Bill Evans was the pianist on this recording,
and one of the pioneers of modal
improvisation; his chord voicings from this
album are used by practically every jazz
pianist. Also on the record date was saxophonist
John Coltrane, who took the modal
concept and ran with it for years. A couple of
years later, he recorded a tune using “So
What” changes, titled “Impressions.” What’s
more, it was in the Coltrane quartet where
pianist McCoy Tyner came up with a strategy
to accompany Trane’s modal excursions, and
formulated the idea of voicing chords in
fourths, known as quartal voicings. Let’s
explore these voicings and improvisational
ideas in Examples 1 and 2.