I usually do my nonstop listening of The Heavyweight Champion: The Complete Atlantic Recordings of John Coltrane on September 23 (duh, Coltrane's birthday).  While it might seem like a self-imposed annual ritual of sort, it's really more like a superb excuse to shower myself with those less-familiar alternate takes of Coltrane's Giant Steps and daydream about that Trane's masterpiece would eventually become the number-one-hit on that jolly elevator-music-top-100-chart.  This year, though, I bowed to Coltrane's improvisational mastery one month earlier, as my friend Miss Q (for some strange reasons that only smoothie-loving girls with fabulous pianistic techniques could possibly understand) has decided to include that majestic box-set in her "Music for Swimming Pools" music compilation for our annual pool-party.

Believe me, it's really not the most elegant way to swim --- syncing with Coltrane's Countdown while 110 Heat-Index repeatedly whining about your pale skin tone and weak swimming strokes. Ouch!

"The Bebop Lick" (Example 1), that 1-7-b7-2-6-5 pattern mentioned in a previous post "Charlie Parker's Nickname & Bebop Lick", kept whirling around the pool like those scary-sharky props from Steven Spielberg's Jaws.  I heard some screams (no-worries. just those imaginary-helpless-swimmers). Abandoned the pool. CPR someone (imaginary-helpless-victim). Yelled at Miss Q (when she can't actually hear me, of course). Grabbed a toy-lightsaber for self-protection while helplessly studying those monstrous creations known as "The Bebop Licks".

Example 1. The linear construction of motive M.4A(b), aka "The Bebop Lick".

You can play a shoestring if you're sincere.

- John Coltrane -

There are few categorizable variations --- Pattern A, Pattern B-1, and Pattern B-2 --- as to tenor saxophonist John Coltrane's treatments of "The Bebop Lick" when outlining his Coltrane Changes in those legendary master and alternate takes of Countdown and Giant Steps.  Similar to Charlie Parker's employment of this motive, Coltrane utilizes "The Bebop Lick" as the linear unfolding of dominant seventh chords,  accentuating the root and the flat-seventh of the chord in downbeats.  In the context of Coltrane Change lines, however, Coltrane opts to slightly modify the motive during the progression of the Three-Tonic V7-I cadence chain.  Instead of the descending scalar guild-line found in the original "Bebop Lick", Coltrane maintains the pitch level by returning to the fifth of the major tonic triad of the V7-I cadence as Pattern A (Example 2).  Pattern A is the most common employment of "The Bebop Lick" in Coltrane Changes lines.  The employment of the partial "Bebop Lick" is consistently followed by the  5-3-2-1 pattern to outline the major tonic triad as a notable part of his Countdown-Giant Steps vocabulary (simply put, they are an item).  Occasionally, the Pattern A is found in situations when temporarily breaking the linear continuation of Coltrane Changes lines is desired.  In those occurrences, Coltrane favors breaking the line with 5-3 of the major tonic triad (Example 3).

Example 2. John Coltrane’s employment of “The Bebop Lick” in his Giant Steps and Countdown, Pattern A.

Example 3. John Coltrane’s employment of “Bebop Lick” in his Giant Steps and Countdown, Pattern A to break linear continuance.

The Pattern B-1, while employed less frequently by Coltrane, features a modified version of "The Bebop Lick" and an interesting superimposed harmonic outline in the place of the major tonic triad (Example 4).  Instead of the usual 1-7-b7-2 pattern, this modified version of "The Bebop Lick" contains 1-7-b7-1 pattern, while maintaining the descending scalar line to reach the pitch E (the third of the C major triad).  The 3-2-1-6 pattern in the place of the major tonic triad effectively produces the characteristic of the A minor triad, implying a superimposed linear unfolding of V-vi deceptive cadence (It's a pretty neat linear effect popping out of the static chain of the standard V7-I linear patterns!).  Similar to the Pattern A, this pattern can also be spotted in situations of temporary breaks of continuous lines and Coltrane prefers to break and end on the third of the tonic triad (Example 5).

Example 4. John Coltrane’s employment of “The Bebop Lick” in his Giant Steps and Countdown, Pattern B-1.

Example 5. John Coltrane’s employment of “Bebop Lick” in his Giant Steps and Countdown, Pattern B-1 to break linear continuance.

The Pattern B-2, sharing the same modification of "The Bebop Lick" as Pattern B-1, introduces a contrasting arpeggio pattern of 3-5-1-3 to outline the major tonic triad in the V7-I cadence sequence (Example 6).  This pattern, while employed sparklingly in Coltrane's Countdown and Giant Steps, is an excellent pattern to upsurge the linear level and motivic direction in Coltrane Changes lines.

Example 6. John Coltrane’s employment of “Bebop Lick” in his Giant Steps and Countdown, Pattern B-2.

Here are some classic examples of Coltrane's treatments of "The Bebop Lick" in his Coltrane Changes lines (Example 7).  The Pattern B-3, notated at the end of the example, showcases one of Coltrane's favorite linear treatments of the concluding major tonic triad right after "The Bebop Lick" at the end of the Coltrane Changes lines.  More examples of Coltrane Changes lines can be located at "Chromatic Transposition of II-V-I Coltrane Lines", which contains some decorative Bebop figures such as the Inverted Mordent (less "classic", I guess...since Coltrane doesn't use lots of inverted mordents to decorate his Coltrane Changes lines in Countdown and Giant Steps).

Example 7. Examples of Coltrane Changes lines with employments of "Bebop Lick" patterns.

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