John Coltrane – My Favorite Things

John Coltrane’s My Favorite Things, released in March 1961, is a landmark jazz album that introduced his soprano saxophone playing and marked a pivotal shift toward modal jazz. It remains one of his most commercially successful and artistically influential recordings.

Recorded over three sessions in October 1960 and released by Atlantic Records, My Favorite Things features Coltrane’s classic quartet: McCoy Tyner on piano, Steve Davis on bass, and Elvin Jones on drums. The album’s centerpiece is the title track—a radical reinterpretation of the Rodgers and Hammerstein tune from The Sound of Music. Coltrane transforms the familiar melody into a hypnotic, modal exploration, using extended solos over vamping tonic chords (E minor and E major) rather than traditional chord changes.

This was the first album to showcase Coltrane on soprano saxophone, an instrument he adopted after Miles Davis gifted him one during a European tour. Its piercing, lyrical tone added a new dimension to Coltrane’s sound and became a defining feature of his early 1960s work.

The album includes four tracks:

• “My Favorite Things” – 13:41
• “Everytime We Say Goodbye” – 5:39
• “Summertime” – 11:31
• “But Not For Me” – 9:35

Each piece reimagines a standard through Coltrane’s modal lens, emphasizing mood and melodic development over harmonic complexity. The result is a meditative yet dynamic listening experience that bridges accessibility and innovation.

Critically and commercially, My Favorite Things was a breakthrough. An edited version of the title track became a radio hit, and the album earned Coltrane a Grammy Hall of Fame award in 1998. It also achieved gold record status in 2018, underscoring its enduring appeal.