Giant Steps

“Giant Steps” is a very important album, especially for aspiring jazz musicians. It’s the record that firmly put the so-called “Coltrane changes” in the regular, even obligatory lessons that every student of jazz has to master. These changes, also known as chromatic third relations and multi-tonic changes, are a harmonic progression variation using substitute chords over common jazz chord progressions. Anything unclear? Well, of course, it’s unclear except to jazz and classical musicians, but the importance of these “new” chord cycles is that they shaped the future of modern jazz, like every significant novelty does. But I always use the example of “Giant Steps” and its new approach (new back then, now more than 50 years old) to prove something else to those who praise school and technique above else. Here is how: every jazz musician needs to practise in order to be able to move quickly and fluently through the complicated chord progressions, while soloing or playing with the rhythm section. In the old times, only the best “cats” could go up on stage and play in front of an audience, and only the best could record music and get paid for it. John Coltrane always knew how to play, of course, but before 1957 he was considered a kind of an underdog. It was mostly attributed to his heroin addiction which caused him to play sloppy from time to time. That was until he joined Thelonious Monk for a six-month engagement in New York’s legendary Five Spot club, where he got sober and, under the spiritual and friendly guidance from Monk, Coltrane managed to overcome his nasty habit pretty much easily. He left Monk as a new, reborn person, with much more confidence, desire, and focus on creating something truly unique. He succeeded with that when he recorded “A Love Supreme” and the other albums with this legendary quartet, but just before he did that, he showed the world that he was never really anything else but a genius. With his “Giant Steps,” Coltrane proved that he could solo through harmonies better than anyone else. He even created his own chord cycles that are even harder to improvise over them than over the traditional changes. Soon after that, he completely switched to modal jazz, and then free jazz, styles in which technique is less important and creativity is all. That basically means: Give me two chords, and I’ll let my soul sing! And Coltrane’s soul surely had a great voice of its own.

Giant Steps is the fifth studio album by John Coltrane as a leader, released in 1960 on Atlantic Records. The deal was arranged by Miles Davis, who adored Coltrane. Miles’ business manager Harold Lovett negotiated a record contract for Coltrane with Atlantic, the terms including a $7,000 annual guarantee. The recording exemplifies Coltrane's melodic phrasing that came to be known as “sheets of sound,” and features his explorations into the third-related chord movements. Several pieces on this album went on to become jazz standards, most prominently "Naima" and "Giant Steps", which is the best and most radical example of the new chord-cycle, although the technique was used previously on the album “Blue Train” on the tunes "Moment's Notice" and "Lazy Bird".