Here's something I posted last year regarding my Fav Coltrane, Pre ALS . Still pretty much the same , but I still listen to post ALS a bit more I think.
Good choices!
Prestige era Coltrane is pretty forgettable. He did a lot of sessions for Prestige which were paychecks and developmental steps, even though he was never allowed to really do his own thing. Traneing In is probably the best of the bunch. I always found Lush Life to be a lightweight cocktail session. Soultrane is good, straight ahead bop. Notable during his Prestige years is that Coltrane had intonation and control problems, which got better during that stretch, but still, it is there. When Coltrane returned cleaned up with Monk, he started to get it together.
Settin The Pace is the prime Prestige title IMO. 1958. Heading to the next phase.
The Atlantic period is mixed. There were really two stretches of sessions, one in 1959 which produced Giant Steps, with the leftovers going to the far weaker Coltrane Jazz, and 1960 producing My Favorite Things, Coltrane Plays The Blues, and Coltrane's Sound (a leftovers record). Ole Coltrane was a single 1961 session, when Coltrane was already with Impulse - a contract obligation session, and a good one, but essentially a warmup or precursor to Africa/Brass. Avant Garde was not Coltrane's session, and was not judged good enough for release at the time, only seeing the light of day in 1966 when Coltrane was big. Coltrane was not Ornette, and this was basically an Ornette session fronted by Coltrane.
Africa/Brass is an essential, and really, where it all started. As is Coltrane - a huge record, and a great one.
Then comes material from the Vanguard.
in 1962, Coltrane was having mouthpiece problems. His usual metal Link had been refaced, and was unplayable. Coltrane was forced to temporarily adopt a hard rubber Link, which lacked the edge and projection of a metal Link, and also was tougher for him to blow overtones and altissimo tones. So he had to adapt.
As a result, there was relatively less recording in 1962, and the sessions were fairly unadventurous and straight ahead. The Ellington record and Ballads are prime examples. Mouthpiece crippled sessions. Ballads has stature purely because it is such an anomaly, I hear it often in restaurants, it's a pretty effective panty remover. I like the record, but don't consider it to be representative Coltrane.
1963 was hampered by Elvin's jail stint, but Live At Birdland is a stone classic, and the Newport recordings with Roy Haynes are killer.
1964 has Crescent, another classic, really an early concept album. And then A Love Supreme, another concept album.
After this, many people get off the boat, but I find his late period to be the best. Live At The Village Vanguard Again is essential. Aside from rough recording, Temple is a revelation. Stellar Regions is a return to more structured compositions, and is abstract and accessible at the same time. Live In Japan is best experienced in the original Japanese box sets, of which there are two.
Perhaps the most interesting thing is that there are a lot of fully unreleased Coltrane sessions Universal is sitting on, while happy to put out weak shit like Blue World. Coltrane made several recordings in his late period which still remain unreleased.
It is generally accepted that Elvin Jones departed the Coltrane band in early 1966, but in fact, Elvin continued to play with Coltrane live on occasion well into 1967. There may be recordings of some of these dates.
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