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60 GIANT STEPS

A COSMIC REIMAGINING
OF JOHN COLTRANE BY GODTET




Celebrating the 60th anniversary of John Coltrane’s revolutionary composition ‘Giant Steps’, Sydney’s own psychedelic jazz explorers GODTET expanded the original’s four minute blast of hyper-speed virtuosity into a 40 minute meditation on Coltrane’s creativity, spirituality, and how our perceptions of identity, time and place have changed in the face of the pandemic. 

- THE IDEA


A bespoke live-streamed performance commissioned exclusively for Sydney Opera House, featuring specially created visuals by illustrator Christopher Cooper and animator Swicked, 60 Giant Steps unravels the mythical status that Coltrane’s opus gained upon release in 1960. A babel-like structure of rapid fire key changes that pushed the Circle of Fifths music theory to extreme lengths, 60 years on ‘Giant Steps’ maintains its reputation as the most revered and feared piece to play in the canon of jazz.



WHAT WE DID AND HOW WE DID IT
Instead of my usual preamble, here is the framework that I made to empower the artists to create their best work together in a first time collaboration - the band Godtet, illustrator Christopher Cooper, and animator Swicked. Through switching between my curator, producer, director, and copywriting hats, I like to think that I’m good at shutting up when I need to and give people room to move... So here is my brain on paper, with smiley collaborators to prove it!



...I’M ALSO HAPPY TO SAY
THIS WAS THE SEED FOR MORE COLLABS
ON RECORD COVERS AND LIVE SHOW VISUALS...



END CREDITS
Godtet
Christopher Cooper
Swicked
Josh Milch
Created, Directed, & Produced by WHPY
Photography by Pru Upton & Dan Boud 
Mark