Various Artists: The House That Trane Built: The Story Of Impulse Records

If so, there's a thick, solid gold seam to mine. During one five-year period alone, Impulse! released over a hundred albums, and the innovations of its vanguard artists still resonate strongly with many contemporary musicians. If Impulse! is planning to emulate Blue Note's coherent and imaginative ongoing reissue programme, it will be time to put more flags out.

The House That Trane Built was compiled by Ashley Kahn, who also authored the new label biography of the same name (plus two previous worthwhile historical snapshots, Kind Of Blue: The Making Of The Miles Davis Masterpiece and A Love Supreme: The Creation Of John Coltrane's Classic Album). The 38 tracks Kahn has selected here inevitably won't sync with the preferences of every longterm Impulse! aficionado, but there isn't a dud among them, and the four CDs combine for an appealing and reasonably representative introduction to the label.

Of the five producers/A&R men who took turns driving Impulse!, it was Bob Thiele, the 1961-1969 incumbent, who shaped the label and created its mature artistic identity. Ed Michel, who succeeded Thiele, was a safe pair of hands who kept the direction mostly Thielish. Both men are well represented here. The four CDs progress more or less chronologically from 1960 through 1976 (with Alice Coltrane's "Walk With Me," from her fine 2005 album Translinear Light, closing the set). They include 26 Thiele-era tracks and four from Michel's time.

The Thiele-to-Michel ratio is about right. Thiele's work with John Coltrane included some of the saxophonist's most enduring work, and the selections here include tracks from the classic quartet's underrated Ballads and iconic A Love Supreme albums. Then there's Archie Shepp's rutting "Mama Too Tight" and Albert Ayler's off-planet "Our Prayer" (from Albert Ayler Live In Greenwich Village), Pharoah Sanders' 33-minute astral jazz masterpiece "The Creator Has A Master Plan" in full (from Karma), and an early version of Charles Lloyd's sublime "Forest Flower" (from Lloyd's then-employer Chico Hamilton's Man From Two Worlds.)

With contributions too from Coleman Hawkins, Sonny Rollins, Gato Barbieri, Paul Gonsalves, Roland Kirk and Ben Webster—hardly defining Impulse! artists, but great musicians nonetheless—this set is a tenor saxophonist obsessive's dream. More, please... much more.

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