John Coltrane, Side Steps

The latest in a series of collections that includes Fearless Leader and Interplay, Side Steps presents the mid-'50s John Coltrane when he was primarily a sideman featured in groups led by an honor roll of hard bop luminaries including Sonny Rollins, Tadd Dameron, and Gene Ammons, and with bandmates such as Hank Mobley and Jackie McLean. The tunes are arranged in chronological session order rather than by original release date, which helps to highlight Coltrane's maturation process on the tenor sax from 1955-1957. Use your Napster subscription to queue up all three sets to experience a compelling and complete picture of Coltrane's formative years at Prestige Records, on the cusp of his later technical and conceptual breakthroughs.