Coltrane Plays the Blues

Coltrane Plays the Blues is an album credited to jazz musician John Coltrane, released in 1962 on Atlantic Records, catalogue SD 1382. It was recorded at Atlantic Studios during the sessions for My Favorite Things, assembled after Coltrane had stopped recording for the label and was under contract to Impulse Records. Like Prestige Records before them, as Coltrane's fame grew during the 1960s, Atlantic used unissued recordings and released them without either Coltrane's input or approval.

Coltrane Plays the Blues
Studio album by John Coltrane
Released	July 1962[1]
Recorded	October 24, 1960 Atlantic Studios, New York City
Genre	Jazz
Length	40:57 original LP
Label	Atlantic SD 1382
Producer	Nesuhi Ertegün

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
Allmusic	[2]
Down Beat	[3]
The Penguin Guide to Jazz	[4]
The Rolling Stone Jazz Record Guide	[5]
Encyclopedia of Popular Music	[6]

On September 19, 2000, Rhino Records reissued Coltrane Plays the Blues as part of its Atlantic 50th Anniversary Jazz Gallery series. Included were five bonus tracks, all of which had appeared in 1995 on The Heavyweight Champion: The Complete Atlantic Recordings.

Track listing

Side one

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Length
1.	"Blues to Elvin"	Elvin Jones	7:53
2.	"Blues to Bechet"	John Coltrane	5:46
3.	"Blues to You"	John Coltrane	6:29

Side two

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Length
1.	"Mr. Day"	John Coltrane	7:56
2.	"Mr. Syms"	John Coltrane	5:22
3.	"Mr. Knight"	John Coltrane	7:31

2000 reissue bonus tracks

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Length
7.	"Untitled Original (Exotica)"	John Coltrane	5:22
8.	"Blues to Elvin" (alternate take 1)	Elvin Jones	11:00
9.	"Blues to Elvin" (alternate take 3)	Elvin Jones	5:59
10.	"Blues to You" (alternate take 1)	John Coltrane	5:35
11.	"Blues to You" (alternate take 2)	John Coltrane	5:36

Side Two track 2 recorded during the evening of October 24, 1960; the remainder during the night of the same day.[7]

Personnel

• John Coltrane — soprano saxophone on "Blues to Bechet" and "Mr. Syms"; tenor saxophone on all others
• McCoy Tyner — piano
• Steve Davis — bass
• Elvin Jones — drums

Production personnel

• Nesuhi Ertegün — production
• Tom Dowd — engineering
• Marty Norman - Bob Slutzky Graphics — cover design
• Joe Goldberg — liner notes
• Patrick Milligan — reissue supervision
• Dan Hersch — digital remastering
• Sevie Bates — reissue art direction
• Neil Tesser — reissue liner notes
• Vanessa Atkins — reissue editorial supervision
• Shawn Amos — reissue editorial coordination

References

1. Billboard July 21, 1962
2. Coltrane Plays the Blues at AllMusic
3. Down Beat: October 11, 1962 vol. 29, no. 26
4. Cook, Richard; Morton, Brian (2008). The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings (9th ed.). Penguin. p. 286. ISBN 978-0-141-03401-0.
5. Swenson, J., ed. (1985). The Rolling Stone Jazz Record Guide. USA: Random House/Rolling Stone. pp. 46. ISBN 0-394-72643-X.
6. Larkin, Colin (2007). Encyclopedia of Popular Music (4th ed.). Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0195313734.
7. Jazz discography