condition (record/cover): NM / NM

1958 was the year John Coltrane played on absolutely everything, and a handful of the best sessions were made for Savoy under the nominal leadership of the flugelhorn player Wilbur Harden. Harden is the forgotten figure here, a warm, unhurried brass player with a real gift for melody who quit the music within a few years and vanished. The African titles that run through this material are not decoration: this is 1958, and the pull towards the continent that would shape so much of the following decade is already audible in the modes and the ostinatos. Tommy Flanagan holds the piano chair. Coltrane plays as if he has somewhere to be.

Savoy pressing collecting the Harden and Coltrane sessions. Overlooked chapter, and considerably better than its reputation.