Comments on: Giant Steps

By: Celestial Toymaker

Celestial Toymaker — Sun, 28 Sep 2008 11:36:48 +0000

Love that album “Giant Steps”. I still have the original vinyl copy of it.

By: Bill Boyers

Bill Boyers — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 23:34:59 +0000

A great wonder to see Coltrane at this blog–he was remarkable…I read the quotation about “why I play so many (notes)” right before I opened the Domino Continuum on the next blog–curiously related–so many notes in emotional synchrony, so many dominoes in physical synchrony.

By: Greg L

Greg L — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 01:38:08 +0000

Thanks for remembering Coltrane. His music is an inspiration still. I’m very happily surprised to see Coltrane on an astrophysics blog as not too many scientists and engineers (I’m an aerospace engineer) are hip to Bird, Monk, Miles, Trane et al. Actually not too many Americans in general are, which is sad. Thankfully I grew up in NYC and though I’m too young to have seen Trane I have been to the Village Vanguard many times. Jazz is such a great art form, a happy mix of edgy blues and swing with compositional and improvisational sophistication. Long live the music of Trane!

By: Lawrence B. Crowell

Lawrence B. Crowell — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 19:04:17 +0000

Excellent — Coltrane! One of my favorite artists.

L. C.

By: John Baez

John Baez — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 04:37:38 +0000

I love the second quintet too, maybe even more. But today we’re talking about Coltrane, not Wayne Shorter.

By: Moshe

Moshe — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 19:32:51 +0000

John, the only group greater than Miles Davis’ first quintet is Miles Davis’ second one, you should give them a try.

By: Tyler

Tyler — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 16:56:14 +0000

I love Coltrane; he is my favorite artist, in any medium, of the 20th century. Thanks for the mention.

There’s a ton of amazing Coltrane on youtube now, though it comes and goes.

By: John Baez

John Baez — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 01:30:02 +0000

In the last couple of years I've fallen in love with Miles Davis' first quintet, featuring John Coltrane on sax. They recorded four great albums in two days! Anyone who likes Coltrane and hasn't heard these yet should give 'em a listen. The robot version of Giant Steps is really pathetic. It show how much more there is to music than playing the correct notes in sequence. I'm sure someday a robot will play jazz well... but not this one.

By: mike

mike — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 00:54:33 +0000

(Whoops, link got parsed out.) Original.

By: mike

mike — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 00:53:06 +0000

That computer animation absolutely floored me the first time I saw it. Do yourself a favor and see the original, un-Youtubed version:

Coltrane was one of the finest musicians to have walked this planet, and he’s been a great inspiration to me.