Songs from 1958 to 1966, followed to now
Modal and post-bop through the years
Most of these tunes start with Miles Davis's Kind of Blue in 1959 and John Coltrane's records of 1959 and 1960. So What spends 16 on one sound, 8 bars slightly higher, then 8 bars home, and Coltrane and McCoy Tyner solo over just two in My Favorite Things. Herbie Hancock and Wayne Shorter, who played in Davis's quintet, add tunes of their own in the mid-1960s. From there the page follows these songs into trios, big bands, singers and hip-hop.
Through the years
- 1950s
Davis writes Nardis for Cannonball Adderley's 1958 session, with Bill Evans on piano. In 1959 he records So What, All Blues, Freddie Freeloader and Blue in Green for Kind of Blue, and Evans's own trio records Blue in Green later that year. Coltrane records Giant Steps in March and May and Naima in December. The Sound of Music opens in November with My Favorite Things, sung by Mary Martin and Patricia Neway.
- 1960s
Coltrane records Equinox and plays Impressions, Naima and My Favorite Things live, stretching the last to about twenty minutes. Davis's quintet takes So What and All Blues much faster. Hancock records Cantaloupe Island, Dolphin Dance and Maiden Voyage, and Shorter Footprints and Speak No Evil. Wes Montgomery, Grant Green, Archie Shepp, Bobby Hutcherson and Ramsey Lewis cover them, and Eddie Jefferson adds words to So What.
John Coltrane Equinox · 1960John Coltrane My Favorite Things · 1960Miles Davis Quintet So What · 1960John Coltrane Impressions · 1961Bill Evans Trio Nardis · 1961George Russell Sextet Nardis · 1961John Coltrane So What · 1961Oscar Brown, Jr. All Blues · 196329 more
Wes Montgomery Trio Freddie Freeloader · 1963John Coltrane Impressions · 1963John Coltrane Quartet My Favorite Things · 1963John Coltrane Quartet Naima · 1963Miles Davis Quintet All Blues · 1964Herbie Hancock Cantaloupe Island · 1964Donald Byrd Cantaloupe Island · 1964Grant Green My Favorite Things · 1964Archie Shepp Naima · 1964Miles Davis Quintet So What · 1964Wayne Shorter Speak No Evil · 1964Herbie Hancock Dolphin Dance · 1965Gerald Wilson Orchestra Freddie Freeloader · 1965Wes Montgomery with the Wynton Kelly Trio Impressions · 1965Herbie Hancock Maiden Voyage · 1965The Dave Brubeck Quartet My Favorite Things · 1965Wayne Shorter Footprints · 1966Miles Davis Quintet Footprints · 1966Bobby Hutcherson Maiden Voyage · 1966John Coltrane My Favorite Things · 1966John Coltrane Naima · 1966Bill Evans Trio Blue in Green · 1967Miles Davis Quintet Footprints · 1967Denny Zeitlin Maiden Voyage · 1967Joe Henderson Sextet Nardis · 1967Ramsey Lewis Maiden Voyage · 1968Bill Evans Trio Nardis · 1968Eddie Jefferson So What · 1968Jean-Luc Ponty Cantaloupe Island · 1969 - 1970s
Players take the tunes apart. McCoy Tyner plays Naima and My Favorite Things alone at the piano in Tokyo in 1972, and Hancock plays Cantaloupe Island, Dolphin Dance and Maiden Voyage alone there in 1974. Hubert Laws plays Equinox on flute with strings, George Benson opens a CTI album with So What, and Archie Shepp and Max Roach play Giant Steps as a duo with no piano or bass.
Ahmad Jamal Trio Dolphin Dance · 1970Grant Green Maiden Voyage · 1970John McLaughlin Blue in Green · 1971Hubert Laws Equinox · 1971George Benson So What · 1971Pat Martino Footprints · 1972McCoy Tyner My Favorite Things · 1972McCoy Tyner Naima · 197217 more
Ron Carter All Blues · 1973Herbie Hancock Cantaloupe Island · 1974Herbie Hancock Dolphin Dance · 1974Pat Martino Impressions · 1974Herbie Hancock Maiden Voyage · 1974Bill Evans Trio So What · 1974Mark Murphy Cantaloupe Island · 1975Dexter Gordon Quartet Freddie Freeloader · 1975McCoy Tyner Impressions · 1975Herbie Hancock Cantaloupe Island · 1976Grover Washington Jr. Dolphin Dance · 1976Herbie Hancock Maiden Voyage · 1976The Great Jazz Trio All Blues · 1977Bill Evans Trio Dolphin Dance · 1977Ron Carter, Herbie Hancock and Tony Williams Dolphin Dance · 1977Bill Evans Freddie Freeloader · 1977Max Roach and Archie Shepp Giant Steps · 1979 - 1980s
Tommy Flanagan, who played on Coltrane's Giant Steps, records it and Naima with his own trio in 1982 on an album for Coltrane. Cassandra Wilson sings her own words to Blue in Green in 1985, and Charlie Haden plays it twice. Bill Evans plays Nardis at Keystone Korner in September 1980 and dies on September 15, and Jimmy Raney and his son Doug name an album for it in 1983.
