Trane was only a sideman, for the most part. A great number of recording sessions took place with the label. In April 1957, a brand new John Coltrane, who had conquered his inner demons, signed with Prestige Records.

Their collaboration lasted only two years, after which Miles kicked out Coltrane on account of his growing drug addiction. I knew it, like everyone that listened to him play.' ' Shortly after Trane and I started playing together the critic Whitney Balliett wrote that Coltrane had a 'rough dry tone which highlights Davis, like a coarse frame for a beautiful gem.' Rapidly, Trane became much more than that. In his autobiography, the trumpeter recalls having quickly recognised the potential within his new sax player: He had already mixed with such luminaries as Charlie Parker, Jimmy Heath and Bud Powell by the time his big break came in 1955, when Miles Davis invited him to play in his first quintet with Red Garland, Philly Joe Jones and Paul Chambers. His was a gradual, almost imperceptible introduction into the world of music, notably through early ventures with the Dizzy Gillespie Big Band.

Despite spending just forty years on this earth, John Coltrane had ample time to record as a lead artist on four labels: Prestige, Blue Note, Atlantic and Impulse!.

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