New compilation ‘The Best of John Coltrane’ arrives exclusively on vinyl

Elodie Renard | February 2, 2026 | Release | No Comments

This year marks the centennial of John Coltrane, one of the most influential musicians of the twentieth century. As a saxophonist, composer, and bandleader, he transformed jazz. To honour his legacy, Craft Recordings is releasing a collection of Coltrane’s earliest work as a leader, featuring a selection of originals and standards. Produced with the full support of the John Coltrane Estate, The Best of John Coltrane includes recordings from 1957 and 1958, a period when he was developing his signature sound. Highlights include “Traneing In”, “Theme for Ernie”, and “Trinkle, Tinkle” with Thelonious Monk, tracks that cemented his reputation as an innovative force in jazz. The album will be released on March 13 exclusively on vinyl, with a standard black pressing and two limited editions: a Baby Blue LP and a Violet LP.

John Coltrane was born in 1926 and died in 1967. He made his name in the mid-1950s as a sideman for Sonny Rollins, Thelonious Monk, and most prominently Miles Davis. In 1957, he signed with Prestige Records and recorded his first albums as a leader. These sessions, mostly recorded at Rudy Van Gelder’s Hackensack studio, show Coltrane coming into his own and developing his rapid-fire “Sheets of Sound” improvisational style.

The recordings produced multiple albums and included some of his first compositions, such as “Traneing In”, featured on 1958’s “John Coltrane with the Red Garland Trio”, alongside Red Garland, Paul Chambers, and Art Taylor. A few months later, they reunited to record “Theme for Ernie”, a moving ballad by guitarist Fred Lacey in memory of saxophonist Ernie Henry, released on “Soultrane” in 1958.

Another notable collaboration was with pianist Thelonious Monk, with whom Coltrane performed during a six-month residency at New York’s Five Spot Café. The Monk-composed “Trinkle, Tinkle” was recorded with Wilbur Ware and Shadow Wilson and appeared on the 1961 album “Thelonious Monk with John Coltrane”.

During this period, Coltrane also interpreted standards from the Great American Songbook, including “I Hear a Rhapsody” with Garland, Chambers, and Albert Heath, and Cole Porter’s “I Love You” with Taylor and Earl May, both appearing on 1961’s “Lush Life”. Another standout is “Lover Come Back to Me” by Romberg and Hammerstein, performed by Garland, Chambers, Taylor, and Donald Byrd on the 1964 album “Black Pearls”.

By the early 1960s, Coltrane was shifting away from his dense “Sheets of Sound” style toward the more open, exploratory language of modal improvisation. Yet these early sessions remain a vital chapter in his artistic development, capturing a pioneering musician on the verge of fame and laying the foundation for his later, even more revolutionary work.