12. Giant Steps- John Coltrane.
I was a little concerned as I queued this one up to play. I am still a little gun-shy on jazz after the Ornette Coleman experience. With trepidation I pressed play and braced myself. The album starts out with chords!
A very dynamic chord progression, but a structure that I could make sense of. Then the improvisation starts, and it gets quite busy, but it is very nice to listen to. Coltrane noodles endlessly over the chords, and the bass and drums are off doing their thing, but it is easy on the ears. I find his sound is not as shrill as Coleman's and things aren't as discordant. After a little reading, I stumble across the fact that this album would be categorized as hard bop, as opposed to the free jazz of Coleman, or Coltrane's later career. Again, I must stress that I am an absolute beginner when it comes to jazz, so bear with me if I am missing the point of this completely. I am only trying to give my impressions of this album, not the artist's work as a whole.
The second track isn't as manic, it has piano parts that after all that sax, are reminiscent of
cracking a cold beer on a hot summer afternoon. The playing isn't as busy, and there are some very interesting places where the piano pushes out some chords that react a little with the horn part, and creates some nice tension. It isn't discordant, but something needs to be resolved. "Cousin Mary" is probably the track on the album that I like the best.
Coltrane had been around for a while, previously working with Thelonius Monk and Miles Davis. This album was the first released with Coltrane as the bandleader."Giant Steps" is a jazz standard, and is studied for the complex "Coltrane changes" that begin the track. I can see why. There is a good Wikipedia page on these changes, based on thirds, that almost makes sense. It's like seeing the wizard behind the curtain.
There is no doubt that these cats can play. There is tons of improvised saxophone, and a lot of really tasty piano playing over a solid rhythm section. It seems like the intent of the album was to entertain, not to push the boundaries of music further along. Maybe Coltrane had these compositions sitting around from his days of just being a player in the band, and wanted to release the old stuff, and clear the board before moving on into pushing the limits of his medium. With a nod to his changes, which became his signature sound, as being groundbreaking. As a beginner, I found this extremely listenable, and would recommend it as a nice starting point into John Coltrane.
Rolling Stone recognized the importance of this album by ranking it at 103 of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.
A very dynamic chord progression, but a structure that I could make sense of. Then the improvisation starts, and it gets quite busy, but it is very nice to listen to. Coltrane noodles endlessly over the chords, and the bass and drums are off doing their thing, but it is easy on the ears. I find his sound is not as shrill as Coleman's and things aren't as discordant. After a little reading, I stumble across the fact that this album would be categorized as hard bop, as opposed to the free jazz of Coleman, or Coltrane's later career. Again, I must stress that I am an absolute beginner when it comes to jazz, so bear with me if I am missing the point of this completely. I am only trying to give my impressions of this album, not the artist's work as a whole.
The second track isn't as manic, it has piano parts that after all that sax, are reminiscent of
cracking a cold beer on a hot summer afternoon. The playing isn't as busy, and there are some very interesting places where the piano pushes out some chords that react a little with the horn part, and creates some nice tension. It isn't discordant, but something needs to be resolved. "Cousin Mary" is probably the track on the album that I like the best.
Coltrane had been around for a while, previously working with Thelonius Monk and Miles Davis. This album was the first released with Coltrane as the bandleader."Giant Steps" is a jazz standard, and is studied for the complex "Coltrane changes" that begin the track. I can see why. There is a good Wikipedia page on these changes, based on thirds, that almost makes sense. It's like seeing the wizard behind the curtain.
There is no doubt that these cats can play. There is tons of improvised saxophone, and a lot of really tasty piano playing over a solid rhythm section. It seems like the intent of the album was to entertain, not to push the boundaries of music further along. Maybe Coltrane had these compositions sitting around from his days of just being a player in the band, and wanted to release the old stuff, and clear the board before moving on into pushing the limits of his medium. With a nod to his changes, which became his signature sound, as being groundbreaking. As a beginner, I found this extremely listenable, and would recommend it as a nice starting point into John Coltrane.
Rolling Stone recognized the importance of this album by ranking it at 103 of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.
Buy it here.
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