Songs from 1959 to 1961
John Coltrane
John Coltrane wrote these five tunes between 1959 and 1961: Giant Steps, Naima, Mr. P.C., Impressions and Equinox. Naima is named for his wife at the time and Mr. P.C. for his bassist Paul Chambers. This page follows each one from his own records, studio and live, through players on guitar, flute, organ and voice, to Joel Ross's 2022 recording.
Through the years
- 1950s
Coltrane writes Giant Steps, Naima and Mr. P.C. in 1959. He records Giant Steps twice, in March with Cedar Walton on piano and in May with Tommy Flanagan, and Naima in December with Wynton Kelly. Miles Davis's Kind of Blue, from March 1959, is the model for Impressions, which comes two years later.
- 1960s
Coltrane writes Equinox and Impressions and takes the tunes on stage. He plays Impressions at the Village Vanguard in 1961, Mr. P.C. for nineteen minutes in Graz in 1962, and Naima for just over eight in Berlin in 1963. Lambert, Hendricks & Ross sing Mr. P.C., Archie Shepp plays Naima, and Wes Montgomery plays Impressions in 1965.
John Coltrane Equinox · 1960John Coltrane Impressions · 1961Lambert, Hendricks & Ross with the Ike Isaacs Trio Mr. P.C. · 1961John Coltrane Quartet Mr. P.C. · 1962John Coltrane Impressions · 1963John Coltrane Quartet Naima · 1963Archie Shepp Naima · 1964Wes Montgomery with the Wynton Kelly Trio Impressions · 1965 - 1970s
The tunes move into new settings. Hubert Laws plays Equinox on flute with strings in 1971, McCoy Tyner plays Naima alone in Tokyo in 1972, and Woody Herman's band records the first big band arrangement of Giant Steps in 1973. Pat Martino opens a 1974 album with Impressions, backed by electric piano and electric bass, and Archie Shepp and Max Roach play Giant Steps as a duo in 1979.
- 1980s
In 1982 Tommy Flanagan, who played piano on Coltrane's 1959 Giant Steps sessions, records a Coltrane tribute with George Mraz on bass and Al Foster on drums. His trio plays Giant Steps, Mr. P.C. and Naima that year. In 1985 Meredith d'Ambrosio sings Giant Steps with her own lyric.
- 1990s
McCoy Tyner, Coltrane's quartet pianist, plays Mr. P.C. as a duo with violinist Stéphane Grappelli in 1990 and Impressions in 1995 with Michael Brecker, who wins a Grammy for it. Gonzalo Rubalcaba plays Giant Steps as a piano trio with no horn in 1991, Gil Scott-Heron records Equinox in 1993, and the Derek Trucks Band includes Mr. P.C. on its 1996 debut.
- 2000s
At a 2001 Massey Hall concert, Herbie Hancock, Michael Brecker and Roy Hargrove play So What and Impressions as one piece, and Brecker plays Naima on tenor saxophone. Karrin Allyson sings Naima without words, Paquito D'Rivera ends his Funk Tango album with Giant Steps, and Dave Liebman and Joe Lovano play Equinox in 2007, forty years after Coltrane's death.
- 2010s
Giant Steps is the tune that returns. Pianist Joey Alexander records it in 2014 for his first album, and his version is nominated for a Grammy for Best Improvised Jazz Solo. In 2017 Camille Bertault sings French words she wrote to Coltrane's solo, on an album titled Pas de géant, French for Giant Steps. Guitarist Dave Stryker features Chris Potter on Impressions in 2015.
- 2020s
Joel Ross records Equinox in September 2022 for his Blue Note album nublues, released in 2024. The album gathers blues and ballads, and Equinox, which Coltrane's quartet first recorded in October 1960, is one of three standards by Monk and Coltrane on it.