- 1990s
The tunes reach hip-hop and acid jazz. Us3 builds a Blue Note single on a sample of Cantaloupe Island in 1992, the year DJs spread Ronny Jordan's So What. Hancock, Shorter, Carter and Williams play So What live in Berkeley with Wallace Roney. Michael Brecker wins a 1996 Grammy for Impressions with McCoy Tyner's trio, and Pat Metheny's trio and Gonzalo Rubalcaba play Giant Steps.
Gonzalo Rubalcaba Giant Steps · 1991Herbie Hancock Quintet So What · 1992Gil Scott-Heron Equinox · 1993McCoy Tyner Trio featuring Michael Brecker Impressions · 1995Ray Brown Trio Freddie Freeloader · 1996World Saxophone Quartet featuring Jack DeJohnette All Blues · 1998Pat Metheny Trio Giant Steps · 1999 - 2000s
Shorter plays Footprints live in 2001 with his own quartet, about 35 years after the first recording. At Massey Hall Hancock, Michael Brecker and Roy Hargrove join So What and Impressions into one piece. George Coleman, Jimmy Cobb, Mike Stern and Ron Carter play Freddie Freeloader at Makor in 2002. Robert Glasper's trio adds Bilal's voice to Maiden Voyage, and Brad Mehldau plays My Favorite Things alone in 2006.
Pat Martino All Blues · 2000Karrin Allyson Naima · 2000Wayne Shorter Quartet Footprints · 2001Herbie Hancock, Michael Brecker & Roy Hargrove Impressions · 2001Michael Brecker Naima · 2001George Coleman, Jimmy Cobb, Mike Stern, Ron Carter Freddie Freeloader · 2002Robert Glasper Trio Maiden Voyage · 2002Jacky Terrasson Nardis · 2002 - 2010s
Joey Alexander records Giant Steps in 2014 for his first album, and Camille Bertault sings French words she wrote to Coltrane's solo. Denny Zeitlin plays Speak No Evil alone, and the WDR Big Band and Antonio Adolfo arrange it. The SFJAZZ Collective plays All Blues as an octet, Jack DeJohnette, Ravi Coltrane and Matthew Garrison add electronics to Blue in Green, and Lionel Loueke plays Cantaloupe Island alone on guitar and voice.
Joey Alexander Giant Steps · 2014Denny Zeitlin Speak No Evil · 2014Jack DeJohnette, Ravi Coltrane and Matthew Garrison Blue in Green · 2015SFJAZZ Collective All Blues · 2016WDR Big Band Speak No Evil · 2016Antonio Adolfo Speak No Evil · 2016Camille Bertault Giant Steps · 2017Chris Greene Quartet Speak No Evil · 2018 - 2020s
Ezra Collective, a London quintet, reworks Footprints in 2020 for Blue Note Re:imagined, moving between post-bop, funk, hip-hop and Afrobeat. Joel Ross records Equinox in 2022 for his Blue Note album nublues. Michael Schiefel and David Friedman play Dolphin Dance as a duo for voice and vibraphone, and the WDR Big Band plays it live under Bob Mintzer in June 2026.
The tunes
- NardisMiles Davis, 1958
- All BluesMiles Davis, 1959
- Blue in GreenMiles Davis (credited), Bill Evans (claimed), 1959
- Freddie FreeloaderMiles Davis, 1959
- Giant StepsJohn Coltrane, 1959
- My Favorite ThingsRodgers/Hammerstein, 1959
- NaimaJohn Coltrane, 1959
- So WhatMiles Davis, 1959
- EquinoxJohn Coltrane, 1960
- ImpressionsJohn Coltrane, 1961
- Cantaloupe IslandHerbie Hancock, 1964
- Speak No EvilWayne Shorter, 1964
- Dolphin DanceHerbie Hancock, 1965
- Maiden VoyageHerbie Hancock, 1965
- FootprintsWayne Shorter, 1966