Harmonic and Rhythmic Oppositions in Jazz: The Special Case of John Coltrane and His Classic Quartet

ABSTRACT The body of work produced by John Coltrane's Classic Quartet is notable for its rhetorical language of tension and release among the band members and Coltrane's transcendent playing, seemingly free of the underlying substructure. This paper examines selected historic recordings, culminating with an analysis of two paradigmatic recordings by John Coltrane's Classic Quartet: “Miles’ Mode” (Coltrane, 1962) and “Pursuance” (A Love Supreme, 1964). The paper argues that there are four important ways that Coltrane's Quartet creates tensions that distinguish it from the way tensions were created by its predecessors, resulting in longer, more complex, and more abstract oppositions. To contextualize those oppositions of Coltrane's Quartet, the paper cites historical examples that challenge an underlying harmonic or metrical substructure. Coltrane's quartet uses enhanced techniques of harmonic and temporal displacements that reveal how multiple players can create the effect of freedom experienced by listeners.