Recorded on 13 October 1958, Coltrane Time album originally appeared on the United Artists label as Stereo Drive under Cecil Taylor's name in 1959. It was issued as Coltrane Time under John Coltrane's name in 1962. This particular reissue does not have the original Coltrane Time cover; this is reproduced on the inside, together with liner notes by Barbara Long. Interestingly, the original liner notes for the Taylor issue have Coltrane as ‘Blue Train’ for contractual reasons. This is one of those sessions where there are confused wavelengths, Cecil Taylor's florid playing at odds with the swinging hard bop disposition of the rest of the band. Coltrane manages to work with Dorham effectively enough but rhythmically it remains a bit of an oddity thanks to Taylor. The album also includes four Coltrane trio tracks, from the Prestige album Lush Life from 1957. Black Pearls came at a time when he was standing on the threshold of greatness and reveal a confidence and assuredness absent in his beginning with the Miles Davis Quintet in 1955. The hard-bop disposition of the album's three tracks (‘Black Pearls’, ‘Lover Come Back to Me’ and ‘Sweet Sapphire Blues’) makes this a transitionary album at a time when the musical climate was changing. Three days after this session, on 26 May 1958, he would be in the recording studio with Miles Davis recording four classics – ‘Green Dolphin Street’, ‘Fran Dance’, ‘Stella by Starlight’ and ‘Love for Sale’ – that move into post-bop. By the end of the year Harold Lovett would help Coltrane negotiate a recording contract with Atlantic records and in May the following year he would record Giant Steps, which set him apart in the world of jazz in a way that is only hinted at in Black Pearls. The five bonus tracks are from a 26 December 1958 session for Prestige with Freddie Hubbard and the same rhythm section and have appeared on the OJC label as variously The Believer, Bahia or Stardust.