Two weeks after finishing his contribution to Kind of Blue, John Coltrane walked into a different studio and recorded a masterpiece that rewrote the physics of his instrument. This episode narrows in on 1959 and 1960, the window in which a respected sideman became a leader. Business manager Harold Lovett negotiated an Atlantic Records contract with a $7,000 annual guarantee, over $77,000 in today's money, and the hosts explain how that security also flipped a psychological switch: Atlantic was paying for his mind, not just his lungs.

We trace the March 26, 1959 session with Cedar Walton, Paul Chambers and Lex Humphries that Coltrane shelved entirely, the May 4 and 5 sessions with Tommy Flanagan and Art Taylor that produced Spiral, Countdown and Giant Steps, and the December 2 date where he borrowed Miles Davis's rhythm section of Wynton Kel ...