' all capture a band testing itself in real time. The playing is loose but never sloppy, the chemistry unforced.
Tyner's comping is stormy and fluid. Elvin Jones sounds like weather. Coltrane's tone cuts like sunlight through cloud.
What makes it essential isn't the myth of a "lost" album but its mood of discovery. It's the sound of Coltrane listening for his next idea, a quartet on the brink of a breakthrough. Hearing it now, it bridges the gap between discipline and devotion, the missing link between Giant Steps and A Love Supreme.
18. Om (Impulse!, 1968)
Recorded: October 1, 1965
Released: 1968 (posthumous)
Personnel: Pharoah Sanders (tenor sax), McCoy Tyner (piano), Donald Garrett (bass), Jimmy Garrison (bass), Elvin Jones (drums), Joe Brazil (flute)
Om is one of the most polarising entries in Coltrane's catalogue. Recorded in late 1965 with an expanded ensemble, it's less an album than a ritual. The opening chant invokes the sacred syllable of creation, and what follows feels like an invocation rather than a composition.
It's a dense, overpowering wave of sound. Saxophones howling in unison, drums rolling like thunder, basses bowing low drones. Beneath the chaos lies intention, an attempt to capture the ecstatic dissolution of ego. Coltrane isn't soloing here so much as dissolving into the ensemble, playing as if possessed.
The rawness can be shocking, even alienating, but that's part of its truth. Om is the moment Coltrane fully commits to sound as spirit. It's demanding, exhausting, and not for everyday listening. But once you tune into its frequency, you glimpse a rare kind of surrender. It's the storm before the silence of his final works.
17. Live at Birdland (Impulse!, 1964)
Recorded: October 8 and November 18, 1963
Released: January 1964
Personnel: McCoy Tyner (piano), Jimmy Garrison (bass), Elvin Jones (drums)
Recorded across two sessions in late 1963, Live at Birdland distils the Classic Quartet at its peak. Fiery yet tender, fearless yet composed. Coltrane's tone is molten, McCoy Tyner's harmonies shimmer, and Elvin Jones swings hard.
The set list mixes originals with the haunting 'Alabama', written after the bombing of Birmingham's 16th Street Baptist Church that killed four young Black girls. That performance remains one of Coltrane's purest statements. Grief transformed into beauty. Rage turned into prayer. The melody moves slowly, mournfully, built on the cadence of Martin Luther King Jr's eulogy speech. There are no words, but you hear the sorrow, the anger, the resolve. It's five minutes that captures the pain of that dark event in American history.
Though technically a live album, half of Live at Birdland was recorded in Rudy Van Gelder's studio, giving it rare polish for a "live" release. The energy never dips.
If you ever need to show someone why this quartet remains the stuff of legend, start here. It's not just one of the best John Coltrane albums. It's one of the best live jazz albums, full stop.
16. John Coltrane and Johnny Hartman (Impulse!, 1963)
Recorded: March 7, 1963
Released: July 1963
Personnel: Johnny Hartman (vocals), McCoy Tyner (piano), Jimmy Garrison (bass), Elvin Jones (drums)
This collaboration is pure velvet. Recorded in 1963, it pairs Coltrane's searching horn with Johnny Hartman's baritone voice, a meeting of intensity and ease. The result is intimate, late-night magic. Six songs of understated romance, each delivered with perfect restraint.
Hartman's phrasing floats above Tyner's piano and Garrison's bass like smoke curling through light. Coltrane, for once, sounds relaxed. His solos are lyrical, conversational, as if responding to the singer's breath.
The highlight, 'Lush Life', carries an almost unbearable melancholy. Billy Strayhorn's torch song about urban sophistication and lost love gets a reading so tender it aches. Hartman's voice cracks slightly on certain phrases, and Coltrane responds with phrases that sound like consolation.
It's easy to overlook this among Coltrane's more explosive works, but John Coltrane and Johnny Hartman remains one of the most perfect mood records ever made. Proof that even the most restless artist could find stillness when the song demanded it.
15. Olé Coltrane (Atlantic, 1961)
Recorded: May 25, 1961
Released: November 1961
Personnel: Freddie Hubbard (trumpet), Eric Dolphy (alto sax, flute), McCoy Tyner (piano), Reggie Workman (bass), Art Davis (bass), Elvin Jones (drums)
Olé Coltrane was Coltrane's final session for Atlantic before moving to Impulse!, and it feels like a door swinging open. Drawing inspiration from Spanish folk music and modal improvisation, it features an expanded lineup that points toward his increasingly ambitious sound.
