5 STARS DOWN BEAT MAGAZINE
This release contains the complete classic album Lush Life (Prestige 7188). Featuring Coltrane in two contexts: as the only horn in a pianoless trio, and sharing the frontline with Donald Byrd in a quintet setting. As a bonus, the alternate blues that completes the trio session and three extended performances from the session that produced “Lush Life”.
PERSONNEL:
(1-3) & (6)
JOHN COLTRANE, tenor sax
EARL MAY, bass
ARTHUR TAYLOR, drums
Hackensack, New Jersey, August 16, 1957.
(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
*BONUS TRACKS: from the same sessions, but not included on the original LP configuration.
Tracks:
01 LIKE SOMEONE IN LOVE 4:57
02 I LOVE YOU 5:32
03 TRANE’S SLOW BLUES 6:03
04 LUSH LIFE 13:55
05 I HEAR A RHAPSODY 6:00
06 SLOWTRANE 7:19*
07 THE BELIEVER 13:49*
08 NAKATINI SERENADE 11:04*
09 COME RAIN OR COME SHINE 8:45*
TOTAL TIME: 77:24
original review: LUSH LIFE
“All aspects of Coltrane’s conception during this period are well-illustrated on the album: the classic simplicity and haunting loveliness of the Coltrane ballad technique is here further exemplified by “Someone in Love”; “Trane’s Slow Blues” is another superlative effort in the blues genre. For sheer beauty of approach and execution, Coltrane’s work has rarely been equaled.” (Frank Kofsky)