Giant Steps (Album)

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Giant steps
Studio album by John Coltrane

Publication
(s)

January 27, 1960

admission

May 4, 1959 - May 5, 1959
December 2, 1959

Label (s) Atlantic Records

Format (s)

LP , CD , MC , SACD

Genre (s)

Hard bop

Title (number)

7th

running time

37:03

occupation

production

Nesuhi Ertegün

Studio (s)

Atlantic Studios, New York City

chronology
Soultrane
(1958) 		Giant steps Coltrane Jazz
(1961)

Giant Steps is a jazz album by saxophonist John Coltrane , recorded in 1959 and released by Atlantic Records in January 1960 . The album was produced by Nesuhi Ertegün , sound engineer Tom Dowd . Giant Steps appeared in both mono and stereo versions.

The album

The album, recorded mainly on May 4 and 5, 1959, was Coltrane's first release for the record label Atlantic Records . Giant Steps is considered to be the most important record from the Atlantic phase from 1959 to 1961. "With this album Coltrane achieved what was already noticeable in the beginning: an extraordinary formal unity, as well as an unusual harmonic complexity of what was presented" , write Filtgen and Auserbauer in their Coltrane biography.

In particular, the title track and the title Countdown demonstrate the new harmonic concept: In contrast to the “Sheets of Sound” of the Prestige phase, Coltrane Solo moves mainly in eighths on Giant Steps , playing out the underlying chord material precisely. Many of the tracks on the album have now become jazz standards , alongside the title track Naima , the only ballad on the record dedicated to his wife at the time, and cousin Mary , a twelve-bar blues that excellently "shows Coltrane's ability as a composer and improviser of blues themes" . Syeeda's song, Flute , alluded to Coltrane's stepdaughter and is children 's song-like in theme. In the Blues Mr. PC - a dedication to Paul Chambers - Wynton represents Kelly Flanagan.

The recording also marked a new leap in quality for the saxophonist; For the first time he was able to record all of his own compositions in a framework that set a new standard in the preparation for such recordings. Giant Steps is now considered an epoch-making classic and the highlight of Coltrane's “classic” period.

The Giant Steps sessions: different staff

Coltrane spent four or five days in the studio for Giant Steps : at least Coltrane was not satisfied with the results of the first recording sessions in March and April 1959, so that further studio appointments were necessary. Secured by the contract with Atlantic, he was also able to try out different line-ups. “In particular, the variants of the title track, which were created two months before the version was finally published, document the formulaic nature with which John Coltrane ... set out to work out his misleading“ Sheets of Sound ”scale cascades. But they also show the single- mindedness with which the tenor saxophonist worked to make the best possible of his ideas. ” The final recording of the ballad Naima was not made until December 1959 and was added to the master tape shortly before the album was released.

May 4 and May 5, 1959 (recording of tracks 1–5 and 7; alternative takes 10–12, and the additional alternative take 15)

December 2, 1959 (recording of track 6)

April 1 and March 26, 1959 (recording of the alternative takes 8 and 9, and the additional alternative takes 13 and 14)

The titles of the sessions

All compositions are by John Coltrane .

Page 1:

  1. Giant Steps - 4:43
  2. Cousin Mary - 5:45
  3. Countdown - 2:21
  4. Spiral - 5:56

Page 2:

  1. Syeeda's Song Flute - 7:00
  2. Naima - 4:21
  3. Mr. PC - 6:57

CD bonus tracks (1998):

  1. Giant Steps - 3:40 (Alternative Takes)
  2. Naima - 4:27
  3. Cousin Mary - 5:54
  4. Countdown - 4:33
  5. Syeeda's Song Flute –7:02
  6. Giant Steps - 3:32 (Other Alternative Takes)
  7. Naima - 3:37
  8. Giant Steps - 5:00

Edition history and title design

The photo on the cover, a portrait of Coltrane, was taken by Lee Friedlander .

Seven tracks from the Giant Steps session in May 1959 appeared on the Atlantic album (Atlantic 1311). The alternate takes of the May session ( Countdown, Syeeda's Song Flute and Cousin Mary ) as well as the pieces from the previous session on March 26 (with Cedar Walton , Paul Chambers , Lex Humphries ) were released in January 1975 on the LP Alternate Takes ( Atlantic 166B).

