OP
- Joined
- Jan 20, 2019
- Messages
- 444
- Likes
- 312
- Thread Starter
- #61
Jazz pianist Tommy Flanagan apparently struggled with the mediant progressions in Coltrane's "Giant Steps". I find this analysis surprising because chromatic mediants are the lingua franca of Romantic piano music. Perhaps they are just tough to improvise over.
I have heard him say that was one of his worst dates as a recording pianist, but it sounds great, doesn't it? I think he was likely just not as comfortable with Coltrane's new tonalities as with the standards, and wished he could play as effortlessly as he would on "Stella By Starlight", etc.