"Cousin Mary" from John Coltrane's 1959 Giant Steps album is a medium-tempo blues dedicated to the saxophonist's cousin Mary Lyerly Alexander. The 12-bar form in A-flat provides a more accessible blowing vehicle than the album's title track, but Coltrane's ten-chorus tenor saxophone solo at 222 BPM reveals his blues mastery alongside his harmonic innovations. His improvisation builds with the patient intensity that would become his hallmark, beginning with relatively simple melodic statements and gradually increasing in rhythmic and harmonic complexity. Tommy Flanagan follows with seven accomplished piano choruses that demonstrate his considerable bebop credentials. Paul Chambers rounds out the solo section with three choruses of acoustic bass that showcase his remarkable facility on the instrument. The track demonstrates Coltrane's ability to bring the same level of intensity and invention to the blues form that he applied to more harmonically complex vehicles. The composition's deceptively simple structure belies the sophisticated approach Coltrane takes to improvisation, finding endless melodic possibilities within the conventional 12-bar framework.
