Blue Train (album)

Blue Train is a studio album by John Coltrane, released in 1958 on Blue Note Records, catalogue BLP 1577. Recorded at the Van Gelder Studio in Hackensack, New Jersey, it is the only Blue Note recording by Coltrane as the leader on the session. It has been certified a gold record by the RIAA.^[5]

Background

The album was recorded in the midst of Coltrane's residency at the Five Spot as a member of the Thelonious Monk quartet. The personnel include Coltrane's Miles Davis bandmates, Paul Chambers on bass and Philly Joe Jones on drums, both of whom had worked before with pianist Kenny Drew. Both trumpeter Lee Morgan and trombonist Curtis Fuller were up-and-coming jazz musicians, and both would be members of Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers, working together on several of Blakey's albums.

All of the compositions were written by Coltrane, with the exception of the standard "I'm Old Fashioned". The title track is a long, rhythmically variegated blues with a sentimental [quasi minor; in fact based on major chords with flat tenth, or raised ninth] theme that gradually shows the major key during Coltrane's first chorus. "Locomotion" is also a blues riff tune, in forty-four-bar form.^[6] During a 1960 interview, Coltrane described Blue Train as his favorite album of his own up to that point.^[7]

Legacy

John Coltrane's next major album, Giant Steps, recorded in 1959, would break new melodic and harmonic ground in jazz, whereas Blue Train adheres to the hard bop style of the era. Two of its songs – "Moment's Notice" and "Lazy Bird" – demonstrate Coltrane's first recorded use of Coltrane changes, which he would later expand upon on Giant Steps. Musicologist Lewis Porter has also demonstrated a harmonic relationship between Coltrane's "Lazy Bird" and Tadd Dameron's "Lady Bird".^[8]

In 1997, The Ultimate Blue Train was released, adding two alternate takes and enhanced content, and in 1999 a 24bit 192kHz DVD-Audio version was issued. In 2003, both a Super Audio Compact Disc version was released, as well as a remastered compact disc as part of Blue Note's Rudy Van Gelder series.

In 2015, Blue Note/Universal released a Blu-Ray Audio edition of the album with four bonus tracks, one of which is a previously unreleased take of "Lazy Bird".

Track listing

Side one

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Length
1.	"Blue Train"	John Coltrane	10:43
2.	"Moment's Notice"	John Coltrane	9:10

Side two

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Length
1.	"Locomotion"	John Coltrane	7:14
2.	"I'm Old Fashioned"	Johnny Mercer, Jerome Kern	7:58
3.	"Lazy Bird"	John Coltrane	7:00

1997 bonus tracks

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Length
6.	"Blue Train" (alternate take)	John Coltrane	9:58
7.	"Lazy Bird" (alternate take)	John Coltrane	7:12

2014 Blue Note SHM-CD Remaster Edition (Japan Release)

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Length
1.	"Blue Train"	John Coltrane	10:43
2.	"Moment's Notice"	John Coltrane	9:10
3.	"Locomotion"	John Coltrane	7:14
4.	"I'm Old Fashioned"	Johnny Mercer, Jerome Kern	7:58
5.	"Lazy Bird"	John Coltrane	7:00
6.	"Blue Train" (Alternate Take 1)	John Coltrane	7:12
7.	"Blue Train" (Alternate Take 2)	John Coltrane	9:58
8.	"Lazy Bird" (Alternate Take)	John Coltrane	7:12

Personnel

References

↑ Cook 2004, p. 103.
↑ Blue Train at AllMusic
↑ Cook, Richard; Morton, Brian (2008). The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings (9th ed.). Penguin. p. 284. ISBN 978-0-141-03401-0.
↑ Swenson, J. (Editor) (1985). The Rolling Stone Jazz Record Guide. USA: Random House/Rolling Stone. p. 46. ISBN 0-394-72643-X.
↑ RIAA Gold and Platinum Search retrieved August 2, 2011 Archived June 26, 2007, at the Wayback Machine.
↑ Jazz Discography on-line
↑ Porter 1999, p. 157.
↑ Porter 1999, pp. 128-131.

