Hot Stamper Pressings of the Music of John Coltrane Available Now
UPDATE 2026
This review was written in the early 2000s, long before we had enough data to recognize just what a hack Kevin Gray would turn out to be, remastering one awful sounding record after another for the next twenty years.
His list of failures is surely one of the longest in the business. Of course, we can only guess about most of them as we are not in the business of playing junk Heavy Vinyl. It’s a service we offer the audiophiles who have not bought into the hype surrounding this man’s shameful work.
Scroll down to see proof that somebody actually paid 80 bucks for this lousy sounding record, along with the rave reviews from a few of those who threw their money away on it. What could be sadder?
Our 2003 Review
Mastered by Kevin Gray, this record has what we like to call ”modern” sound, which is to say it’s clean and tonally correct for the most part, but it’s missing the Tubey Magic the originals and the good reissues both have plenty of.
In other words, it sounds too much like a CD.
Any properly-mastered, properly-pressed 70s copy on the red and green label will be richer, fuller, sweeter, and just plain more enjoyable than this 180 gram version.
It’s below average, which means it merits a D.
That said, “Giant Steps” is not an easy record to find in good condition, because any serious jazz lover would have played it plenty. It is inarguably one of John Coltrane’s greatest achievements.
Discogs Members Seem to Like It Just Fine Though
Have: 577
Want: 496
Avg Rating: 4.85 / 5
Low: $15.25
Median: $37.58
High: $79.99
Somebody paid 80 bucks for this junk pressing?!
The CD surely sounds better and it can be had for less than the cheapest copy of this record ever listed on Discogs.
AMG 5 Star Rave Review
Giant Steps bore the double-edged sword of furthering the cause of the music as well as delivering it to an increasingly mainstream audience. Although this was John Coltrane’s debut for Atlantic, he was concurrently performing and recording with Miles Davis… He was, in essence, beginning to rewrite the jazz canon with material that would be centered on solos — the 180-degree antithesis of the art form up to that point. These arrangements would create a place for the solo to become infinitely more compelling. This would culminate in a frenetic performance style that noted jazz journalist Ira Gitler accurately dubbed “sheets of sound.” Coltrane’s polytonal torrents extricate the amicable and otherwise cordial solos that had begun decaying the very exigency of the genre — turning it into the equivalent of easy listening.