1982 · Album
Giant Steps (In Memory of John Coltrane)
Recorded 1982 · Timeless · Produced by Not specified
Flanagan's Trio Speaks Coltrane's Language
Coltrane's music, but it drinks of its own spirit—Flanagan remakes these standards as intimate conversation.
Tommy Flanagan recorded Giant Steps (In Memory of John Coltrane) (1982) as a trio date with George Mraz on bass and Al Foster on drums, and the sound is lean, bright, and conversational. There's no weight of strings or horns here—just three musicians working closely together, the piano sharp and articulate, the rhythm section tight but never intrusive. Flanagan's touch is elegant but unsentimental; he moves through Coltrane's compositions with clarity and invention, treating these pieces as starting points rather than monuments.
What makes this album stand apart from other Coltrane tributes is its refusal to imitate or genuflect. Flanagan doesn't chase the saxophonist's sheets of sound or modal ambition. Instead, he finds the songs underneath—the harmonic logic, the structural integrity—and rebuilds them from the piano's perspective. Each track breathes differently; the tempos aren't hurried, and there's real space between the voices. Mraz and Foster respond with sensitivity, never overselling the moment. AllMusic reviewer Bob Rusch described it as "particularly inventive; it was Coltrane's music, but it drinks of its own spirit," and that captures it exactly. The Penguin Guide to Jazz later called it "one of the finest piano-trio albums of the last 20 years," a claim that holds up.
This is a pianist at ease with his materials and his bandmates, making a record that honors Coltrane without drowning in reverence. It's a solid addition to Flanagan's catalog—not his most celebrated work, but a reminder that he was a musician of real taste and restraint.
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