“Giant Steps” by John Coltrane

"Giant Steps" is the title track of John Coltrane's 1960 album on Atlantic, cut during the 1959 sessions that were his first for the label, with Nesuhi Ertegun producing and Tom Dowd and Phil Iehle recording. Coltrane played tenor, Paul Chambers bass, Tommy Flanagan piano and Art Taylor drums, and nobody got a rehearsal: Coltrane simply brought the tune into the studio.

And what a tune. Its chords wheel through 3 keys, B, G and E-flat, at a breakneck clip, a cycle so distinctive it now goes by the name Coltrane changes. Coltrane tears through it like a man sprinting up a staircase that keeps moving; Flanagan's halting, stop-start solo is the sound of a pianist caught off guard. It became a jazz standard, and Vox later called it the most feared song in jazz.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.