The 18-minute title track is hypnotic. A modal vamp that stretches into trance territory, Coltrane circling the melody like a hawk riding thermals. Dolphy's flute adds mystery, and Tyner lays down waves of harmony that shimmer like desert heat.
Side two's 'Aisha' offers a contrast. Lush, tender, and almost cinematic. A love song written by Tyner for his then-wife, played with aching sincerity.
Olé bridges My Favorite Things and Africa/Brass, showing Coltrane's growing fascination with non-Western scales and rhythm. It's adventurous yet accessible, cerebral yet sensual. You can hear the restlessness that would soon lead him beyond genre entirely.
14. Lush Life (Prestige, 1961)
Recorded: 1957-1958
Released: 1961
Personnel: Red Garland or Donald Byrd (various sessions), Earl May or Paul Chambers (bass), Art Taylor or Louis Hayes (drums)
Few titles feel more fitting in hindsight. Lush Life isn't a single session but a patchwork of recordings from 1957 to 1958, showing Coltrane in transition from sideman to leader. The result is uneven in sound but unified in mood. Smoky, romantic, and quietly intense.
The title track is definitive. Coltrane's phrasing is elastic and patient, stretching time without breaking it. He takes Billy Strayhorn's sophisticated ballad about urban nightlife and lost romance and turns it into a confessional.
Elsewhere, 'I Love You' and 'Like Someone in Love' showcase his developing tone. Hard-edged but tender at its core.
For all its piecemeal origins, Lush Life holds a special place. It captures Coltrane's humanity before the myth took over. There's no grand concept here, just a musician falling in love with sound. It's an early masterpiece and, for many, the first Coltrane record that truly gets under the skin.
13. Expression (Impulse!, 1967)
Recorded: February 15 and March 7, 1967
Released: September 1967 (posthumous)
Personnel: Alice Coltrane (piano), Pharoah Sanders (tenor sax), Jimmy Garrison (bass), Rashied Ali (drums)
Recorded shortly before his death, Expression feels like a final benediction. Gone is the fury of Om. In its place, a strange serenity. The band plays as if levitating. Alice Coltrane on piano, Pharoah Sanders on reeds, Jimmy Garrison on bass, and Rashied Ali on drums.
Tracks like 'To Be' and 'Offering' unfold slowly, almost breathlessly, with Coltrane's tone softening into pure vibration. The absence of Elvin Jones and McCoy Tyner signals a new space, more open and meditative.
You can sense Coltrane approaching silence, every note chosen like a prayer bead.
Expression isn't about virtuosity anymore. It's about arrival. It may not convert new listeners, but for those who've followed the journey, it's profoundly moving. A whisper after the storm, and one of the most spiritual albums in the entire jazz canon.
12. Duke Ellington & John Coltrane (Impulse!, 1963)
Recorded: September 26, 1962
Released: February 1963
Personnel: Duke Ellington (piano), Jimmy Garrison (bass), Elvin Jones (drums)
Plus: Aaron Bell or Sam Woodyard on select tracks
This record is all grace and conversation. By the early 60s, Duke Ellington was a living monument, and Coltrane the new vanguard. Their meeting could have been stiff ceremony, but instead it's intimate and playful. Two masters, two generations, speaking the same language in different accents.
Ellington's piano anchors everything. Elegant, understated. Coltrane adds fire without overwhelming the mood. The version of 'In a Sentimental Mood' remains definitive. Every breath of the horn perfectly measured, every chord a sigh.
Elsewhere, 'Angelica' and 'Big Nick' swing with quiet joy. You can hear mutual respect in every exchange, Coltrane reining in his intensity to honour the elder statesman, Ellington leaving space for the younger man's fire.
It's an intergenerational handshake, proof that tradition and innovation aren't enemies. If you ever needed evidence that Coltrane could fit in anywhere, it's here.
11. Ballads (Impulse!, 1963)
Recorded: Late 1961 to September 1962
Released: February 1963
Personnel: McCoy Tyner (piano), Jimmy Garrison or Reggie Workman (bass), Elvin Jones (drums)
For all his intensity, Coltrane was also a master of restraint. Ballads proves it. Recorded between 1961 and 1962, it presents him in full romantic bloom. Interpreting standards with patience and lyricism, backed by the Classic Quartet at their most delicate.
