Next up from Atlantic was My Favorite Things and it helped launch Coltrane to general popularity. It became one of his bestselling LPs, with the title song becoming a radio hit. Playing his newly acquired soprano sax, a gift from Miles Davis, Coltrane turned ‘My Favorite Things’, an otherwise lightweight tune from the movie, The Sound of Music, into a jazz standard. Despite its popularity no one has done it better than Coltrane’s moody, modal rendition, an earworm that you welcome sticking in your mind. With this recording, Coltrane was getting close to completing the formation of his most famous quartet, with McCoy Tyner on piano and Elvin Jones on drums. Steve Davis (eventually replaced with Jimmy Garrison) played bass.
My Favorite Things is not the best sounding recording Coltrane made for Atlantic, but for me and for many other jazz fans, that slight lack of sonic perfection can’t stop it rising to the top of the favorites pile. Once again, Tom Dowd did excellent work and his “house sound” is something I personally love, although some reissue labels remain concerned that the sound is not “audiophile” enough. That partly reflects the fact that although many of the greatest titles in the Atlantic catalogue are either only available, or sound far better in mono than their stereo counterparts, most audiophile enthusiasts still want a stereo issue. It’s also reflected in Speakers Corner reissuing (mostly) stereo Atlantic titles, turning out first class reissues mastered by Kevin Gray. But it doesn’t explain why they have yet to release any Coltrane titles…
The original My Favorite Things in stereo has a typically messed up soundstage and the original mono pressing remains the first choice for sound. ORG Music released a nicely remastered stereo version in 2013, but it retained the awkward stereo soundstage of the original and destroyed the beauty of the wonderful Lee Friedlander cover photo.
The 2016 Atlantic mono box set does not include My Favorite Things, and the mono master tape was thought to have perished in the 2008 fire. However, despite rumors of their demise, the mono tapes were found to have survived the conflagration. In 2021 The Electric Recording Company (ERC) released a mono My Favorite Things on vinyl, a very limited, and (as is their wont) VERY expensive version that sold out immediately. The results are adequate at best, making the price completely unsupportable, despite ERC’s claim to be working from the “original dedicated mono analogue master tapes”, citing as evidence the “original WEA master tape notes”. Those notes are dated June 2, 2019—in other words, these are simply the notes of an archivist from 2019 and show the tapes are in “fair” condition. That’s probably more than one can say for the vinyl copy ERC used as its reference, as the “Original Sleeve” pictured on its site looks like something the dog brought in. Like their other exorbitantly overpriced reissues, this one will doubtless find (and deserve) its own special place in the audio hereafter.
