I’ve been working on playing over the changes to these tunes, along with other harmonically complex standards from the hard bop era. After playing the two back to back I noticed some similarities. Benny Golson, a Philly saxophonist wrote Stablemates in 1955. Coltrane, who was a Philly saxophonist for part of his life (Cousin Mary lived in W. Philly) composed Moment’s Notice a few years later. Both songs are a bit like harmonic obstacle courses. They sharpen your ability to quickly navigate through many keys.
Stablemates has chromatic ii-V’s s a half step above the main cadence, while Moment’s Notice has chromatic ii-V’s a half step below. For example, Stablemates opens with an Em7 to A7, followed by a ii-V-I to Db (Ebm7 – Ab7 – Dbmaj7). Moment’s Notice opens with a Em7-A7 followed by a ii-V-I to Eb (Fm7-Bb7-Ebmaj7). Both employ a similar concept of inserting a chromatic ii-V just before the main cadence.
I think the general idea of both was to create more challenging songs that built off the foundation of Tin Pan Alley standards. Both saxophonists had spent years improvising on the existing Jazz Standards that generally consisted of 32 bars and used ii-V-I’s to navigate key changes. Why not take those building blocks and make something new, more elevated, and more unique? And maybe leave your fellow musical competitors behind in the dust.
I would guess that Coltrane took notice of Golson’s approach in Stablemates and was inspired to adopt that concept to his own evolving vision. These standards are difficult and along with the other “Coltrane Changes” songs such as “Giant Steps” represent the apex of harmonic innovation within the format of jazz standards.
