John Coltrane - Russian Lullaby

Soultrane is a jazz album by John Coltrane, released in 1958. Recorded shortly after the classic Blue Train, this session was apparently one of Coltrane’s favorites - he said so to Swedish journalist Carl-Erik Lindgren in 1960, and the remark is preserved in Lewis Porter’s John Coltrane: His Life and Music, page 157. The album is a showcase for Coltrane’s late-50s “sheets of sound“ style - the term was coined by Ira Gitler in the album’s liner notes. Also featured is a long reading of the ballad standard “I Want to Talk About You“, which Coltrane would revisit often during the rest of his career, most notably on the album Live at Birdland. Among the other tracks are Tadd Dameron’s popular theme “Good Bait“ and Fred Lacey’s elegiac “Theme For Ernie“. “You Say You Care“ is from Jule Styne’s Broadway production of “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes.“ Throughout, Coltrane is backed by the Red Garland Trio - a modified version of Miles Davis’s 1956-1957 rhythm section, with Art Taylor instead of Philly Joe Jones on drums. The album closes with a brief, improbably frenetic version of Irving Berlin’s “Russian Lullaby“. Porter’s book quotes producer Bob Weinstock on Coltrane’s humorous reimagining of the tune: We were doing a session and we were hung for a tune and I said, “Trane, why don’t you think up some old standard?“ He said, “OK I got it.[“]...and they played “Russian Lullaby“ at a real fast tempo. At the end I asked, “Trane, what was the name of that tune?“ And he said, “Rushin’ Lullaby.“ I cracked up. (Porter, 253) Soultrane takes its title from a song on a 1956 album by Tadd Dameron, Mating Call, featuring Coltrane. “Soultrane“ does not appear on this Soultrane, and none of the five tunes on Soultrane are by Coltrane (although “Good Bait“ is by Dameron). The song “Theme For Ernie“ was featured on the soundtrack for the 2005 film Hollywoodland. The song is closely resembled by the main theme to the film Taxi Driver composed by Bernard Herrmann.