Bibliography

Cook, Richard (May 1, 2004). Blue Note Records: The Biography. Justin, Charles & Co. ISBN 1932112278.
Porter, Lewis (1999). John Coltrane: His Life and Music. Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press. ISBN 0-472-10161-7.

External links

Blue Train at Discogs (list of releases)

John Coltrane

Discography

Prestige albums	Bahia The Believer Black Pearls The Cats Cattin' with Coltrane and Quinichette Coltrane Dakar Interplay John Coltrane with the Red Garland Trio Kenny Burrell and John Coltrane The Last Trane Lush Life Settin' the Pace Soultrane Standard Coltrane Stardust Tenor Conclave Two Tenors Wheelin' and Dealin'

Blue Note albums	Blue Train Coltrane Time

Atlantic albums	The Avant-Garde Bags & Trane Coltrane Jazz Coltrane Plays the Blues Coltrane's Sound Giant Steps My Favorite Things Olé Coltrane

Impulse! albums	Africa/Brass Ascension Ballads Coltrane Cosmic Music Crescent Duke Ellington & John Coltrane Expression First Meditations Impressions Infinity Interstellar Space John Coltrane and Johnny Hartman The John Coltrane Quartet Plays Kulu Sé Mama A Love Supreme Meditations Om Selflessness: Featuring My Favorite Things Stellar Regions Sun Ship Transition

With Miles Davis	Miles: The New Miles Davis Quintet Basic Miles 'Round About Midnight Workin' with The Miles Davis Quintet Steamin' with The Miles Davis Quintet Relaxin' with The Miles Davis Quintet Cookin' with The Miles Davis Quintet Miles Davis Quintet at Peacock Alley Milestones 1958 Miles Miles & Monk at Newport Kind of Blue Someday My Prince Will Come Jazz at the Plaza Vol. I

With Ray Draper	The Ray Draper Quintet featuring John Coltrane A Tuba Jazz

With Wilbur Harden	Mainstream 1958 Jazz Way Out Tanganyika Strut

With Thelonious Monk	The Complete 1957 Riverside Recordings Thelonious Himself Monk's Music Thelonious Monk Quartet with John Coltrane at Carnegie Hall Thelonious Monk with John Coltrane

Live albums	Afro Blue Impressions Bye Bye Blackbird The European Tour Live at Birdland Live at the Half Note: One Down, One Up Live! at the Village Vanguard Live at the Village Vanguard Again! The Complete 1961 Village Vanguard Recordings Live in Japan Live in Paris Live in Seattle Newport '63 New Thing at Newport The Olatunji Concert: The Last Live Recording The Paris Concert Offering: Live at Temple University

Compilations	Alternate Takes The Best of John Coltrane The Classic Quartet: The Complete Impulse! Recordings Coltrane for Lovers The Coltrane Legacy The Complete Columbia Recordings of Miles Davis with John Coltrane The Prestige Recordings Countdown: The Savoy Sessions Dial Africa: The Savoy Sessions Feelin' Good Gleanings Gold Coast The Heavyweight Champion: The Complete Atlantic Recordings High Step The Major Works of John Coltrane Jupiter Variation Ken Burns Jazz: John Coltrane The Last Giant: Anthology Living Space To the Beat of a Different Drum Trane's Blues Trane's Modes

Compositions	"26-2" "Alabama" "Equinox" "Giant Steps" "Impressions" "Lazy Bird" "Moment's Notice" "Mr. P.C." "Naima" "Ogunde"

Documentaries	The Church of Saint Coltrane The World According to John Coltrane Trane Tracks: The Legacy of John Coltrane

Related	Coltrane changes Sheets of sound Ravi Coltrane Alice Coltrane Flying Lotus Dix Hills home Philadelphia house 5893 Coltrane asteroid John W. Coltrane Cultural Society Blues for Coltrane: A Tribute to John Coltrane Before John Was a Jazz Giant: A Song of John Coltrane

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