Tommy Flanagan
Piano Solo on
Freight Trane

About

Taking the 2nd solo, this piano improvisation spans five choruses of the 12-bar blues at an uptempo swing feel at 234 BPM. The underlying chord progression is drawn from "Blues For Alice," making this a contrafact—a new melody composed over borrowed changes. The tune itself was written by pianist Tommy Flanagan as a tribute to Coltrane, built on a Bird Blues chord progression (similar to Charlie Parker's "Blues for Alice") and taken at a brisk, driving tempo. Situated between Kenny Burrell's electric guitar solo and Paul Chambers's turn on acoustic bass, it occupies a pivotal spot in the arrangement.

Tommy Flanagan was 27 to 28 years old at the time.