Modal jazz

Though exerting influence to the present, modal jazz was most popular in the 1950s and 1960s, as evidenced by the success of Miles Davis's 1958 composition "Milestones" and 1959 album Kind of Blue, and John Coltrane's quartet from 1960 to 1965.

Other performers of modal jazz include Chick Corea, Bill Evans, Herbie Hancock, Joe Henderson, Bobby Hutcherson, Pharoah Sanders, Woody Shaw, Wayne Shorter, McCoy Tyner, and Larry Young.

[3] Sun Ra reportedly rehearsed a small group consisting of Harold Ousley, Vernel Fournier, and Wilbur Ware in 1950 that played original songs that were modal in which the melody was based on a single chord or vamp – ten years before this approach became popular in jazz.

Coltrane took the lead in extensively exploring the limits of modal improvisation and composition with his quartet, featuring Elvin Jones (drums), McCoy Tyner (piano), and Reggie Workman and Jimmy Garrison (bass).

Coltrane's compositions from this period such as "India", "Chasin' the Trane", "Crescent", and "Impressions" have entered the jazz repertoire, along with his interpretations of standards like Richard Rodgers's "My Favorite Things", and the traditional "Greensleeves".