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Modal Comping & Soloing

When someone describes a jazz tune as being “modal,” the composition probably has slow harmonic rhythms, which is to say, chords that change only every eight bars or so. One of the classic examples of this approach to jazz composition and improvisation is the all-time best selling jazz recording from 1959, Kind of Blue, by Miles Davis. Many of the tunes on this recording have slow harmonic rhythms, and the players improvise in a modal style; which means they generally stick to the notes of one particular scale that corresponds with the chord. The ultimate modal tune is “So What,” the melody of which features Paul Chambers on bass, and the form of which consists of only two minor seventh chords: eight bars of Dm7, four bars of Ebm7, followed by another four bars of Dm7.

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.