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Blue Train
Studio album by John Coltrane
Released	January 1958
Recorded	September 15, 1957
Studio	Van Gelder Studio, Hackensack
Genre	Hard bop
Length	42:50
Label	Blue Note 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
The Penguin Guide to Jazz
The Rolling Stone Jazz Record Guide

Blue Train is a studio album by John Coltrane, released in January 1958 on Blue Note Records, catalogue BLP 1577. Recorded at the Van Gelder Studio in Hackensack, New Jersey. It is the only Blue Note recording by Coltrane as session leader. It has been certified a gold record by the RIAA.

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 Miles Davis bandmates, Paul Chambers on bass and Philly Joe Jones on drums, both of whom had worked before with pianist Kenny Drew. Both trumpeter Lee Morgan and trombonist Curtis Fuller were up-and-coming jazz musicians, and both were members of Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers in due course.

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

Legacy

John Coltrane's next major album, Giant Steps, recorded in 1959, would break new melodic and harmonic ground in jazz, whereas Blue Train adheres to the hard bop style of the era. Musicologist Lewis Porter has also demonstrated a harmonic relationship between Coltrane's "Lazy Bird" and Tadd Dameron's "Lady Bird".

In 1997, The Ultimate Blue Train was released, adding two alternate takes and enhanced content, and in 1999 a 24bit 192 kHz 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

• Sides one and two were combined as tracks 1–5 on CD reissues.

Personnel

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

Certifications

References

1. Porter, Lewis (ed.) (2013). The John Coltrane Reference. New York/Abingdon: Routledge. p. 484. ISBN 1135112576. {{cite book}}: |first1= has generic name (help)
2. Editorial Staff, Cash Box (18 January 1958). "January Album Releases" (PDF). The Cash Box. The Cash Box, New York. Retrieved 18 June 2019.
3. Cook 2004, p. 103.
4. Blue Train at AllMusic
5. Cook, Richard; Morton, Brian (2008). The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings (9th ed.). Penguin. p. 284. ISBN 978-0-14-103401-0.
6. Swenson, J., ed. (1985). The Rolling Stone Jazz Record Guide. USA: Random House/Rolling Stone. p. 46. ISBN 0-394-72643-X.
7. RIAA Gold and Platinum Search retrieved August 2, 2011 Archived June 26, 2007, at the Wayback Machine
8. Jazz Discography on-line
9. Porter 1999, p. 157.
10. Porter 1999, pp. 128–131.
11. "Canadian album certifications – John Coltrane – Blue Train". Music Canada.
12. "Italian album certifications – John Coltrane – Blue Train" (in Italian). Federazione Industria Musicale Italiana. Retrieved 10 December 2018. Select "2015" in the "Anno" drop-down menu. Type "Blue Train" in the "Filtra" field. Select "Album e Compilation" under "Sezione".
13. id MUST BE PROVIDED for UK CERTIFICATION.
14. "American album certifications – John Coltrane – Blue Train". Recording Industry Association of America.

Bibliography

• Cook, Richard (May 1, 2004). Blue Note Records: The Biography. Justin, Charles & Co. ISBN 1-932112-27-8. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Porter, Lewis (1999). John Coltrane: His Life and Music. Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press. ISBN 0-472-10161-7. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)

External links

• Blue Train at Discogs (list of releases)

• 1958 albums
• Albums produced by Alfred Lion
• Blue Note Records albums
• Grammy Hall of Fame Award recipients
• Hard bop albums
• John Coltrane albums
• Instrumental albums
• Albums recorded at Van Gelder Studio