John Coltrane received an Edison for Giant Steps in Amsterdam in 1961

Giant Steps has been re-released on CD several times; also as a deluxe edition with all alternate takes. The 7-CD compilation The Heavyweight Champion: The Complete Atlantic Recordings also contains all outtakes and false starts of the Giant Steps session.

Impact history

source rating
Allmusic
The Guardian
Penguin Guide to Jazz

When the album was first released, the critics reacted rather irritated than enthusiastic. After all, wrote downbeat : "This record can be among the most important." . In the Netherlands the album was awarded an Edison.

In 2003, Giant Steps reached number 102 in the list of the 500 best albums of all time by the American music magazine Rolling Stone . The following year the album was added to the National Recording Registry as one of fifty albums by the Library of Congress . Already 2001 Giant Steps in Fame Grammy Hall of added.

The music magazine Jazzwise selected the album at number 11 in the list The 100 Jazz Albums That Shook the World . Keith Shadwick wrote:

" It's pretty difficult to overestimate the influence of this single album - or even more narrowly, its title track - has had on the development of jazz since its release: certainly the saxophone-bearing members of the world's jazz community have found it an endlessly renewing font of inspiration. More recently, pianists have delved into re-arrangements of Coltrane's elegant and distinctive compositions. The great man himself knew that this album was a culmination rather than a new beginning, but that probably accounts for its consummate artistry as much as any other reason: Coltrane was the most thorough of players. ".

The German-language edition of Rolling Stone chose the album in 2013 in the selection of the 100 best jazz albums in 15th place.

Pitchfork Media lists Giant Steps at # 36 on the top 200 albums of the 1960s.

literature

Remarks

  1. ↑ The recordings for Bags & Trane (with Milt Jackson ) were made in January 1959, but did not appear until December 1961
  2. ↑ cit. according to Filtgen / Auserbauer, p. 139
  3. ↑ cit. according to Filtgen / Auserbauer, p. 139
  4. ↑ cf. Cook & Morton in their meeting
  5. ^ Lewis Porter John Coltrane: His Life and Music University of Michigan Press 1999, p. 153
  6. ↑ a b Ralf Dombrowski : Basis-Diskothek Jazz (= Reclams Universal-Bibliothek. No. 18372). Reclam, Stuttgart 2005, ISBN 3-15-018372-3 , p. 52ff.
  7. ↑ (first published on Alternate Takes , 1974 (Atlantic))
  8. ^ First published on John Coltrane: The Heavyweight Champion, The Complete Atlantic Recordings , August 1995 (Rhino)
  9. ↑ here a slower version was played without a piano solo; a first version of Naima and the title Like Sonny
  10. ↑ coupled with other alternate takes of the following Atlantic sessions
  11. ↑ 7 more takes from Giant Steps from the March session with Cedar Walton, plus outtakes from Naima , Like Sonny , 2 outtakes from Giant Steps from the May session with Flanagan, and from Blues To Elvin and Blues To You from October 21, 1960.
  12. ↑ Review by Lindsay Planer on allmusic.com (accessed November 8, 2017)
  13. ↑ Review by Dave Gelly on theguardian.com (accessed November 8, 2017)
  14. ↑ Penguin Guide to Jazz: Core Collection List on tomhull.com (accessed June 2, 2018)
  15. ↑ 103rd place compare: Levy, Joe (Ed.): Rolling Stone. The 500 best albums of all time . (Original edition: Rolling Stone. The 500 Greatest Albums of all Time . Wenner Media 2005). Translation: Karin Hofmann. Wiesbaden: White Star Verlag, 2011, p. 102
  16. ↑ GRAMMY Hall of Fame on grammy.com (accessed June 2, 2018)
  17. ↑ The 100 Jazz Albums That Shook The World ( Memento of the original from July 11, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.jazzwisemagazine.com
  18. ↑ Rolling Stone: The 100 Best Jazz Albums . Retrieved November 16, 2016.
  19. ↑ The 200 Best Albums of the 1960s on pitchfork.com (accessed June 2, 2018)