coltrane - giant steps

this is fucking amazing

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2kotK9FNEYU&feature=player_embedded#!

in fact, this might be the best thing i've ever seen on youtube

Yeah, that animation really shows how fucking incredible Coltrane's solo really is.

You should check out this other Giant Steps animation.

  On 8/11/2010 at 5:42 PM, ericsosh said:

Yeah, that animation really shows how fucking incredible Coltrane's solo really is.

 

You should check out this other Giant Steps animation.

that's also fantastic, really illustrates the modality of it with these huge intervals between some of the notes.

as an album i prefer the earlier blue train, but giant steps was very necessary for the later stuff to happen.

i remember the day i figured out that the last movement of a love supreme was literally the lyrics made music; it blew my mind.

best thing on youtube? you over-hyped it to death. a little respect for the piano solo might have helped. good bit of sax mind, this guy might be the next big thing.

  On 8/11/2010 at 5:58 PM, Coalbucket PI said:

best thing on youtube? you over-hyped it to death.

i got excited, i've had a lot of coffee today.

  On 8/11/2010 at 5:58 PM, Coalbucket PI said:

best thing on youtube? you over-hyped it to death. a little respect for the piano solo might have helped. good bit of sax mind, this guy might be the next big thing.

I know (guess) you're being facetious but Tommy Flanagan is a fantastic pianist. This solo always cracks me up though, cause at the end he just chords it out....check out some of his solo stuff.

  On 8/11/2010 at 6:07 PM, chenGOD said:

  On 8/11/2010 at 5:58 PM, Coalbucket PI said:

best thing on youtube? you over-hyped it to death. a little respect for the piano solo might have helped. good bit of sax mind, this guy might be the next big thing.

 

 

I know (guess) you're being facetious but Tommy Flanagan is a fantastic pianist. This solo always cracks me up though, cause at the end he just chords it out....check out some of his solo stuff.

also paul chambers gets a lot of love in jazz circles... but not enough.

that was hypnotic. i love listening to music with a visual representation, youtube is full of these, and they arent as good as that but i still watch them for hours.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BUB83_F-SmE

yeah, that's great.

that ligeti piece has been playing in my head constantly for the past 2 months

  On 8/11/2010 at 6:07 PM, chenGOD said:

  On 8/11/2010 at 5:58 PM, Coalbucket PI said:

best thing on youtube? you over-hyped it to death. a little respect for the piano solo might have helped. good bit of sax mind, this guy might be the next big thing.

 

 

I know (guess) you're being facetious but Tommy Flanagan is a fantastic pianist. This solo always cracks me up though, cause at the end he just chords it out....check out some of his solo stuff.

I think I'm probably a jazz philistine but I just like piano and I always liked that solo... the lol at him playing chords at the end is lost on me. Popular opinion seems to be that sax or trumpet jazz is the apex but I only really find myself listening to it academically. Prefer other instruments by a long way.

I'm a pianist myself and I love jazz piano. The lol about it being chords is that it's as if the piece is moving too fast even for Flanagan so all he can do is play the chords out to the end of his solo. As opposed to actually improvising a solo to the end.

  On 8/11/2010 at 6:15 PM, Coalbucket PI said:

  On 8/11/2010 at 6:07 PM, chenGOD said:

  On 8/11/2010 at 5:58 PM, Coalbucket PI said:

best thing on youtube? you over-hyped it to death. a little respect for the piano solo might have helped. good bit of sax mind, this guy might be the next big thing.

 

 

I know (guess) you're being facetious but Tommy Flanagan is a fantastic pianist. This solo always cracks me up though, cause at the end he just chords it out....check out some of his solo stuff.

I think I'm probably a jazz philistine but I just like piano and I always liked that solo... the lol at him playing chords at the end is lost on me. Popular opinion seems to be that sax or trumpet jazz is the apex but I only really find myself listening to it academically. Prefer other instruments by a long way.

i think it has to do with the fact that sax/trumpet/flugelhorn/what have you are mostly monophonic instruments (barring a few techniques which produce duophony) so the focus is entirely on melody and improv, whereas piano is polyphonic so there's an equal focus on chords/the 'head' of the piece as there is on melody with that.

the piano has more possibility for certain things, but less possibility for extreme expression

how so? im not even entirely disagreeing, just wondering why you think that.

  On 8/11/2010 at 6:22 PM, vamos scorcho said:

the piano has more possibility for certain things, but less possibility for extreme expression

Depends what you mean by extreme expression. For slow melodic lines this is true I suppose but that's only one type of expressiveness.

well it's like with piano you got two hands, there is more possibility for just about everything. but the only way you can really alter the timbre of the notes themselves is by using the pedals. you have to elicit emotion by combining notes and rhythms. piano is my favorite instrument for this reason, i like how you are restricted to the keys, it seems like the most pure form of "music." just notes and rhythms.

with something like a saxophone you don't have to ability to expand as far but you can alter the timbre in many different ways, which makes it just as expressive. you can blend the notes together. the potential for noise making is important - "interstellar space," john zorn, eric dolphy, etc.

The thing that hurts me about piano is that you can't bend or vibrato notes. Seriously reduces expressive capability IMO and it always makes me feel uncomfortable (I'm from a guitar background) when playing piano.

  On 8/11/2010 at 7:48 PM, Greg Reason said:

The thing that hurts me about piano is that you can't bend or vibrato notes. Seriously reduces expressive capability IMO and it always makes me feel uncomfortable (I'm from a guitar background) when playing piano.

you do have the pedals though :) - all the same, i'm also from a guitar background, and i'm always thankful for the pitchbend/mod wheels on my MIDI controller

jesus christ vamos stop ruining this thread about your personal beliefs about "pure music" now is not the time.

  On 8/11/2010 at 5:58 PM, Coalbucket PI said:

best thing on youtube? you over-hyped it to death. a little respect for the piano solo might have helped. good bit of sax mind, this guy might be the next big thing.

doesn't surprise me tbh. the people that spend the time to transcribe and/or animate these things are those types of trane freaks that don't care about anything else. all other musicians are below him in every respect. Happens a lot with Bird too. Bunch of Bird recordings I have just stop after his solo.

Great animation, great song.

awesome awesome video in the OP, god damn.

someone please do something like this for the percussion in vordhosbn?

  On 8/11/2010 at 6:58 PM, vamos scorcho said:

but the only way you can really alter the timbre of the notes themselves is by using the pedals.

I don't think that's true. Striking a key harder or softer causes much more than just dynamic variation. The overtones produced from playing fortissimo are different than from playing pianissimo. Think of a tamtam or a cymbal for example, the sounds produced from playing loudly and quietly are so different it can be quite difficult in the first instance to believe they're produced by the same bit of metal. A capable pianist should be able to produce a large and varied spectrum of sound. Not to mention the huge differences between legato and staccato playing. The pedals are important of course but they're by no means the only way of altering timbre.

Can't say I'm blown away by the animation. It's a good idea but not the most difficult thing to replicate without too much hard work. Quality proof of a great saxophonist though.