John Coltrane – My Favorite Things (Mono, Rhino Reserve, Blue Vinyl)

John Coltrane's My Favorite Things marked a turning point when it arrived in March 1961, introducing his first recorded performances on soprano saxophone alongside his usual tenor. Cut in October 1960 with the first John Coltrane Quartet - McCoy Tyner on piano, Steve Davis on bass, and Elvin Jones on drums - the album takes well-known standards and opens them into something more exploratory, with the title piece transforming a song from The Sound of Music into one of Coltrane's defining statements.

That balance of accessibility and adventure is what still makes this record so satisfying. The nearly 14-minute version of “My Favorite Things” stretches its waltz pulse into hypnotic modal improvisation, while “Everytime We Say Goodbye” shows how quickly Coltrane made the soprano sound fully his own. “Summertime” and “But Not for Me” complete a four-track set that feels lean on paper but expansive in practice.

It also stands at an important moment in Coltrane's catalogue: material from the same October 1960 sessions fed into several later Atlantic releases, which helps explain why this album captures such a fertile period so vividly. Coltrane himself later called “My Favorite Things” his favourite of everything he had recorded, praising the tune's ability to renew itself depending on the tempo and impulse of the performance.

Reviews

• one of the most accessible ambassadors of Bop jazz to the otherwise straight musical world - AllMusic.com