Its true. And it didn't even need my momma to tell me that. Just so there is substance here, this is in reference to 'Giant Steps'. I'm not even positive how Coltrane is putting this song together but just by look at my fretboard and how the chords move....wow. I just kinda of assumed these were a bunch of chords thrown together with little rhyme or reason. I never imagined there was so much structure to this song. But thats always amazed me about jazz, ever since I started learning how to play it. All of this improv and free form creativity come out of such a deceivingly structured genre.
Speak of the devil... I listened to "Giant Steps" last night (my version is the one with all the alternate takes). I have always been a big fan of classical music, so when I heard "Naima" for the first time, chills literally went up and down my spine! I think that it is not only the greatest Coltrane ballad but the greatest jazz ballad ever; however, I am biased towards JC (I am even going to name my dog I am getting in 2 months after him!). I have 15 Coltrane CDs total and I would rank them like this in personal preference (of course): 1 - "The Ultimate Blue Train" (better sound quality than the original) 2 - "My Favorite Things" 3 - "Giant Steps" 4 - "A Love Supreme" 5 - "Coltrane's Sound" 6 - "Soultrane" 7 - "Sun Ship" 8 - "Interstellar Space" 9 - "Ballads" 10 - "John Coltrane with Johnny Hartman" 11 - "Thelonious Monk with John Coltrane" 12 - "Crescent" 13 - "Live at Birdland" 14 - "Duke Ellington with John Coltrane" 15 - "Ole Coltrane" I still need to get "Ascension" and a lot of the other later stuff plus some of the Atlantic stuff like "Coltrane Plays the Blues", "Coltrane Jazz", and "The Avant-Garde" (with Don Cherry). One day I will have every Coltrane album (or at least I will come close to it).
My combo in college used to try and play that tune out of the fake book. We sounded very....well, white . It was a mess. We quickly learned to just vamp on the easy ones for half an hour like Green Dolphin Street, All of Me etc. Easy money.
I love Giant steps, but I've been on a Miles kick for the last year and Kind of Blue is just awesome. I have it on Super Audio CD and it is just amazing.
Coltrane, Miles and Monk are great introductions for people interested in jazz. Anything from the mid-1950s to 1965 is pretty dang good. Miles went a little freaky after that, but his later stuff is solid, too. Brubeck's Take Five is awesome, too.
I picked up Kind of Blue just last week. I've only listened to it twice though, so I really need to give it a few more spins to really let it sink in. I think it's amazing, but it's not blowing my mind the way Blue Train did when I got it last year. Those are the only two jazz CDs I have, but I hope to slowly build my collection. Probably look into Monk or Brubeck next, based on reccomendations that I've gotten.
deepellum, Take it from someone who was in the same situation as you a year and a half ago...buy as your next jazz CDs these: "Saxophone Colossus" - Sonny Rollins "Maiden Voyage" - Herbie Hancock "Song for my Father" - Horace Silver Monk and Brubeck are great (I have like 3 Monk albums and Take Five), but I think the three I listed above will be ones that will immediately hit you like Blue Train did. But you can't go wrong with Brubeck and Monk, either.
Coltrane's best was A Love Supreme IMO. I still prefer Miles over Coltrane though. That dude changed the face of Jazz TWICE!!! Once with Kind of Blue and once with b****es Brew. That is genius.
Man, I love Coltrane but I'm definitely partial to Miles. I think thats because I really dig his fusion stuff - b****es Brew, On The Corner, etc. I also absolutely love Kind of Blue and Sketches of Spain but my favorite Miles Davis record has to be In A Silent Way. Its just jaw droppingly beatiful. A Love Supreme is my favorite Coltrane record. Has anyone heard Skerik on saxophone? He's a guy from Seattle and has played in many bands including Les Claypool's Fearless Flying Frog Brigade, Critters Buggin', Garage a Trois (just played at Bonnaroo), Crack Sabbath, Tuatara and others. He has to be the greatest Sax player I've ever seen live. The guy can play straight Bop with the best of them but also has a full electric rig setup with his Sax and has full effects and everything. I'd definitely recommend checking him out if you haven't heard anything, but I will give this warning. Just like Coltrane in his time, Skerik is very experimental and some people don't like that..
That Monk album is probably my favorite Coltrane album I own, at least right up there with 'Giant Steps' and the Bethlehem compilation (which by the way I didn't see in your collection -- its a great opportunity to hear a young Coltrane in a big band setting). And "Naima", by far my favorite song -- ever. Whats most amazing about it is he doesn't even solo (on the radio take or standard take, or whatever you want to call), he establishes the melody then lets Tyner do his thing. And the bass -- wow, I thought those were drums at first.
My dog's name is going to be King Coltrane or Kasey (KC) for short. Stone Cold, Being a little picky here, but McCoy Tyner did not play on Giant Steps, it was Tommy Flanagan and Wynton Kelly that played piano on that album. I can't remember without looking at my CD cover (which is not near by) who played the piano on the original version of "Naima" but I do know that the version that I have contains versions of that song with Kelly on piano and Flanagan on piano. To me, that is the one flaw with "Naima" - that Tyner did not play on it. But it is a minor one at best.
