One of the Holy Grails: 1957's Blue Train by John Coltrane. I own this on cassette, compact disc and finally now on vinyl. Original pressings are out of my price range but whenever I came across this record at record stores it was always some overseas pressing where the copyright had expired. I never could find an actual Blue Note edition. A few years ago Blue Note Records released a new remastered version as part of their Tone Poet reissues of classic Blue Note recordings. I found this one at Guestroom Records in Norman, Oklahoma.
I first heard this album on cassette on a bus my freshman year of college. Despite already being a fan and playing jazz since I was 10 I had shockingly never heard John Coltrane play. As soon as the first track played my life was changed. This was an earth shattering record for me. Rightly or wrongly it became the definition for me what jazz should sound like. In 1991 I couldn't believe I hadn't heard this before and lamented what I had been missing in my musical experience up until that point. Most of the time I'll still stream it from my phone, but for special moments, the record will spin like life intended.
