Meditations (Verve Vault)

Following the genre-redefining revelations of A Love Supreme in 1965, John Coltrane began a dramatic shift toward spiritual free jazz, abandoning familiar forms in favor of a more abstract sonic palette and bold questions he’d spend the rest of his life and career pursuing. Meditations, released by Impulse! in 1966, continues that emotional throughline while retaining, for the last time in full, the classic quartet that propelled Trane to greatness: pianist McCoy Tyner, bassist Jimmy Garrison and drummer Elvin Jones. (They’re further augmented by Pharoah Sanders on tenor sax and additional drummer Rashied Ali.)

Meditations pushes Coltrane’s spiritual jazz into heightened realms of energy and abstraction — a powerful document of transformation, intensity, and devotion in Coltrane’s recorded legacy.

The Verve Vault series is all-analog, cut from the original master tapes by Ryan K. Smith at Sterling Sound and pressed on 180-gram vinyl.