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John Coltrane's 1966 in Vinyl Output

1966 was a quieter recording year for Coltrane compared to the year before. He had evolved from his "Classic Quartet" and had settled into a new quintet format, but he still continued to experiment and add other musicians, especially at live concerts. 

On Instagram I had posted all of Coltrane's output in vinyl from 1965. I then created two blog entries based on the posts : 1965 John Coltrane Recordings Part One , 1965 John Coltrane Recordings Part Two

Having just created Trane's 1966 as six posts on Insta, I've now brought them together into this blog post.

#1 of 5 for 1966. On Jan 23rd '66 Trane played at Stanford. Elvin and Rashied both on drums, but it was the night that Elvin called it quits, "The roof fell in". Click Link in Bio for a full description of the concert click here for link. The group minus Elvin then had a two week run at the Jazz Workshop in San Francisco, during which a recording session was held at Coast Recorders on Feb 2nd. From that session, Manifestation and Reverend King appeared on Cosmic Music. Originally issued independently by Alice Coltrane, Bob Thiele then persuaded Alice that he could reissue in a much nicer package. This was it.

This is the original Impulse from 1969.


No. 2 of 5 for 1966 in recording date order. There were two takes of Peace On Earth at the 2nd Feb recording session. The 1st one is lost. The 2nd one is on The Mastery of John Coltrane III, but with Alice Coltrane's piano part overdubbed at a session on 16th Apr '72, and Charlie Haden replacing Jimmy Garrison's bass part. Apparently Jimmy's part was unuseable.

This is the 1st (and only) US vinyl issue.


No. 3 of 5 for 1966. Released in 1972, Infinity has the Alice Coltrane/Charlie Haden overdubbed version of Peace On Earth (as later discovered and released on Jupiter Variation) with added strings. Back to the 2nd Feb '66 session at Coast Recorders - there were two versions of Leo, the 1st is lost, but the 2nd is on Infinity. The 2nd Feb recording wasn't an Impulse session, hence why Alice first issued Cosmic Music independently.

I also much prefer the version of Living Space without the strings that's on The Mastery of John Coltrane I, Feeling Good. It's awesome.

This is a 1st US issue which is actually Quadrophonic. In the small print which I hadn't noticed before. So, will need to get my Onkyo Dolby Pro Logic II receiver out which decodes the Impulse versions of Quad.


No. 4 of 5 in 1966. Still undiscovered, on 21st and 28th April '66 there were recording sessions at Van Gelder's. Darkness, Lead Us On, Leo and Peace On Earth were recorded at the 1st one, Call and LEO at the 2nd one. Not sure if there were 1/4" tapes of these sessions with the Coltrane family.

The next live shows were at the Village Vanguard in May, six afternoons and evenings. The 28th shows were recorded. AS-9124 was released in December '66.

This is a 1980 MCA vinyl reissue, still with a (non laminated) Impulse cover.


No 5 of 5. Wonderfully produced 2 x LP. Tokyo, Osaka, Hiroshima, Nagasaki, Fukuoka, Kyoto, Osaka, Kobe, Tokyo, Osaka, Shizuoka, Tokyo and Nagoya concerts during the 15 day tour. This trip had a profoundly positive effect on Alice and John. Also Pharoah, and likely the others too.

This is the 1st US issue. There are other variant LPs (and CD boxsets) from this tour, including Japanese released.


#6 of 6. When I posted Trane's 1966 output in July I missed this, only because I didn't have it. Now I do, and a bargain. I've been wanting it for a while.

Great presentation with postcards and a four page booklet. The vinyl is 210g and super quiet. This must be the heaviest double album I own and comes in at 750g. The gatefold is thick card and heavy. The recording is actually really good quality, but the radio recording was made using one microphone in front of the stage so the soloists dominate. Still really enjoyable though and much better sound than what you hear on Spotify. This was the group at its out there max. Trane had been in Philly regularly sitting in with a weekly percussion collection, and he invited them to the Temple Uni gig on Nov 11th. Even a young student was invited to solo on his alto, apparently jumping up and down on the spot while playing. Approx 700 attended from an 1800 capacity, lack of advertising blamed, and the student body lost $1000.

Sanders missed the opening number (Naima) as he had been recording at Van Gelder's in New Jersey and when he joined, it was overblowing to the max. This lifted the overall energy on Crescent and Trane started chanting, singing and beating his chest. He did this later too. Wild.





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