Coltrane changes
These substitution patterns were first demonstrated by jazz musician John Coltrane on the albums Bags & Trane (on the track "Three Little Words") and Cannonball Adderley Quintet in Chicago (on "Limehouse Blues").
[citation needed] David Demsey, saxophonist and coordinator of jazz studies at William Paterson University, cites a number of influences leading to Coltrane's development of these changes.
After Coltrane's death it was proposed that his "preoccupation with...chromatic third-relations" was inspired by religion or spirituality, with three equal key areas having numerological significance representing a "magic triangle", or, "the trinity, God, or unity.
Mention should be made of his interests in Indian ragas during the early 1960s, the Trimurti of Vishnu, Brahma and Shiva may well have been an inherent reference in his chromatic third relations, tritone substitutes, and so on.
[4] In terms of the origin of this “sheets of sound” technique, saxophonist Odean Pope considers pianist Hasaan Ibn Ali a major influence on Coltrane and his development of this signature style.
A series of similar-sounding chord changes occurs in "Ondine", the first movement of Maurice Ravel's 1908 piano suite Gaspard de la nuit.
[citation needed] The chord changes are relatively simple, a straightforward application of the ii–V–I progression, which is extremely common in jazz.
Ascending/descending ii–V–I progression separated by a major third (tonal centers E♭, G, B, E♭, B) This table shows which scales are used for the different chords: Although "Giant Steps" and "Countdown" are perhaps the most famous examples, both use slight variants of the standard Coltrane changes (the first eight bars of "Giant Steps" use a shortened version that does not return to I, and in "Countdown" the progression begins on ii7 each time).
the standard substitution is implied over an ostinato bass pattern with no chordal instrument instructed to play the chord changes.
When Coltrane's improvisation superimposes this progression over the ostinato bass, it is easy to hear how he used this concept for his freer playing in later years.
