This album was recorded at the height of Trane's "sheets of sound" period. The opener, Black Pearls, starts off as a fairly typical hard bop tune in a standard A A B A form. However, shortly after Trane starts his solo his genius becomes apparent. Trane's solo is a miracle of light and sound. He furiously attacks the tune with an unbelievable ferocity. He spins long lines that are rhythmically and harmonically incredible. I can only imagine Byrd and Garland trying to follow him, slack-jawed in amazement.
After Trane, Byrd collects himself and actually turns in a nice solo that contrasts nicely with Trane's fire-breathing one. His lines are laid back but sufficiently exploratory.
Lover Come back to Me is a fast tempoed tune that is ok and Sweet Saphire Blues features Garland on an extended solo turn. Overall though, Trane's transcendent performance on "Pearls" alone is worth the price of the cd.

Many of Trane's Prestige recordings don't vary so much stylistically. All are great and different, but Trane's sheets of sound method boast upon much of his soloing during this period.

There are two elements that set this disc apart from the rest. One, a diffent, more funky, almost Latin percussion sound that sweeps the tempo along nicely.

Two, the trumpeter Donald Byrd, who adds a nice element of a more subdued exhuberance. On his solos, he seems to be competing with the ever penetrating sheets of sound style that Coltrane was using. And he keeps up.

"Sweet Sapphire Blues" is one of my favorite Trane numbers of this period.

Masterful.

The irony of the Prestige John Coltrane albums (about 19 in all; I owned them all when they first came out) is that there are no originals. I am told (I think by Ira Gitler) the reason is that Prestige owned all the publishing; so, he saved the originals (he certainly had them in volume) for his later Atlantic recordings. In any case, the music was marvelous; don't overlook the ones released under Red Garland's name. We are lucky that this music was recorded and saved in such a short time allowing consistency. It's still timeless.

wow. a truly underrated album (considering that i'm only the 5th person here on Amazon to review it) and one (of many) of Coltrane's true genius recordings. the playing here is jaw dropingly amazing and tightly focused. the compositions are fast fast fast and executed with confidence, style, and unlimited class. highly recommended for lovers of great jazz and amazing music. highly recommended!

All of Coltrane's Prestige catalog, while not so much influenced by the Eastern sounds that would later envelop his music, is wonderful. You get to hear Trane in a more traditional setting somewhere between his work with Miles (in fact he was still with Miles when this stuff was recorded) and his first steps (ha pun not intended) away from more traditional tunes on the Atlantic label. Now, there are 11 CDs that make up this catalog (Trane as a leader on Prestige). You do the math. If you buy 'em separately you are going to pay around $125.00. You can get the Fearless Leader box set right here on Amazon for half that price PLUS you get a great guide to all the music Trane recorded as a leader for Prestige, a complete "session-ography", nice picks of all the CD covers including some of those that went through some changes over the year, 45 rpm single covers and so on. It's a very nice package. Buy this if you must but I recommend you save your pennies for a few weeks until you can afford to buy Fearless Leader.Fearless Leader