I don't know about the waltz part. That seems fairly irrelevant. Jazz
musicians are always adding in with something important, some really
bizarre things which is my guess what the waltz part is about.
However, I think that the way to learn this tune is to play it
as a ballad or at a very slow tempo for a while. I've said for years
that it's actually a nice way to play this tune anyway. Lately
I've noticed that people are recording it this way a lot too.
People always want to approximate the final product they hear on a
record without the preparation.
In this case, people hear Coltrane playing a mile a minute and
want to get there right away without realizing the huge preparation
he went through to get there.
On the first recording, Tommy Flanagan is scuffling on his solo
(something I'm sure he is tired of hearing about and of course
he's a great pianist). (BTW, Coltrane re-recorded the tune with
a different pianist and Tommy years later recorded the tune
on his own trio record).
Tommy told a friend of mine that Coltrane sent him the tune in the
mail without any metronome indications.
He assumed it was a ballad and never in his wildest dreams would
have predicted the tempo that Coltrane counted off that day at
the recording session.
>Incidentally, Andy LaVerne has put out a Jamey Aebersold Play-along Book/2
>CDs set (Volume #75) which explores the Coltrane harmonic schemes and his
>reharmonizations of standards like Body and Soul, But Not For Me, and The
>Night Has a Thousand Eyes. It has some practice patterns to run through
>which really help to familiarize yourself with the changes.
>
>I have transcribed the Coltrane solo on Giant Steps and he negotiates the
>changes often with pre-determined digital patterns like 1235, 1351, 3513,
> etc. on each chord in the progression, usually during the parts where the
>chords are moving in two per bar rhythm.
>
>To get used to the Coltrane changes, I like to isolate iim7, V7, Imaj7,
>progressions in various standards I am working on and replace them with the
>Coltrane Changes as in the way he reharmonized the tune "Tune Up" to create
>his tune "Countdown." For example:
>
>Original:
>Dm7 |G7 |Cmaj7 |Cmaj7 |
>
>Coltrane reharmonization:
>Dm7 Eb7 |Abmaj7 B7 |Emaj7 G7 |Cmaj7 |
>
>The original ii, V, I in C major is still there, but between the original ii
>and V he inserted two V to I progressions which create tonal centers each
>descending a major third to the next. This has been called an "Augmented
>Cycle" by some because it descends from the sharp 5th of an augmented triad
>whose root is the eventual point of rest (progressive descending V-I's in Ab,
>E, and C, which enharmonically spells a C augmented triad).
>
>Giant Steps is based on only three tonal centers whose tonics are separated
>by major thirds: Bmajor, Gmajor, and Eb major, which spells an augmented
>cycle.
>
>When you break it down this way you get:
>The first three bars descend down an Eb augmented triad: B, G, and Eb;
>the 5th, 6th, and 7th bars descend down a B augmented triad: G, Eb, and B;
>the 8th through 15th bars are four ii, V, I, progressions going upwards from
>the root of an Eb augmented triad and ending on the root again: Eb, G, B, Eb;
>the 4th and 16th bars set up the two descending augmented cycles with the ii,
>V's of the first chords of each of the cycles.
>
>I found this "augmented cycle" thinking helped me to memorize the concept of
>the Coltrane Changes so I could apply them to other tunes. I hope I didn't
>confuse anybody, the Coltrane Changes take a while to get used to and
>transcribing a few of Coltrane's solos on them is very helpful in gaining
>facility with them.
>
I have an early justjazz post explaining how the COltrane subsitutions
work. It should be in the editted archives.
Mark Levines books also have good explanations.
>
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Reed Kotler
reed@justjazz.com
http://www.justjazz.com