Blues for Dracula

On the title track of Coltrane's 1959 Giant Steps, pianist Tommy Flanagan reportedly hadn't fully absorbed the tune's dense chord changes before the take, and his solo trails off into near silence. The album's signature piece is remembered as much for its accompanist's hesitation as for its harmonic breakthrough.

In June 1955 an alto player fresh out of Florida sat in at the Cafe Bohemia and was a talking point within weeks. The record made that summer, Bohemia After Dark (1955), went out under the drummer's name — so Cannonball Adderley's starting point is not a leader date of his own, and his brother Nat Adderley is on it too, on cornet.