The room › Artists › John Coltrane
Where to start with John Coltrane
Start with After The Rain — Impressions, 2020. That is the track sitting closest to the centre of all 22 John Coltrane tracks in Zubissou Sounds — a listening room of 15,847 tracks placed one at a time by hand, not an algorithm.
This page is not a discography and not a ranking. It describes exactly one thing: the 22 John Coltrane tracks that one person put in one room, and where they sit relative to each other. The starting point above is chosen by a rule you can check — of the 22 tracks, it is the one nearest the average position on the four knobs the room runs on. Nothing here calls any record better than any other.
It is spread thin and wide — 22 tracks across 21 different records, which is a browsing history rather than a shelf of favourites.
The dates here run from 1957 to 2020. They are the dates attached to the releases in this room rather than recording dates, so the later ones are likely reissues — but 63 years is still more than one version of the artist.
The density knob swings 75 points across these tracks, the widest of the four — it is the axis this artist actually travels along in this room.
Three ways in
The one track, if you only play one
After The Rain — Impressions, 2020. Of the 22 John Coltrane tracks here, this one sits closest to the average of all of them across the four knobs the room runs on. It is the least surprising thing in the collection, which is exactly what an entry point should be.
If you want the sparse end
Invitation — The Stardust Session, 1963. The lowest density reading of any John Coltrane track in the room (15 out of 100). This is as far towards sparse as the collection goes.
If you want the wall end
Ascension, Edition II, Pt. 2 — Ascension, 1965. The highest density reading here, at 90 out of 100 — a 75-point swing across the collection towards wall.
Where John Coltrane sits in the room
Zubissou Sounds does not have playlists or genres you click. It has knobs. Every track carries a position on each one, set by hand when the track was added, and you find music by setting the room to a state rather than by searching for a name. These are John Coltrane's average coordinates and the range they cover.
All four run 0–100. They are placed by a person, not derived from audio analysis or from any streaming service's feature data.
What is here, record by record
| Album | Year | Tracks |
|---|---|---|
| Expression | — | 2 |
| The Africa Brass Sessions, Vol. 2 | 1995 | 1 |
| Interstellar Space | 1974 | 1 |
| Olé Coltrane | 1962 | 1 |
| First Meditations (For Quartet) | 1977 | 1 |
| My Favorite Things | 1961 | 1 |
| Sun Ship | 1971 | 1 |
| A Love Supreme | 1965 | 1 |
| Giant Steps (2020 Remaster) | 1960 | 1 |
| Live at the Village Vanguard Again! | 2003 | 1 |
| Ascension | 1965 | 1 |
| Impressions | 2020 | 1 |
| Live at Birdland | 1964 | 1 |
| Crescent | 1964 | 1 |
| Newport '63 | 1993 | 1 |
| Both Directions at Once: The Lost Album | 2018 | 1 |
| Ballads | 2010 | 1 |
| The Heavyweight Champion - The Complete Atlantic Recordings | — | 1 |
| Coltrane | 1957 | 1 |
| Giant Steps | 1960 | 1 |
| The Stardust Session | 1963 | 1 |
Every John Coltrane track in the room
| Track | Album | Year |
|---|---|---|
| Soul Eyes | Coltrane | 1957 |
| Countdown (alternate take) | Giant Steps | 1960 |
| Naima (2020 Remaster) | Giant Steps (2020 Remaster) | 1960 |
| But Not For Me | My Favorite Things | 1961 |
| Dahomey Dance | Olé Coltrane | 1962 |
| Invitation | The Stardust Session | 1963 |
| Wise One | Crescent | 1964 |
| Afro Blue | Live at Birdland | 1964 |
| Part II – Resolution | A Love Supreme | 1965 |
| Ascension, Edition II, Pt. 2 | Ascension | 1965 |
| Expression | Expression | 1967 |
| Amen | Sun Ship | 1971 |
| Venus | Interstellar Space | 1974 |
| Joy | First Meditations (For Quartet) | 1977 |
| I Want To Talk About You | Newport '63 | 1993 |
| Song Of The Underground Railroad | The Africa Brass Sessions, Vol. 2 | 1995 |
| My Favorite Things | Live at the Village Vanguard Again! | 2003 |
| It's Easy To Remember (But So Hard To Forget) | Ballads | 2010 |
| To Be | Expression | 2011 |
| One Down, One Up (Take 6) | Both Directions at Once: The Lost Album | 2018 |
| After The Rain | Impressions | 2020 |
| 26-2 | The Heavyweight Champion - The Complete Atlantic Recordings | — |
Near neighbours in this room
These are the artists whose average knob position sits nearest to John Coltrane's in this room. It is a coordinate match, not a claim that they sound alike.
- Where to start with Wayne Shorter — bebop, 36 tracks
- Where to start with Jack DeJohnette — jazz, 10 tracks
- Where to start with Counting Crows — roots rock, 22 tracks
What the open databases say
MusicBrainz lists John Coltrane as a solo artist, from the United States and born in 1926. Its contributors tag the artist jazz, usa, américain, saxophonist and post-bop. These are the open database's facts, not mine — you can check them against the MusicBrainz entry.
Questions
How many John Coltrane tracks are in Zubissou Sounds?
There are 22, across 21 albums. 21 of them carry a date, running from 1957 to 2020. That is the whole of what this room holds — it is one person's collection, not a discography.
Is this a best-of, or a ranking?
No. Nothing here is ranked and no track is called better than another. The starting point is picked by arithmetic — the track closest to the centre of all the others on four measured axes — and the rule is printed above so you can disagree with it.
Where do the knob numbers come from?
They are set by hand, one track at a time, by the person who added the track. They are not audio analysis and not a Spotify feature. Mood, energy, density and the head/body balance each run 0 to 100. All 22 of these tracks have been read individually — nothing on this page is running on a default.
Can I listen to these here?
Not yet from this page. Zubissou Sounds is in private beta — the room itself plays through Spotify, and 22 of these 22 tracks are matched to a Spotify ID and ready to play the moment you are in. The waitlist form is at the bottom of this page.