my favorite Coltrane song

That would be “Satellite,” supposedly a version of “How High the Moon,” but so Coltranized that it’s beautifully, barely recognizable. In my estimation it has both the weirdest head and most satisfying solo in all of the magnificent Coltrane corpus. If you only download one song on iTunes this Christmas Day, let it be that one.

For what it’s worth, I also think Coltrane does the best version of “Summertime,” and his rendition of that classic is in much the same vein as his “Satellite.”