Happy 55th: John Coltrane, My Favorite Things

55 years ago this month, John Coltrane released My Favorite Things, an album which owes its existence to Miles Davis’s generosity.

In 1960, Coltrane and Davis embarked on a European tour which would prove to be the final jaunt that the two musicians would take together, but if one important thing came out of the trip (aside from the 4-disc live collection All Of You: The Final Tour 1960, which was released in 2014), it was Davis’s decision to buy Coltrane a soprano saxophone while they were on their expedition across the pond. Coltrane took to the instrument like a duck to water and started playing it in his initial dates with his new band, the John Coltrane Quartet, featuring bassist Steve Davis, drummer Elvin Jones, and pianist McCoy Tyner.

Looking back, it’s startling how prolific Coltrane could be: My Favorite Things was released only slightly more than a month after his previous album, Coltrane Jazz. Admittedly, it was an album which required no actual songwriting – all four of its tracks are covers – but the fact that Coltrane was even able to lay it down as quickly as he did is damned impressive.

The covers in question were well-chosen, ageless numbers which remain classics to this day: “My Favorite Things,” “Ev’ry Time We Say Goodbye,” “Summertime,” and “But Not For Me.” It was the title track in particular, though, that helped build a bridge between jazz and mainstream audiences, and it’s why, even after 55 years, it’s still one of the greatest gateway drugs to learning to love jazz.