There's no grand concept, just devotion to melody. Each track feels like it's been polished to translucence.
'Say It (Over and Over Again)' and 'Nancy (With the Laughing Face)' reveal how much Coltrane could express in a whisper. His tone is warm and direct, his phrasing heartbreakingly simple. This is Coltrane stripped of harmonic complexity, playing like he's speaking directly to one person in a dark room.
Critics once dismissed Ballads as conservative. Producer Bob Thiele reportedly pushed Coltrane to record it to broaden his audience. But time has been kind. It's the record that converts sceptics, the calm heart of his stormy career.
Proof that power and gentleness can coexist.
10. Coltrane Live at the Village Vanguard (Impulse!, 1962)
Recorded: November 1-5, 1961
Released: February 1962
Personnel: Eric Dolphy (bass clarinet), McCoy Tyner (piano), Reggie Workman (bass), Elvin Jones (drums)
If you want to hear where modern jazz cracked open, start here. Recorded over several nights in November 1961, Live at the Village Vanguard captures Coltrane's first recorded encounters with Eric Dolphy. Music that baffled critics but changed everything.
'Spiritual' introduces the modal and Eastern influences that would define Coltrane's later years. Dolphy's bass clarinet snakes around the tenor lines, creating countermelodies that feel like a second consciousness. Reggie Workman and Ahmed Abdul-Malik's dual basses build rhythmic earthquakes beneath, and Elvin Jones plays like a force of nature.
The famous 16-minute version of 'Chasin' the Trane' is a masterclass in extended improvisation. Coltrane strips away harmony and chases pure sound, pushing his instrument to its physical limits.
This is the sound of risk. Of a musician stepping beyond expectation. Audiences weren't ready. Critics were hostile. But Coltrane didn't care. He was already walking another road, and this live set was the first signpost.
9. Coltrane Jazz (Atlantic, 1961)
Recorded: November 1959 to October 1960
Released: January 1961
Personnel: Wynton Kelly or McCoy Tyner (piano), Paul Chambers or Steve Davis (bass), Jimmy Cobb or Elvin Jones (drums)
Often overshadowed by recordings that proceeded it and those that followed, Coltrane Jazz deserves far more love. Recorded in 1959 and 1960, it's one of his most balanced works. Technical brilliance without stiffness, spiritual warmth without abstraction.
With players like Wynton Kelly and Paul Chambers from the Miles Davis band on some tracks, it bridges Kind of Blue and Giant Steps. 'Little Old Lady' swings hard with effortless groove. 'Fifth House' dazzles with harmonic acrobatics, showing off the "Coltrane changes" in a more playful context. 'Like Sonny' offers pure joy, a tribute to Sonny Rollins that bounces with energy.
Coltrane Jazz might not be revolutionary, but it is indispensable. I think it's actually a mini-masterpiece and one of Coltrane's most underrated record. A reminder that even his "transitional" records outclassed most artists' peaks. This is Coltrane in complete control but still open to play, finding the sweet spot between discipline and freedom.
8. Blue Train (Blue Note, 1958)
Recorded: September 15, 1957
Released: January 1958
Personnel: Lee Morgan (trumpet), Curtis Fuller (trombone), Kenny Drew (piano), Paul Chambers (bass), Philly Joe Jones (drums)
Blue Train is where Coltrane's legend truly begins. His only Blue Note album, it captures the moment he stepped into full authorship. No longer a sideman, but a visionary with a clear voice.
The sextet plays with the kind of swing that defines hard bop's golden era. Lee Morgan's trumpet blazes, Curtis Fuller's trombone adds depth, and the rhythm section (Paul Chambers and Philly Joe Jones from the Miles Davis Quintet) swings like a freight train.
The title track's opening fanfare is instantly recognisable, a declaration of intent. 'Moment's Notice' showcases his harmonic genius, the "sheets of sound" starting to coalesce. 'Lazy Bird' offers bluesy warmth.
Blue Train is lyrical, accessible, and bold. You can hear the seeds of everything that would follow, but it's also complete on its own terms. Perfect hard bop from a master finding his voice.
7. Thelonious Monk Quartet with John Coltrane at Carnegie Hall (Blue Note, 2005)
Recorded: November 29, 1957
Released: 2005
Personnel: Thelonious Monk (piano), Ahmed Abdul-Malik (bass), Shadow Wilson (drums)
This 1957 concert was lost for decades and only surfaced in 2005, instantly rewriting jazz history. Coltrane's short stint with Thelonious Monk had already become myth. Now, here was proof.
