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Giant Steps | 
 enlarge | Artist: John Coltrane
Label: Atlantic / Wea
Category: Music
List Price: $11.98
Buy New: $10.99
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New (37) Used (40) Collectible (4) from $2.75
Rating:  124 reviews
Sales Rank: 1533
Format: Original Recording Remastered
Media: Audio CD
Discs: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 5.6 x 5 x 0.5
MPN: 1311
UPC: 075678133725
EAN: 0075678133725
ASIN: B000002I4S
Release Date: October 25, 1990
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| Tracks:
| • | Giant Steps | | • | Cousin Mary | | • | Countdown | | • | Spiral | | • | Syeeda's Song Flute | | • | Naima | | • | Mr. P.C. | | • | Giant Steps | | • | Naima | | • | Cousin Mary | | • | Countdown | | • | Syeeda's Song Flute |
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| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.com essential recording
Released in January 1960, John Coltrane's first album devoted entirely to his own compositions confirmed his towering command of tenor saxophone and his emerging power as a composer. Apprenticeships with Dizzy, Miles, and Monk had helped focus his furious, expansive solos, and his stamina and underlying sense of harmonic adventure brought Coltrane, at 33, to a new cusp--the polytonal "sheets of sound" that distinguished his marathon solos were offset by interludes of subtle, concise lyricism, embodied here in the tender "Naima." That classic ballad is a calm refuge from the ecstatic, high-speed runs that spark the set's up-tempo climaxes, which begin with the opening title song, itself a cornerstone of modern jazz composition. This exemplary reissue benefits from eight alternate takes of the original album's seven stellar tracks, excellent remastering of the original tapes, and an expanded annotation. --Sam Sutherland
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| Customer Reviews: Read 119 more reviews...
 One giant step for Coltrane, but... June 26, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
...from a purely musical standpoint, as in being actual compositions, it's not that great of a listen. Giant Steps, for the most part, is an album for people who understand music, those who know about music theory and understand what new breakthroughs this guy made with this album, and how he uses the numerous things. And for those people, they would probably know if Coltrane's Giant Steps is worth listening to for the musical technique and the like involved
But for me, Giant Steps shows some hints of brilliance, and John Coltrane still can play the heck out of his saxophone, he's brilliant obviously, on the whole. But the problem is that for all of the brilliant hints (the melodies he usually plays at the beginning and end of the songs are worth hearing), it suffers from nonstop, breathless, noodling. I would even say that John Coltrane sounds more like he's showing off instead of trying to play something memorable, akin to the arrogant showboating licks, the reason why many technical death metal bands are insulted (mostly on the showboat front). I can't deny the skill it takes to play like this, but John Coltrane gets annoying quick with his mastur______ noodling skronks of boring blasts of saxophones.
Maybe this is for my complete lack of understanding of music theory, but it simply isn't varied enough. It isn't bad, it has interesting parts, it just doesn't have enough to do it justice. If you are interested in the technical aspects, I have no problem with that, but there isn't much use for it when you have more focused, and ultimately more memorable Coltrane albums like Blue Train, My Favorite Things, and A Love Supreme.
5/10
 Giant Steps June 11, 2008
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
John Coltrane-Giant Steps *****
While I am rather new to Coltrane myself, only recently discovering him within the last year or so, I have acquired numerous albums of his, on top of the work he did with Miles Davis (all of which I own) I have to say that this is by far his most important album. While not as spiritual and uplifting, and maybe not even as moving as A Love Supreme, but still deeply influential, and maybe more so in fact. Giant Steps is a musicians album in true from, with emphasis on harmony's rather than on song/structure on his more early work, or on soloing and freedom in his later work.
As the title track, 'Giant Steps' opens the album you can tell your in for something special and something unique among the mans masterful body of work, and as that track comes to a close with his long sustained notes you feel satisfied, and this continues throughout the album. 'Countdown' was a sign of things to come, and 'Spiral' was absolutely breathtaking. Coltrane's reading of 'Mr. P.C.' well astonishing to say the least, it is a marvelous way to close such a land mark album.
While A Love Supreme may be the quintessential album of all time, and Ascension might be the most original, Giant Steps is by far my favorite Coltrane record, and easily the one that gets the most spins.
A must for all music lovers April 13, 2008
There is nothing that I can or need to say to add to whatever has already been said about this masterpiece of an album. This is one of the first Jazz CDs that I bought and I am really glad for that fact.
don't buy this reissue for the sound March 27, 2008
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
The music has been with me for 3 or 4 decades; originally on lp and then CD reissues. This particular reissue is vastly inferior in terms of sound quality compared to an earlier CD reissue I have (the one with only 5 bonus selections added to the original release). Here, the piano sounds like it's played through a cheap amp, the sax is edgy but not clearer, the bass is loud but shapeless. Obviously classic music in a nice package but if you are at all sensitive about how music sounds, this particular reissue is one to avoid. This is the first review i've
written for Amazon, so i feel strongly abut this.
 Another cornerstone of jazz music January 19, 2008
I've never been a big fan of Coltrane because I find his later stuff to be too remote for me to enjoy. That's why I was surprised at how much I liked this album. I suppose John was just getting his feet under him in the jazz music world when he developed the style and songs that led to this album, which may be why I find it more refreshing and more rewarding to listen to than his later stuff. It may be I just didn't hear the right recordings or songs when I began my jazz journey. Whatever the reason, I consider this Coltrane's most accesible and enjoyable work, and obviously, this is an integral part of any jazz music core collection (just ask The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings: Eighth Edition (Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings) if you don't believe me.)
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