On the heels of yesterday’s Sarah Vaughan set from Verve Select, we’ve got another upcoming title from the label for your enjoyment, too: an expansive edition of John Coltrane’s Sun Ship LP.

Recorded in 1965 but not released until 1971, years after Coltrane’s death, Sun Ship was notable for several reasons: it was one of the only sessions for ‘Trane’s quartet (bassist Jimmy Garrison, drummer Elvin Jones and pianist McCoy Tyner) recorded without engineer Rudy Van Gelder, and it was one of the last true “quartet” albums he cut, too. (First Meditations, recorded a week later but released in 1977, was the last.) Afterward, ‘Trane would experiment with larger ensembles, and within six months of Sun Ship‘s recording, Tyner and Jones had left. What remains, though, is one of several albums that shows the saxophonist starting to experiment with more elements of free jazz – slow burning, but intense, with much more focus on tones over tunes.

For the first time anywhere, Sun Ship: The Complete Session features the entire recording cut on August 26, 1965 with producer Bob Thiele, from start to finish. The two-disc set boasts over an hour of unheard music – all remastered in high-resolution audio – with plenty of alternate takes and even conversations between the band members. New liner notes by David Wild and rare photos by Chuck Jackson, who shot the image that appears on the LP sleeve, round out the package.

Available on April 16, you can order Sun Ship: The Complete Session below.

Sun Ship: The Complete Session (originally released as Impulse! AS-9211, 1971 – reissued Verve Select B0018075-02, 2013)

Disc 1

1. Dearly Beloved (Takes 1 & 2 – False Start and Alternate Version)
2. Dearly Beloved (Take 3 – Breakdown)
3. Dearly Beloved (Take 4) *
4. Attaining (Take 1 – Alternate)
5. Attaining (Take 2 – Breakdown)
6. Attaining (Take 3) *
7. Attaining (Take 4 – Insert) *
8. Sun Ship (Take 1 – Breakdown)
9. Sun Ship (Take 2 – Alternate)
10. Sun Ship (Take 3 – Insert)
11. Sun Ship (Take 4) *

Disc 2

1. Ascent (Take 1) *
2. Ascent (Take 2 – Incomplete Version)
3. Ascent (Take 3 – Incomplete Version)
4. Ascent (Take 3 (again) – Incomplete Version)
5. Ascent (Takes 4-6 – Inserts/False Starts)
6. Ascent (Take 7 – Complete Insert 4)
7. Ascent (Take 8 – Complete Insert 5)
8. Amen (Take 1 – Alternate)
9. Amen (Take 2) *

* denotes takes utilized for final album