Revolutionary, shattering, spiritual and profound-the vocabulary runs dry when trying to describe the recordings that the Quartet of John Coltrane, McCoy Tyner, Jimmy Garrison and Elvin Jones made for the Impulse! label between 1961 and 1965. And this 8-CD set has every studio recording the group recorded together, 66 tracks culled from 18 albums including such landmark works …
John Coltrane’s matchup with singer Johnny Hartman, although quite unexpected, works extremely well. Hartman was in prime form on the six ballads, and his versions of “Lush Life” and “My One and Only Love” have never been topped. Coltrane’s playing throughout the session is beautiful, sympathetic, and still exploratory; he sticks exclusively to tenor on the date. at …