Stardust [LP]

Personnel: John Coltrane (tenor saxophone); Wilbur Harden (trumpet, flugelhorn); Freddie Hubbard (trumpet); Red Garland (piano); Paul Chambers (bass); Jimmy Cobb, Arthur Taylor (drums).
Recorded at the Van Gelder Studio, Hackensack, New Jersey on July 11 and December 26, 1958. Includes liner notes by Robert Levin.
Digitally remastered by Phil De Lancie (1997, Fantasy Studios, Berkeley, California).
These were among Coltrane's last recordings for Prestige, and they mark a turning point in his career. He was nearing the end of his "mainstream" phase, but he hadn't yet jumped off into his '60s exploratory mode. On STARDUST, he proves to be quite the balladeer, taking sensuous and lyrical turns on the titular Hoagy Carmichael tune and other standards. This album wasn't released until the early '60s, by which time it already seemed worlds away from what Coltrane was up to. The swinging, uptempo "Love Thy Neighbor" provides a change of pace, but it's the ballads that claim the day on STARDUST.