This article claims that Moment's Notice and Lazy Bird are the first recorded instances of Trane's compositions that feature the concept of "Coltrane Changes", which is, as I understand the theory behind it, thoroughly incorrect. These tunes, while they are chromatic, do not feature the cyclical major thirds movement that characterizes the Coltrane cycle, and is seen evidently in tunes like Countdown or Giant Steps, or even lesser tunes like Satellite and 26-2. The Coltrane cycle is specifically defined by cycling through keys related by precisely a major third, creating an augmented triad when the root of the key centers are stacked. This major third relationship is critical for Trane's thinking at this period, referring the the trinity in terms of the divine concepts he was interested in, etc etc.
If we look at Lazy Bird, we see that while chromaticism abounds, we are hard pressed to find cycles related by a major third. The closest we will find is in the A sections, where the first bar's "| A-7 D7 | " can be related to bar 3 -5's |F-7 | Bb7 |Ebmaj7 |, with a quick ii-V back to Gmaj. While this is a maj 3rd movement, it is not a complete cycle in the sense of the cycles we see in tunes like Giant Steps or Satellite.
Moment's notice is even a harder case to make as an instance of the cycle. There are indeed keys of the moment related by major thirds: bar 1 is a ii-V in D major, which we can contrast against bar 4's ii-V in Gb major. Bar 5 and 8 are a ii-V in C major (I'm assuming major here, as there are no written alterations on the ii-V that would indicate a minor key until the band actually plays a Cmin in bar 9) which would contrast with the Ab major in bar 11. It is much more accurate to characterize this ii-V's as chromatic approach in most scenarios in Moment's Notice, and not the cyclical patterns found later in Giant Steps.
The only song pre-Coltrane that I am aware of that feature this kind of major thirds cycle pre-Coltrane is Rodgers and Hart's Have You Met Miss Jones, which features *almost* this cyclical modulation on the bridge of the piece:
|Bbmaj7 |Ab-7 Db7 |Gbmaj7 |E-7 A7|Dmaj7 |Ab-7 Db7|Gmaj7 |G-7 C7|
Had R/H modulated to Bb major in bars 6 & 7 of this bridge of this piece, it would be identical to the sort of cycle Coltrane made famous on his Giant Steps recordings.
I would urge the editors of this article to update the section "1955–1957: Miles and Monk period" to correct this inaccuracy and prevent confusion over what this cycle actually is.
For sources, I am referring to personal copies of the Hal Leonard Real Book, as well as personal transcriptions of these pieces. I am happy to find available sources to cite to back up my claims further.
Avansuetendael (talk) 18:03, 27 November 2019 (UTC)
A.J. VanSuetendael, 11/27/19
level-4 vital article is rated B-class on Wikipedia's content assessment scale.
