Coltrane's

Mr. Coleman called his eight-piece group a "double quartet," and indeed, it featured two saxophonists, two trumpeters one was Freddie Hubbard, the only musician to play on both Mr. Coleman's and Coltrane's projects, two basses and two drummers.

The Jazz Scene: Sultry Styles and 50 Years of the Rumble Will Friedwald 2011

Coltrane's group was far less symmetrical: five saxes, two trumpets, two basses but only one drummer and pianist.

The Jazz Scene: Sultry Styles and 50 Years of the Rumble Will Friedwald 2011

Closing out Thursday night's Sullivan Hall offerings at this year's Undead Jazzfest, the group will celebrate its new album, "Ascension" Sunnyside, which distills an earlier expression of aesthetic liberation—saxophonist John Coltrane's 1965 recording of that name—and which languished unreleased for a decade.

Emancipation Proclamations (the Musical Kind) Larry Blumenfeld 2011

To my ears, "Ascension" is actually more conventional and more listenable than "Chasin' the Trane" and many of the further-out tracks on Coltrane's 1961 Village Vanguard tapes.

The Jazz Scene: Sultry Styles and 50 Years of the Rumble Will Friedwald 2011

Coltrane's "Ascension" has been celebrated as the apex of the free-jazz movement and derided as proof of its excesses.

Emancipation Proclamations (the Musical Kind) Larry Blumenfeld 2011

The 75-year-old Danish saxophonist and composer John Tchicai led a set billed as "Ascension Unending: In the Footsteps of John Coltrane," in honor of Coltrane's breakthrough 1965 album "Ascension," in which Mr. Tchicai himself played a key role.

A Last Weekend of Virtuosos and Visionaries Will Friedwald 2011

Those who know more about jazz than I do hold up "Kind of Blue" and (to a slightly lesser extent) John Coltrane's "Giant Steps" as the two landmark, groundbreaking albums of that era.

The 50th anniversary of "A Kind of Blue"... 2009

An example: I found John Coltrane's "Giant Steps" for $4 $3 for the CD plus $1 for the rip and download on Murfie.

Sending Your Discs to Cloud Heaven Kevin Sintumuang 2011

All I can add is that those are two of my very favorite jazz albums, along with Coltrane's "Blue Train" (not to be confused with the similarly titled "Blue Trane").

The 50th anniversary of "A Kind of Blue"... 2009

The playing of Mr. Warfield, on both tenor and soprano sax, speaks to John Coltrane's love of Strayhorn's tunes as on "Lush Life" and "My Little Brown Book", while Mr. Barth's own piano solos reveal a hitherto unnoticed admiration for both Red Garland and Erroll Garner.

Classic Sounds Will Friedwald 2011