9/25/10

John Coltrane's use of patterns and harmonic progressions-by Jim Gold

British saxophonist Jim Gold sent me his excellent essay entitled 'Pattern in melodic improvisation and harmonic progression in the music of John Coltrane'. In the essay Jim analyzes Trane's masterpiece cadenza on I Want To Talk About You' . He examines Coltrane's use of symmetrical and non-symmetrical patterns, repeated motifs, triad pairs, Synthetic scales, and three-tonic cycles. 
 
Coltrane heads rejoice!

Coltrane Essay.PDF

4 comments:

Adam said...

You know, we played "I Want To Talk About You" for the ~first dance~ at our wedding.

Anonymous said...

I wouldn't want to try and dance to the cadenza A!! thanks for the post david i'll have to try and get some of these sounds into my playing. professionally written stuff.

Anonymous said...

There's a later version by Trane on the album Selflessness...live with Roy Haynes on drums. It's the ultimate cadenza. You must hear it. A wild beautiful amazing cry of sheer joy and love and.... And it's interesting to hear the evolution of his playing because this is the third recorded version of the cadenza and he keeps going further on each one. If you don't have the album, you can youtube it and there are versions (without video).

-Geoff

Anonymous said...

PS: the later version, on Selflessness, is live at Newport in 1963 and is also available on "Newport 63" and "My Favorite Things: Coltrane at Newport" on Impulse.

-Geoff