John Coltrane

★★★★★ Giant Steps ATLANTIC/RHINO. CD/DL/LP Trane’s iconic LP reaches 60. While 1958’s

Blue Train is considered Coltrane’s first masterpiece, 1960’s Giant Steps confirmed the Philadelphia saxophonist as jazz’s new Messiah. This expanded 60th anniversary edition is bolstered by numerous outtakes, including false starts and studio chatter, but as interesting as they are to Coltrane disciples, the motherlode is the original album’s seven tracks rendered even more glorious through fresh remastering. On the classic title tune and Countdown, where blizzards of notes swirl in vortexes of chord changes, Coltrane stretched bebop’s language to breaking point. But, as the haunting ballad Naima shows, he could also blow his horn with a tender lyrical beauty. At the time, Giant Steps was a quantum leap forward, both for Coltrane and modern jazz. Sixty years on, its combination of hummable tunes with the saxophonist’s jaw-dropping virtuosity still impress. Charles Waring