John Coltrane's only Blue Note session as leader catches him mid-metamorphosis, already leaving hard bop conventions behind even as he honours them. The title track burns with that searching intensity that would soon explode into modal revolution, while Lee Morgan's teenage trumpet swagger provides perfect counterweight to Coltrane's increasingly dense harmonic stacking.

Recorded between his Monk apprenticeship and the Davis reunion, it's less a definitive statement than a beautifully executed holding pattern, proof that Coltrane's transitional work outclassed most players' peaks.