John Coltrane / Red Garland Trio - Traneing In

John Coltrane put together an all star group for this 1957 session featuring Art Taylor, Red Garland and Paul Chambers. Originally released as John Coltrane with the Red Garland Trio and ostensibly co-lead by Garland and Coltrane, this album was renamed Traneing In and re-released as a Coltrane album in 1961, reflecting the tremendous rise in stature and popularity Coltrane experienced in just a few short years.

While at first blush the music here sounds jauntier and more traditional than one might expect from Coltrane, even at this earlier stage of his career, there are moments throughout were his playing becomes lightning fast and blisteringly intense, breaking through Garland's buttoned-downed arrangements but without losing sight of them, instead twisting in and around the framework Garland has provided like a vine growing on a trellis. Matching Coltrane at every turn is Paul Chambers, who gives one of the best performances of his career on this set and may very well be its MVP, acting as the key link in the chain that ties Garland's and Coltrane's seemingly opposing styles together into something that works.

Heavyweight vinyl produced by Original Jazz Classics for Prestige Records in 2011.