Listening to Now: Countdown, John Coltrane

Countdown (2:21)
John Coltrane, from album 'Giant Steps'.





Recorded May, 1959.  Atlantic records
Personnel:
John Coltrane - tenor saxophone
Paul Chambers - bass
Tommy Flanagan - piano
Art Taylor - drums


This seems to be the reverse the normal development of a jazz piece.  It starts with a drum solo, which normally is in the middle of a song, to be followed by the blistering Coltrane solo, and wraps up with the piano vamping the chord structure and finally, and briefly, a statement of the melody with some harmony from the bass.

So instead of...
theme, melodic solo, rhythm solo, restatement of theme,

Coltrane gives us...
rhythm solo, melodic solo, theme, (with no room left for a theme restatement).

For technical details, to be unpacked later:

http://www.songtrellis.com/GiantStepsInDetail

and

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coltrane_changes