John Coltrane

THE COMPLETE "LUSH LIFE" LP Plus 4 BONUS TRACKS

5 STARS DOWNBEAT MAGAZINE

Even though it was issued after Coltrane had moved to Atlantic, and first assembled as a kind of pastiche with leftovers from different sessions, "Lush Life " would become one of Trane’s most successful Prestige albums. One reason can easily be attributed to the interesting personnel and the subsequent lack of a keyboard player for the August 16, 1957 session that yielded the majority of the material. Coltrane (tenor sax) had to essentially lead the compact trio of himself, Earl May (bass), and Art Taylor (drums).

We have completed the trio session by adding the aforementioned “Slowtrane”, which despite bearing a different title is actually an alternate take of “Trane’s Slow Blues”. We have also added three out of the four existing tracks that were recorded during the same session that produced “Lush Life” (a reading of “Lover” was omitted here due to time limitations). Trane would only record Billy Strayhorn’s celebrated tune on one other occasion, for his 1963 album accompanying singer Johnny Hartman. The session that produced “I Hear a Rhapsody”, also yielded six more titles, which appeared on various different Prestige albums.

PERSONNEL:

Tracks 1-3 & 6:
JOHN COLTRANE, tenor sax
EARL MAY, bass
ARTHUR TAYLOR, drums
Hackensack, New Jersey, August 16, 1957.

Tracks 4-5 & 7-9:
JOHN COLTRANE, tenor sax
DONALD BYRD, trumpet
RED GARLAND, piano
PAUL CHAMBERS, bass
ALBERT “TOOTIE” HEATH, drums
Hackensack, New Jersey, January 10, 1958 (tracks 4 & 7-9)
& May 31, 1957 (track 5).

TRACKS:

01 LIKE SOMEONE IN LOVE
02 I LOVE YOU
03 TRANE’S SLOW BLUES
04 LUSH LIFE
05 I HEAR A RHAPSODY
06 SLOWTRANE (*)
07 THE BELIEVER (*)
08 NAKATINI SERENADE (*)
09 COME RAIN OR COME SHINE (*)

(*) BONUS TRACKS: from the same sessions, but not included on the original LP
configuration.