John Coltrane recorded the 1960 album My Favorite Things for Atlantic Records.
The album marked an important stage in Coltrane’s development after his work with Miles Davis and Thelonious Monk. It features Coltrane on soprano and tenor saxophones, McCoy Tyner on piano, Steve Davis on bass, and Elvin Jones on drums. The title track is a jazz interpretation of the song from the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical The Sound of Music.
Coltrane’s extended performance transformed the familiar melody through modal improvisation, repeated vamps, and soprano-saxophone phrasing. The success of the recording helped establish soprano saxophone as a major part of his later sound and made the album a significant commercial breakthrough.
The album is sometimes confused with the musical soundtrack or with later live versions of the title song. Coltrane’s recording is an instrumental jazz arrangement, not a vocal performance from the original stage production.