On Friday at the IAJE Conference I attended a panel discussion entitled "Coltrane: New Insights." The panel consisted of David Liebman, Lewis Porter, David Demsey and Andy LaVerne. Porter has written a new book (which has gotten high praise) entitled "John Coltrane: His Life and Music" (U. of Michigan Press, Ann Arbor, $29.95). His research for the book provided most of the material for the discussion. My notes are not terribly well organized, but there were several interesting tidbits that I thought I'd share with you.

Porter: Started out by playing two passages from old music:

1)A "Jazz Pavane" written and performed by Morton Gould in the 1940's with a symphony orchestra. Interestingly, the "Pavane" is, note for note, Coltrane's "Impressions" (which came several years later). For some reason Coltrane never gave Gould the credit for having composed it.

2)A Hindu Chant from a Folkways record of the early 50's. Again, note for note, it is Coltrane's "India." The point here was not so much that Coltrane stole from others, but that he was open to every kind of music and listened to almost everything, taking things from other music forms and giving them jazz expression.

- Critics have sometimes wondered why "A Love Supreme" is so understated (nothing faster than a quarter note). The reason: it is a musical expression of a Muslim poem, translated word by word into music (Porter read the poem while he played the recording). At the very end, if you listen closely, there are 2 saxes for just a moment, one playing over another. Porter said this had never been noted before, and noone is quite sure whether the second sax is Coltrane (using two tracks) or someone else. In some ways it sounds like it may be an alto.

Demsey raised the question of what is it that makes "Giant Steps" such a magical and special song? His theory: Giant Steps is one of several songs Coltrane wrote which is not really written in any given key. It sometimes is seen as being in E-flat, since it ends on that note. But there is no root key to the song. It has 3 tonal centers in which it is equally rooted: G, B and E-flat. In other songs he has written in this fashion, the cycle of 3rds often is used to replace a II-V-I chord change. But in Giant Steps this is not the case. The cycle of 3rds is pure. That, suggests Demsey, is what gives Giant Steps its special sound.

He went on to say that 3rds were used a lot in the popular songs of the 40's thru 60's (e.g. many Rogers and Hart songs). But there is only one popular song that has a complete cycle of 3rds, and that is the bridge to "Have You Met Miss Jones." Coltrane doubtless knew that tune and may have gotten the idea for the Giant Steps cycle from it.

Coltrane was trained in classical harmonic theory. He relied heavily on a book given him by Barry Harris in the 50's: "Thesaurus of Scales and Melodic Patterns" By Nicolas Slunimsky. Slunimsky talked about a "ditone progressions pattern." This pattern is found in the last 8 measures of Giant Steps.

David Liebman added that the first time Tommy Flanagan played Giant Steps he could only improvise with two-handed chord progressions. He had expected it to be slow, but Coltrane counted it off at a very fast tempo, fooling Flanagan (who was sight-reading it for the first time) -- and this was in a recording session! He also pointed out that you can play a II-V-I progression over the 1st two measures of Giant Steps, and it works very well.

Liebman pointed out that Giant Steps (so complex) and Kind of Blue (so simple) were created within weeks of each other, which illustrates the diversity and flexibility of Coltrane. When asked whether he might ever run out of compositional ideas, Coltrane quoted Slunimsky who said, "There are 479 million combinations possible within the 12-note scale."

Finally, Andy LaVerne said that Coltrane's late music, the last five years, gets unfair bad press. Much of his late music sounded at times like cacophony, very free form. Some of his later gigs would consist of one 90-minute piece, with no distinction between songs, keys, forms, etc. Andy suggested this does not reflect a deterioration but rather an attempt to move "to the next plane." And while it sounds chaotic in some ways it was very co-operative: like an avant garde dixieland, with everyone soloing together.

Also out of this late period came "Meditations", which are extremely diatonic, when you look at the written melodies. So one should look at this late period with less of a critical eye and more of an attempt of what Coltrane was trying to achieve.

In conclusion everyone on the panel agreed that Coltrane was one of the true jazz geniuses of our time and that we will still be learning from him for many years to come.