**** John Coltrane

THE COMPLETE 1961 VILLAGE VANGUARD RECORDINGS

(Impulse!; four CDs)

Beginners can test the waters with the old single-disc volume with the original, and best, version of the seminal "Chasin' the Trane." Everyone else will want this deluxe edition, with its multiple versions of nine songs, Coltrane and Eric Dolphy forming a mutual-education society, and an otherwise continually changing ensemble that includes McCoy Tyner, bassists Reggie Workman and Jimmy Garrison (playing together and separately), drummers Elvin Jones and Roy Haynes, and occasional oud and bassoon. Often working over a static harmonic foundation, and driven by Jones, Coltrane is intense, yes, but also ebullient, and it's surprising how in those dense rushes of notes at ultra-fast tempos he creates a sense of calm spaciousness. The still center of the swirling universe, indeed.

-- Jon Garelick