On September 1955 John Coltrane joined the Miles Davis Quintet. By that time, Coltrane was a seasoned professional musician, a dyed in-the-wool jazz player who had learned his craft in a considerable number of outfits during the preceding ten years or so.

Coltrane was nearly thirty years old at the time, a jazz musician who was certainly not universally acclaimed. Thus far Coltrane had failed to impress the jazz audiences at large, although he played in a distinctive but not yet fully formed style. During the five years after his debut with Miles Davis, Coltrane moved from virtual obscurity to acclaim as the greatest tenor saxophone innovator of the era.

This is the era covered in this 4CD set.