I used to do my best to play many of the tunes Coltrane did. Never near as good as him, and when it came to Giant Steps, there was just no way. I kept trying as long as I played.

We should not forget “playing outside the changes,” or “playing out,” for short.

This concept was pioneered back in the 1950s and ’60s by innovative jazz legends John Coltrane, Thelonious Monk and others.