The music is electrifying. Monk's jagged piano lines push Coltrane to the edge, forcing him to rethink phrasing and timing. Monk's compositions are famously angular, full of unexpected intervals and rhythmic displacement. Coltrane has to navigate them in real time.
The chemistry is rough but riveting. Two uncompromising minds locked in orbit. 'Epistrophy' crackles with invention. 'Monk's Mood' reveals rare tenderness.
Hearing Coltrane navigate Monk's angular harmonies explains everything about his later freedom. You can feel him learning in real time, absorbing new shapes, new silences. This isn't just archival gold. It's a key chapter in his evolution, documenting the moment he learned to think harmonically like no one else.
6. Soultrane (Prestige, 1958)
Recorded: February 7, 1958
Released: September 1958
Personnel: Red Garland (piano), Paul Chambers (bass), Art Taylor (drums)
Recorded during his prolific Prestige years, Soultrane shows Coltrane refining his "sheets of sound" style while keeping his heart front and centre. The band (Red Garland, Paul Chambers, and Art Taylor) keeps the groove supple, giving Coltrane room to explore.
'Good Bait' opens with muscular swing, Coltrane's tenor cascading through rapid-fire eighth notes that seem to defy physics. 'Theme for Ernie' balances intellect and emotion. There's technical fire, but also tenderness. The tone is rounder, more assured than his earlier Prestige dates.
'Russian Lullaby' takes a delicate melody and reinvents it as a vehicle for harmonic exploration. You can hear him experimenting with substitutions, stacking notes, searching for new ways through familiar changes.
While later records would explode the form, Soultrane is where the foundation was laid. You can hear the clarity of purpose taking shape, a musician finding not just his technique, but his truth.
5. Giant Steps (Atlantic, 1960)
Recorded: May 4-5, 1959
Released: February 1960
Personnel: Tommy Flanagan, Wynton Kelly or Cedar Walton (piano), Paul Chambers (bass), Art Taylor, Jimmy Cobb or Lex Humphries (drums)
A revolution disguised as a record. Giant Steps introduced chord changes so complex they became legend, birthing what musicians now call "Coltrane changes." It's dazzlingly technical, yet delivered with joy and momentum.
The title track races forward like a runaway train, Coltrane navigating his own harmonic maze at breakneck speed. 'Countdown' pushes harmonic logic to its limit, each phrase careening through key centres that shift every few beats.
But amid the theory lies warmth. 'Naima' remains one of the most beautiful ballads ever written, dedicated to his first wife. This isn't cold innovation. It's emotion through intellect.
Tommy Flanagan, the pianist on most tracks, famously struggled with the changes. You can hear him working hard on the title track. It wasn't a criticism of Flanagan (a brilliant pianist), but proof that Coltrane had moved beyond what most musicians could follow.
Every jazz student studies it. Every listener feels it. Giant Steps marks the end of one era and the beginning of another. Precision giving way to prayer.
4. My Favorite Things (Atlantic, 1961)
Recorded: October 21 and 24, 1960
Released: March 1961
Personnel: McCoy Tyner (piano), Steve Davis (bass), Elvin Jones (drums)
This is the record that made Coltrane a household name. His soprano saxophone reimagining of Rodgers and Hammerstein's 'My Favorite Things' turned a Broadway tune into a hypnotic, modal trance. It was jazz, but it was also something else. Circular, meditative, timeless.
The quartet's chemistry is immediate. Tyner's piano shimmers with cascading block chords. Jones' drumming breathes like ocean waves, building and receding. And Coltrane sounds reborn on soprano, his tone sweeter than his tenor but no less searching.
The 13-minute title track became an anthem of transformation. Built on a simple minor vamp, Coltrane spins endless variations, each one pulling you deeper into the music's hypnotic pull. It's the sound of a musician discovering a new instrument and a new way of thinking about melody.
'Summertime' and 'Every Time We Say Goodbye' are equally luminous, both standards reimagined with modal freedom.
It's impossible to overstate how radical this sounded in 1961. Accessible yet transcendent, it bridged the gap between jazz purists and a broader audience. It set the course for everything to come.
3. Africa/Brass (Impulse!, 1961)
Recorded: May 23 and June 7, 1961
Released: September 1961
Personnel: McCoy Tyner (piano), Reggie Workman and Art Davis (basses), Elvin Jones (drums), plus a 21-piece ensemble arranged by Eric Dolphy and McCoy Tyner
Coltrane's Impulse! debut feels like an awakening. With a 21-piece ensemble arranged by Eric Dolphy and McCoy Tyner, Africa/Brass expands his sound into orchestral scale. The low brass, the rolling percussion, the modal pulse. It's monumental.
