John Coltrane's 'Giant Steps' 60th anniversary remastered edition released
A newly remastered version of Coltrane's 'Giant Steps' is due to be released this September
Last updated 18th Sep 2020
60 years after John Coltrane's seminal Giant Steps was released, the album continues to astound and inspire listeners.
To celebrate this seminal album’s six-decade anniversary, Rhino has remastered Giant Steps and all 28 of its surviving sessions outtakes for two new collections. The album, available as double-LP and double-CD sets, is out today.
A trailer for the release is available here:
GIANT STEPS: 60th ANNIVERSARY DELUXE EDITION will be available as a 180-gram double-LP set and as a double-CD set. Both versions include the newly remastered version of the original album plus eight alternate takes.
The recordings come packaged in a replica of the original sleeve and labels used for the album’s first stereo pressing, and the packages, each with a booklet, include photos, never-before-seen images of Atlantic Records ephemera, original liner notes and new liner notes written by Grammy®-winning music historian Ashley Kahn.
Kahn writes, “It remains one of the most talked-about albums of the modern era, a set of music all should have and absorb. It is music that has lived up to the grandiosity of its title: the first, yet not final, of John Coltrane’s fully realized statements, a point along a comet-like path of creative genius, an indelible marker on the timeline of popular music. It is a jazz classic recognized far beyond jazz circles. What more could a true artist hope to achieve?”
The other anniversary release is GIANT STEPS: 60th ANNIVERSARY SUPER DELUXE EDITION, which will be available to download and stream. The 35-track collection includes the original album, eight alternate takes, and 20 additional outtakes, all of which are newly remastered.
Giant Steps was recorded in 1959 at Atlantic Studios in New York City. The album features Coltrane on tenor saxophone, Paul Chambers on double bass, Tommy Flanagan on piano, and Art Taylor on drums on all songs except for ''Naima', which features Jimmy Cobb on drums and Wynton Kelly on piano. It’s extraordinary to note that Coltrane began principal recording sessions for Giant Steps less than two weeks after finishing his work with Miles Davis on Kind of Blue, which became the best-selling jazz album in history.
Giant Steps: 60th Anniversary Edition is now available September 18th 2020 through Rhino.