Disclaimer: I own a lot of Coltrane and most of it is in heavy rotation -- but.. Giant Steps has also never been a favorite album for me, but here's a possible path:
My Favorite Things: the Rhino copy I think is still affordable, BG master IIRC. If you can, steam the original Julie Andrews signing My Favorite Things from the sound of music prior to listening. Marvel at how awesome and pure her voice is -- buy that record... wait, this is about JC, right? Once your humming, "girls in white dresses, with blue..." -- the drop on the record (or try a stream of good quality) and here how Coltrane reconstructs the song. You'll also here how Coltrane is using some of the inter-chordal/sheets of sounds playing -- similar to what you here Pharoah Sanders doing oh so gently on the Floating Points record.
As others have mentioned: Blue Train is a monster record as are his records with Duke Ellington and Johnny Hartman (a personal favorite from that period)
But he did great straight ahead work for Prestige. Cut a terrific album with Kenny Burrell.
Before the hard avant garde, there is a ton of very accessible exploratory to spiritual -- in addition to A Love Supreme -- I'd add titles like Ole, Crescent (Black Pearl!)
It's a bit if a deep ender vs a starting point -- and this isn't a record I can recommend to everyone -- but if you want to here Coltrane playing hard, but not free, it is worth tucking into One Up, One Down, Live at the Half Note. It's one of my favorites and is just an unbelievable set. You'll hear what the band does with Favorite Things in a live format at a small club. They did not mess around and are there to take the walls of the joint. It isn't a starting point, but if you like the first My Favorite Things and want to get a snapshot of how Coltrane at that point was hearing it, for me this is it.
I'm the end though -- and I'll draw an analogy that might get me in trouble -- part of what made Coltrane so remarkable was the conscious process of exploration, challenging of form, reconstruction that he (and the band, let's not forget that...) Drove over the course of his career. Not unlike Picasso, he was was an incredibly skilled traditional artist -- straight player -- but he also was amongst the pre-eminent explorers of what territory could jazz own. So you have early cubist, blue period, etc his own expressions of form. The records are a series of chapters in a novel of an artist trying to find the next answer....so there is a bit of that "ear" inherent in the listening for me.
and it's okay to not like him too. Heck, a lot of Picasso's late period is a big "meh" for me -- mostly because he stopped that journey -- and there are a few of Coltrane's that I don't spin as much that are classics (Giant Steps) ... I'm good with it.
. I try and try and my brain can’t seem to process what makes his music so revered outside of the boundary breaking stuff like A Love Supreme. Just got Giant Steps and didn’t find it be very enjoyable. Was there an album that made Trane click in particular for everyone?
