HIDDEN FOR MORE THAN SIX DECADES, THE LIVE RECORDINGS CAPTURE COLTRANE DURING A PIVOTAL PERIOD OF MUSICAL TRANSFORMATION
06 NOVEMBER 2026 (TORONTO, ON) Some recordings preserve more than the music. They carry the circumstances of their making: the room, the moment, and the sound of an artist searching in real time. The Tiberi Tapes, out today from Impulse! Records, offers a rare encounter with John Coltrane exploring new ideas, stretching familiar material, and pushing his music forward in front of an audience. The release stands at the heart of COLTRANE 100, the year-long celebration honoring the 100th anniversary of Coltrane’s birth. Listen here.
The story begins in 1960, when saxophonist Frank Tiberi started recording Coltrane’s performances in Philadelphia and New York. He had studied Coltrane’s released albums but heard a different kind of freedom and inspiration when he experienced the saxophonist in clubs. He bought a portable reel-to-reel recorder and began capturing performances from the audience so he could study Coltrane’s musical ideas and apply what he learned to his own playing.
Over the ensuing years, Tiberi followed Coltrane from club to club, building a private archive of more than 80 reels and over 26 hours of music. Recorded in crowded clubs on modest equipment, these tapes do not offer the polish of a studio session. Their value lies in what they preserve: Coltrane working through musical possibilities in the setting where he found some of his most inspired playing. Their documentation was often minimal: some boxes carried dates, others lacked venue information, and only a handful identified every musician. For decades, the tapes remained in his possession. Now, more than six decades later, selections from the archive are being heard publicly for the first time.
Across 11 selections, The Tiberi Tapes traces Coltrane’s restless musical development. The recordings let listeners hear him testing ideas, reworking familiar material, and reaching toward new possibilities in the moment. The set opens with two versions of “Giant Steps,” documented at strikingly different tempos of 226 and 262 BPM, and encompasses “Thing in D Flat,” “Lover,” “West 42nd St.,” “Impressions,” an untitled original in F minor, “Satellite,” “Good Bait,” “Resolution” and “It’s Easy to Remember.”
Also available for preorder and shipping in early 2027, The Tiberi Tapes: The Complete Recordings is a hand-numbered collector’s edition limited to 750 copies worldwide. It features the complete Tiberi archive—over 100 performances and nearly 26 hours of high-resolution audio—on a custom-designed USB drive, alongside an exclusive collectible LP, a deluxe hardback book with expanded content, and more. Preorder here.
THE TIBERI TAPES — TRACKLIST
“Giant Steps” (226 BPM)
“Giant Steps” (262 BPM)
“Thing in D Flat”
“Lover”
“West 42nd St.”
“Impressions”
“Untitled Original in F Minor”
“Satellite”
“Good Bait”
“Resolution”
“It’s Easy to Remember”
ABOUT JOHN COLTRANE
John Coltrane (1926–1967) was one of the most transformative artists in the history of modern music. A saxophonist, composer, and bandleader of singular vision, he expanded the expressive possibilities of jazz while establishing music as a vehicle for spiritual inquiry and human connection. His unmistakable sound and relentless curiosity placed him at the center of nearly every major stylistic shift in jazz during the mid-20th century.
During a concentrated decade of unprecedented creative output, Coltrane released 25 albums as a leader, forging a legacy defined by fearless exploration and emotional depth. His work bridged blues, bebop, modal jazz, and the avant-garde, influencing generations of musicians across jazz, rock, hip-hop, classical, and experimental music. Despite the near-mythic devotion his work inspires, Coltrane emphasized discipline, humility, and practice as the foundation of artistic excellence.
Since his passing, Coltrane’s stature has only grown. His recordings are preserved by the Library of Congress and studied worldwide as cornerstones of American music. His honors include a Pulitzer Prize Special Citation, a Grammy® Lifetime Achievement Award, multiple inductions into the Grammy Hall of Fame, and a U.S. commemorative postage stamp. Most recently the newly published Coltrane: The Definitive Visual Celebration of the Legend, edited by Ravi Coltrane, brings together never-before-seen photographs and essays by contributors including Carlos Santana, Patti Smith, and Dev Hynes. John Coltrane endures as a paragon of artistic courage and spiritual vision, and his music continues to speak—urgently and timelessly—to listeners around the world.