'Africa' stretches for sixteen minutes, a journey through rhythm and colour. The arrangement is dense but never cluttered. French horns drone, trumpets punctuate, euphoniums add weight. Over this shifting landscape, Coltrane's soprano soars, sometimes leading, sometimes dissolving into the ensemble.
'Greensleeves' reimagines a folk song as ritual. What was once a simple English melody becomes something ancient and ceremonial, the brass section transforming it into something primal.
The textures are lush, the energy grounded in something ancient. This is where Coltrane began thinking in continents, not choruses. Where he expanded his vision from quartet intimacy to something vast and communal.
It's bold, cinematic, spiritual. A statement of intent from an artist entering his final, fearless phase.
2. Ascension (Impulse!, 1966)
Recorded: June 28, 1965
Released: February 1966
Personnel: Freddie Hubbard and Dewey Johnson (trumpets), Marion Brown and John Tchicai (alto saxes), Pharoah Sanders and Archie Shepp (tenor saxes), McCoy Tyner (piano), Art Davis and Jimmy Garrison (basses), Elvin Jones (drums)
Nothing in jazz prepared listeners for Ascension. Recorded in one take with an eleven-piece ensemble including Pharoah Sanders, Freddie Hubbard, and Archie Shepp, it's a single, 40-minute explosion. No heads, no choruses, no compromise.
It begins in chaos and never quite resolves, yet within that chaos lies order. Collective improvisation at its most intense. The band alternates between ensemble passages (dense, roaring walls of sound) and individual solos (each musician stepping forward like a preacher at the edge of revelation).
This is free jazz at its most uncompromising. Coltrane had heard Ornette Coleman's Free Jazz and responded with his own vision. Where Ornette was playful and angular, Coltrane is ecstatic and overwhelming. The saxophones scream, the rhythm section churns, the intensity never lets up.
For many, this is the point where Coltrane went too far. For others, it's his masterpiece. Ascension redefined what jazz could be. No longer entertainment, but existential ritual. It's the sound of everything breaking open.
1. A Love Supreme (Impulse!, 1965)
Recorded: December 9, 1964
Released: February 1965
Personnel: McCoy Tyner (piano), Jimmy Garrison (bass), Elvin Jones (drums)
If jazz has scripture, this is it. Recorded in one session with McCoy Tyner, Jimmy Garrison, and Elvin Jones, A Love Supreme is both prayer and performance. Across four movements (Acknowledgement, Resolution, Pursuance, and Psalm), Coltrane charts a journey from awakening to gratitude.
The opening bass figure of 'Acknowledgement' is instantly recognisable. Four notes that anchor the entire suite. Over this foundation, Coltrane chants "A Love Supreme" like a mantra, the phrase becoming rhythm, melody, and invocation.
'Resolution' finds peace in searching, the quartet locked in perfect communion. 'Pursuance' explodes with Elvin Jones' most ferocious drumming, Coltrane riding the storm. And 'Psalm' closes with Coltrane playing the words of his own poem, his saxophone literally speaking the text printed in the liner notes.
It's technically flawless, but that's not why it endures. The power lies in its purity. Every note feels inevitable, as if channelled rather than composed. The chant of "A Love Supreme" repeats like mantra, the final solo blurs into breath, and silence becomes part of the message.
It changed how people heard jazz, how they thought about music, how they imagined faith. For many, it changed their lives. It certainly changed mine.
This is the one. If you only ever buy one Coltrane album, make it this one.
Coltrane's catalogue is a map of human possibility. From the tight discipline of Giant Steps to the cosmic freedom of Om, his music traces the same path every listener eventually walks. From order to chaos, from control to surrender, from sound to silence.
There are no casual Coltrane fans. Once his music finds you, it keeps you. Whether you start with Blue Train or end up at Ascension, the journey never really stops. These twenty records are simply waypoints, markers along the road of one man's endless search for truth through music.
And that search, still, is the most essential sound in jazz.
Vinyl buying in Australia: Most of these titles are available as modern reissues. Original pressings command premium prices but can be found. Japanese pressings from the 1970s-80s offer excellent sound quality at mid-range prices. Check our Coltrane collection for current availability.