Art Farmer – Portrait of Art Farmer – Contemporary Records (Acoustic Sounds Series) 180g Vinyl

For his second long player, John Coltrane (tenor saxophone) joined forces with his Prestige labelmate Red Garland (piano) to command a quartet through a five-song outing supported by a rhythm section of Paul Chambers (bass) and Art Taylor (drums). The absence of any unessential instrumentalists encouraged a decidedly concerted focus from Coltrane, who plays with equal measures of confidence and freedom. The Coltrane original “Traneing In” Is a rousing blues that exemplifies the musical singularity between Coltrane and Garland. Even though Garland, the pianist, takes charge from the start, the structure of the arrangement permits the tenor to construct his solo seamlessly out of Garland’s while incrementally increasing in intensity, yet never losing the song’s underlying swinging bop.