Penguin Guide to Jazz (rated with a crown):
Moving from Prestige to Atlantic had the same effect on Coltrane as a more extended association with Blue Note might have done. The first album is the product of time and preparation, and it cements its status as Trane’s first genuinely iconic record, with no fewer than seven original compositions, most of them now squarely established in the repertory. The big stylistic shift is the move away from chordal jazz, and a seemingly obsessive need to cross-hatch every feasible subdivision before moving on to the next in the sequence. In its place, a faster-moving, scalar approach that was to achieve its (in the event) brief apotheosis in the title-track. That this was a technically exacting theme is underlined by the false starts and alternative takes included on The Heavyweight Champion set. The beautiful ballad ‘Naima’ with Wynton Kelly and Jimmy Cobb, remains one of Trane’s best-loved themes, a million miles away from the pitiless drive of many of his solos. Dedicated to the bassist,‘Mr P.C.’ is a delightful original blues which has become part of most contemporary horn-players’ repertoire. ‘Syeeda’s Song Flute’ is a long, spun-out melody for Trane’s daughter. The remaining tracks are ‘Spiral’, ‘Countdown’ and the funky, homely 'Cousin Mary'. Giant Steps was released on the cusp of a new decade, in January 1960. It threw down a quiet, unaggressive challenge.
Review by Jack Cooke, Modern Jazz, The Essential Records:
Giant Steps marked a watershed in Coltrane’s musical explorations. Up to 1957, in his so-called ‘sheets of sound’ period, he struggled hard, not always successfully, to express some complex ideas on the relationships between melody, harmony and rhythm, and to do so within the terms of conventional chord sequences and the methods of the hard bop rhythm section. His solos, their long, involved lines shaped almost at random by furious races through a harmonic context qualified by the rhythm section’s pacing, were often massive yet undifferentiated constructions relating less to a particular theme than to his own private musical situation. After mid-1957, however, a new quality emerged in Coltrane’s playing, a better sense of organisation, of phrasing and composition, so that his ‘sheets of sound’ became more effectively part of a whole. This advance finds it clearest expression in the Giant Steps LP, where solos like those on Cousin Mary and Mr. P.C. show that clarity of expression had been achieved without any loss of force.
All the themes here are Coltrane’s, and by now he was composing a great deal. This signified another change, his attempt to find a secure formal basis for his explorations, and it is noteworthy that already, on Syeeda's song flute and Naima, harmonic movement is reduced to a minimum, the better to examine what remains. Control over style and materials extends to the other musicians, also, for by now Coltrane was more than a nominal leader on his recording dates, and at this point the form and method of his expression reached a kind of perfection, even though its exploratory principles signalled a still further development. The Giant Steps performances were recorded by what essentially was a pick-up group, but all the players had considerable previous experience of Coltrane’s music and they support him extremely well; he was now virtually bound to become a full-time leader.
01 - Giant Steps (**)
02 - Cousin Mary (*)
03 - Countdown (**)
04 - Spiral (*)
05 - Syeeda's Song Flute (**)
06 - Naima (***)
07 - Mr. P.C. (**)
(*)John Coltrane, tenor sax; Tommy Flanagan, piano; Paul Chambers, bass; Art Taylor, drums.
Atlantic Studios, NYC, May 4, 1959
(**)same personnel.
Atlantic Studios, NYC, May 5, 1959
(***)John Coltrane, tenor sax; Wynton Kelly, piano; Paul Chambers, bass; Jimmy Cobb, drums.
Atlantic Studios, NYC, December 2, 1959
Atlantic LP 1311 [1960]
A couple of thoughts:
1. For some strange reason there seems to be an interest in the mono masters of classic 50s and early 60s albums. As it happens I have a fair number of mono LPs, not bought through choice, it was all that was available at a price I could afford in mid 60s UK!
2. I bought this as new copy, reduced price deletion, over 50 years ago. I probably haven't played it since the 80s. It's easier to listen to CDs and digital downloads. But on playing this I realised I knew it... as one track ended I knew the notes of the next before they played. In the days when I only owned a few hundred LPs I played them frequently, could choose an album to suit a mood. These days I have thousands of albums available to play but I 'know' almost none of them. In some ways less was much more...
An LP always carefully handled, only ever played
on decent equipment and properly stored, over 50 years old and near mint
condition, ripped to flac at 24/96.
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