The Bethlehem Years

This double-disc collection contains three sessions saxophonist John Coltrane recorded for Bethlehem as a sideman at the end 1957. Disc one contains the original album Winners Circle, an all-star date that included, among others, Donald Byrd, Freddie Green, Oscar Pettiford, Gene Quill, Philly Joe Jones, Frank Rehak, Al Cohn, and Eddie Costa. Second, Art Blakey Big Band was recorded concurrently and included Melba Liston, Sahib Shihab, Walter Bishop, Jr., Bill Hardman, Jimmy Cleveland, Byrd, and others. Coltrane has one composition on the Winners Circle date, "Pristine," a taut blues that would not have been out of place on his Blue Train set. But the real revelatory stuff is the second disc that includes one unreleased cut, "Oasis," and alternate takes of seven titles from the sessions (there are three alone of "Pristine.") As this collection shows, Coltrane was developing himself as a soloist and, while he was imaginative and aggressive, he was not quite the consistently creative force he was to become in '58 and '59. The music here is of high quality — especially the Blakey Big Band material — because it was a stretch for the bandleader from his Jazz Messengers sessions. Shout Factory's reissue contains the original Art Lange liner notes from the 1993 release, and has completely remastered sound.