John Coltrane
Tenor Sax Solo on
Oleo

About

John Coltrane's tenor sax solo is the second of four solos on this recording, following Miles Davis on trumpet. Spanning four choruses of the 32-bar AABA form in B♭ at a blazing 267 BPM with a swing feel, Coltrane follows with four intense tenor saxophone choruses that demonstrate his growing command of the instrument, his sheets-of-sound approach beginning to emerge in rapid-fire passages through the changes. "Oleo" is a contrafact built on the chord changes of "I Got Rhythm," requiring the soloist to navigate a familiar harmonic framework with a different melodic identity.

John Coltrane was 29 to 30 years old at the time.