Although some great early classic rock in '63 with Dylan and Beatles, some of my favorite jazz albums are from that year - playing some good ones that will not be my Monday selection
This album may not excite those who view 'Trane (rightfully so) as a forward-thinking experimental vanguard, but it excites me. It's an album that is impressive despite its older Duke standards and mellow vibe. Coltrane is, of course, excellent, and takes Ellington songs well-known and oft-covered and breathes a different kind of energy in them. An album like this also refreshes my memory in how much Duke, thirty years into a career when many were doing JATP shows, kept looking ahead, yes rebranding many of his old classics, but clearly recognizing the new directions of jazz (and a great talent like Coltrane) and embracing it. It's an album that highpoints that jazz whether it's the 1930s or 1960s (or even today) is a genre like many that builds/relies on its own past. Love "Take the Coltrane"