Theory. Coltrane cycle

This is mostly just a way to get started on the next theory post after a two week absence.


The Coltrane cycle (from wikipedia):


"In jazz harmony, the Coltrane changes (Coltrane Matrix or cycle, also known as chromatic third relations and multi-tonic changes) are a harmonic progression variation using substitute chords over common jazz chord progressions. These substitution patterns were first demonstrated by jazz musician John Coltrane on the album Blue Train on the tunes "Lazy Bird" and "Moment's Notice". Coltrane continued his explorations on the 1960 album Giant Steps, and expanded upon the substitution cycle in his compositions "Giant Steps" and "Countdown", the latter of which is a reharmonized version of Miles Davis's "Tune Up." The ability to solo over the Giant Steps/Coltrane cycle remains one of the standards by which a jazz musician's improvising ability is measured."



Here is 'Countdown':

And here is 'Tune Up', on which it was based:

Listening to Now. Jacki Terrason and Michel Portal`

Not quite on topic, but Michel Portal is the justification...

Well, actually, the intimate view of the keyboard is the justification.  Hands faster than the camera can capture.

But don't worry Kate. Very accessible and a familiar tune.

This appears to be a segment of a film.  Some research is indicated.

Francois Tusques. Some background.

More on Francois Tusques, quoted extensively from the excellent review by Clifford Allen (http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=20242)


"François Tusques, while almost unknown outside his native France, is certainly among the rare few of the European [jazz] not have been summarily left by the wayside over the course of the music's history.]. Not only is Tusques a crucial figure in the development of the music in his sector of the continent, but so crucial that he was able to record the first true French free jazz record (Free Jazz, reissued by In Situ)—a claim which, Stateside, is not even Ornette Coleman's."


"[In the mid 1960's], there was a coterie of French improvisers for whom American-derived bebop was not the end, if even the means. Composer, arranger and sometime pianist Jef Gilson (who eventually began the famed Palm Records) was one of the ringleaders of the Parisian new jazz scene, mentoring young players like trumpeter Bernard Vitet, tenor man Jean-Louis Chautemps, drummer Charles Saudrais, bassist Beb Guerin and other soon-to-be leading lights. Tusques, though, was the only pianist at the time in Paris willing to extend those steps into the demanding compositional sound-world of 'free jazz,' and those who saw a continuous upward- and outward-mobility with this music looked to Tusques as a fulcrum.

"By 1965, Vitet, Chautemps, Saudrais, and Portal (then primarily a classical clarinetist) had asked Tusques to compose a number of loose springboard-pieces to work on as a group, which led to the recording of Free Jazz for poet Marcel Moloudji's tiny Moloudji label. In company with German vibraphonist-reedman Gunter Hampel's Heartplants (Saba, 1965) and trumpeter Manfred Schoof'sVoices (CBS, 1966), Free Jazz is among the very earliest documents of a wholly European improvised music, one which springs more greatly from regional influences than those from across the Atlantic."

Jazz History. Francois Tusques

If one of the defining elements of French jazz is the classical training of many of the musicians, another is the commitment of many of them to social change.

Francois Tusques was a primary contributor to that side of French jazz.

Here's a sample of his work.

Notice that Michel Portal appears on this recording too.