Duke Ellington & John Coltrane

No surprise that this was recorded within months of Money Jungle — and that it was in many ways that album’s temperamental opposite. Coltrane, after all, was an able supporting player (cf. his Johnny Hartman album) and an exquisite ballad player of the Ben Webster school. Not that the two don’t knock about some: “Angelica” begins like gossamer only to swing into small-band post-bop, and “Take the Coltrane,” Duke’s theme song retitled for this co-star, gives it a modest but sharp makeover.