Sun Ship

Sun Ship is a free jazz album by tenor saxophonist John Coltrane, recorded on August 26, 1965, and released posthumously on April 16, 1971, by Impulse! Records (AS-9211). Together with First Meditations, recorded a week later, it represents one of the final studio sessions of Coltrane’s “Classic Quartet,” featuring McCoy Tyner, Jimmy Garrison, and Elvin Jones. Tyner left the group at the end of 1965 to form his own trio and collaborate with Tony Scott, while Jones departed in January 1966 to join the band of Duke Ellington. The album is notable as one of the few recordings by the quartet not engineered by Rudy Van Gelder. According to liner notes written by David A. Wild for the 1995 reissue, the reason remains unclear, though it is likely that Van Gelder was unavailable and Coltrane chose not to delay the session. Unlike several of Coltrane’s contemporaneous works—such as Ascension, First Meditations, Om, and Meditations—Sun Ship is made up of five separate tracks rather than a continuous suite. Personnel: John Coltrane – tenor saxophone McCoy Tyner – piano Jimmy Garrison – bass Elvin Jones – drums Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.