The Red Garland Quintet All Mornin' Long 180g Import LP

During 1957-59, John Coltrane's style was evolving so rapidly, it was almost changing by the month. Here, it was November 1957, and Trane was just coming off the creative highs of his time with the Thelonious Monk Quartet and the recording of his Blue Train. You can hear the joy in the opening notes of Trane's solo on "All Mornin' Long", which is both magisterial and yet utterly at ease and Red Garland also reaches into his bag and pulls out one of his greatest recorded moments. On "They Can't Take That Away From Me", Donald Byrd gets his finest moment on the album, crafting a very catchy head arrangement with drummer Art Taylor. Bonus track "Undecided" was recorded at the same session.

More important than the material is that, in addition to Garland, the main soloists are John Coltrane and trumpeter Donald Byrd. Byrd was on his way to getting his sound together, while Trane, very much in his sheets-of-sound period, was already blazing a new path for jazz to follow. An excellent and often quite colorful jam session-flavored hard bop set.