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Giant Steps (Expanded Edition)

John Coltrane

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iTunes Review

John Coltrane had already established himself as a formidable saxophonist — most famously with Miles Davis — when this album came out in 1960. With this landmark release, Coltrane would emerge as a great band leader and an important composer. As soon as the opening title track blasts off, the listener is witness to an advanced harmonic exploration, a journey buoyed by “giant steps” — the atypical intervals in the bass part performed by Paul Chambers. (Pianist Tommy Flanagan and drummer Art Taylor round out the quartet that appears on most of the album.) On many albums, the high-energy “Countdown” would be a standout, but here it’s just another excellent track. One piece that does stand out, the ballad “Naima,” might be Coltrane’s most gorgeous composition. The pianist Wynton Kelly, who only appears on this single cut, displays a heartbreaking lyricism marked by restraint, lovely chord voicings, and a tender touch. And Chambers performs the simple bass part like the world depends on every full-bodied note. There are a thousand details to get lost in here, but make no mistake, Coltrane’s masterful solos are at the heart of Giant Steps; they will continue to be studied — and marveled at — for years to come.

Customer Reviews

FANTASTIC SPEED OF SOUND VIRTUOSITY

Certain albums have a way defining a style so indelibly that it feels the artist has come to a conclusion where no road can possibly be left to traverse. The difference between this apex of shredding chord changes in an ultra-melodic context and the beautiful but abrasive free skronk that followed to his end is like throwing and bullet and shooting a bullet. For everything that came in the years after (not immediately) built strongly off of harshly dissonant crys of the times, like his brilliant but challenging to the un-trained ear work on IMPULSE, concluding with the highly polarizing but none-the-less amazing INTERSTELLAR SPACE. The IMPULSE tunes built off of usually modal chords and blasted into, well, space. This work, the title tune, is an unblemished masterpiece of pure European classical meets Harlem Bop. GIANT STEPS (B D G Bb, Eb, A D, G Bb Eb F#, B, F Bb, Eb, A D, G, C# F#, B, F Bb, Eb, C# F# repeat) is one of the most challenging, complex progressions ever, and is blasted over with such force that for all the imitations (good ones by McCoy and Roland Kirk) no one can ever equal this reading. Cousin Mary is bop-brilliance, sparking and brimming with explosions of 6ths and fourths and diminished joys. Countdown is in the vein of STEPS, nothing short of fantastically volcanic, and the tender, loving NAIMA is a masterpiece. Hell, everything on this is a masterpiece. Nothing like it, before or since.

Trane

A great jazz cd. One of my favorite songs is Giant steps

Must have!!

From the first track "Cousin Mary" to the "Mr. P.C." Coltrane will have you mesmerized! I usually purchase an album once a week, and just when I think it doesn't get any better, it does! Must have for any fan of the Trane!

Biography

Born: September 23, 1926 in Hamlet, NC

Genre: Jazz

Years Active: '40s, '50s, '60s

Despite a relatively brief career (he first came to notice as a sideman at age 29 in 1955, formally launched a solo career at 33 in 1960, and was dead at 40 in 1967), saxophonist John Coltrane was among the most important, and most controversial, figures in jazz. It seems amazing that his period of greatest activity was so short, not only because he recorded prolifically, but also because, taking advantage of his fame, the record companies that recorded him as a sideman in the 1950s frequently reissued...
Full Bio