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John Coltrane: Giant Steps: Remastered & Super Deluxe Editions

By Chris May
September 4, 2020
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John Coltrane: Giant Steps: Remastered & Super Deluxe Editions

A date for your diary... 18 September 2020. That is when Atlantic / Rhino releases two cracking new editions of

John Coltrane

saxophone
1926 - 1967

" data-original-title="" title="">John Coltrane's first landmark album, Giant Steps (Atlantic, 1960). The main event is enhanced audio quality, which has noticeably more presence than any previous reissue.

The double CD and vinyl Remastered Edition and digital-only Super Deluxe Edition consist of material which has been newly remastered by John Webber at Air Studios in London. The Remastered Edition includes the original seven-track album and eight alternate takes from the sessions (including one of "Like Sonny," the approved take of which was first released on 1961's Coltrane Jazz). The Super Deluxe Edition includes all this plus another twenty alternate takes, breakdowns and false starts, many of which have only previously been available on Atlantic / Rhino's 1995 boxset, The Heavyweight Champion: The Complete Atlantic Recordings.

What is their left to say about Giant Steps that has not already been said? Precious little, and liner note scribe Ashley Kahn sensibly avoids trying to do so in the twenty-four page booklet that accompanies the CD edition. What he does do, usefully, is include newly garnered thoughts about the album from saxophonists

Archie Shepp

saxophone, tenor
b.1937

" data-original-title="" title="">Archie Shepp,

Ravi Coltrane

saxophone, tenor
b.1965

" data-original-title="" title="">Ravi Coltrane,

Shabaka Hutchings

woodwinds

" data-original-title="" title="">Shabaka Hutchings,

Marcus Strickland

clarinet, bass

" data-original-title="" title="">Marcus Strickland,

David Murray

saxophone, tenor
b.1955

" data-original-title="" title="">David Murray and

Dave Liebman

saxophone
b.1946

" data-original-title="" title="">Dave Liebman, who offer fresh insights into the music and also, in Hutchings' case, about Coltrane's embrochure, as revealed by the cover shot.

John Coltrane: Giant Steps: Remastered & Super Deluxe Editions is not as game changing a release as Impulse!'s double CD A Love Supreme: Deluxe Edition (2002). That not only delivered dramatically improved audio but also, amongst other previously unreleased material, two full-length takes of "Acknowledgement," recorded the day after the session which produced the original album with Archie Shepp and

Art Davis

bass, acoustic
1934 - 2007

" data-original-title="" title="">Art Davis added to the Classic Quartet on tenor saxophone and bass. But the new Giant Steps is nonetheless something around which Coltrane connoisseurs and (in the case of the digital edition) completists will enjoy wrapping their ears.

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Track Listing

Disc One: Giant Steps; Cousin Mary; Countdown; Spiral; Syeeda��s Flute Song; Naima; Mr P.C.

Disc Two: Giant Steps (Take 1); Naima (Alternate); Like Sonny (Alternate); Countdown (Alternate); Syeeda��s Flute Song (Alternate); Cousin Mary (Alternate); Giant Steps (Take 5); Giant Steps (Take 6).

Personnel

John Coltrane

saxophone

Cedar Walton

piano

Tommy Flanagan

piano

Wynton Kelly

piano

Paul Chambers

bass, acoustic

Les Humphries

drums

Art Taylor

drums

Jimmy Cobb

drums

Album information

Title: Giant Steps: Remastered & Super Deluxe Editions | Year Released: 2020 | Record Label: Rhino

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