Sublimely spiritual work from the great
John Coltrane – a live album, but one that's easily one of his most important contributions to music in the early 60s – and a set that we'd rank right up there with his best studio sides for Impulse or Atlantic Records at the time! The group here features McCoy Tyner on piano, Reggie Workman on bass, and Elvin Jones on drums – plus the very important addition of
Eric Dolphy on the leadoff tune "Spiritual" – a number that features
Dolphy on bass clarinet alongside
Coltrane's tremendous tenor, as both players open up on extended solos that take the tune to nearly 14 minutes in length! Other numbers omit
Dolphy, but are still totally great – and
Coltrane picks up the soprano sax for a classic reading of "Softly As In A Morning Sunrise" – and the group shifts slightly for the freer "Chasin The Trane", a 16 minute romp done with only tenor sax, drums, and bass – the latter of which is handled here by Jimmy Garrison instead of Workman.