September 18, 2002

You'd get no argument from me if you said the world would get along fine without another box of John Coltrane reissues. His music has been recycled more times than Michael Jackson's face, including all but one of the cuts (a live recording of "One Up/One Down") on this four-CD set curated by his son, musician Ravi Coltrane.

Legacy is distinguished from the many other Coltrane collections (Classic Quartet: Complete Impulse! and The Complete 1961 Village Vanguard Recordings, for example) by two things: it contains material from several of the labels he recorded for, and his son has organized the compilation to highlight elements of his father's vision – the discs are titled "Harmonic and Melodic," "Rhythmic," "Elvin and Trane," and "Live" – rather than using a strictly chronological approach.

Does that make Legacy a must-buy for Coltrane fans? Only for those with enough money to throw at music they already own. But – and this is important – if you're new to Coltrane, this set is a great place to start. It contains work from every phase of his career, beginning as far back as a 1955 session with the Miles Davis Quintet. His son has included material from the fabulous Giant Steps album ("Giant Steps," "Naima," and "Countdown"), "Lazy Bird" from 1957's Blue Train, and a solid cross-section of music recorded a band featuring McCoy Tyner on piano, Jimmy Garrison on bass, and Elvin Jones on drums (selections from A Love Supreme and much more). It has work recorded late in his career when he collaborated with other musicians (Alice Coltrane and Pharoah Sanders among them), along with his son's observations and an informative biographical rehashing by Amiri Baraka.