Blue Train (album)

Blue Train
Studio album by John Coltrane
Released	End of February 1958[1]
Recorded	September 15, 1957 Van Gelder Studio, Hackensack
Genre	Hard bop[2]
Length	42:50
Label	Blue Note Records BLP 1577
Producer	Alfred Lion
John Coltrane chronology
Coltrane (1957) Blue Train (1958) John Coltrane with the Red Garland Trio (1958)

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
Allmusic	[3]
The Penguin Guide to Jazz	[4]
The Rolling Stone Jazz Record Guide	[5]

Blue Train is the second 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 Coltrane's second solo album, the only one he recorded for Blue Note as a leader, and the only one he conceived personally for the label. It has been certified a gold record by the RIAA.^[6]

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 once and future Miles Davis bandmates, Paul Chambers on bass and Philly Joe Jones on drums, both of whom had played on pianist Kenny Drew's trio album on Riverside Records the year before. 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 Blakey's acclaimed Indestructible album among others.

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 minor theme that gradually shifts to major during Coltrane's first chorus. "Locomotion" is also a blues riff tune, in forty-four-bar form.^[7] During a 1960 interview, Coltrane described Blue Train as his favorite album of his own up to that point.^[8]

Legacy

John Coltrane's next major album, 1960's Giant Steps, 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".^[9]

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

• John Coltrane — tenor saxophone
• Lee Morgan — trumpet
• Curtis Fuller — trombone
• Kenny Drew — piano
• Paul Chambers — bass
• Philly Joe Jones — drums

References

1. Billboard March 3, 1958
2. Cook 2004, p. 103.
3. Blue Train (album) at AllMusic
4. Cook, Richard; Morton, Brian (2008). The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings (9th ed.). Penguin. p. 284. ISBN 978-0-141-03401-0.
5. Swenson, J. (Editor) (1985). The Rolling Stone Jazz Record Guide. USA: Random House/Rolling Stone. p. 46. ISBN 0-394-72643-X.
6. RIAA Gold and Platinum Search retrieved August 2, 2011
7. Jazz Discography on-line
8. Porter 1999, p. 157.
9. 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)