John Coltrane – Soultrane (1958)

May 5, 2023

My vocabulary when it comes to reviewing jazz is noticeably stunted. I don’t know enough about the genre (at least as not as much as I do about grind, death metal and black metal lol) in order to be fully comfortable when describing what I hear, but what I do know is that I thoroughly enjoy what I hear, and Soultrane is another one of those records that I’ve really enjoyed recently.

As I noted in the review I did for Giant Steps, the brass on my CD version of this is also panned hard left, which makes for an interesting dynamic. It doesn’t seem so harsh when listening again to whatever remastered version it is that Spotify has, but those old-school stereo pans are brutal. Either way, this is some gorgeous performing, especially from Art Taylor, whose hypnotic hi-hattery dances along with the meandering sax like nobody’s business.

Soultrane feels like a short listen, even with some of the songs being quite lengthy, but its a Coltrane record that I’ve come back to quite a few times.