Countdown (John Coltrane song)

"Countdown" is a hardbop jazz standard composed by American jazz saxophonist John Coltrane that was first featured on his fifth studio album, Giant Steps, in 1960. The song is a contrafact of Miles Davis's "Tune Up", which is reharmonized to the Coltrane changes. The original recording has been described as having "resolute intensity . . . [that] does more to modernize jazz in 141 seconds than many artists do in their entire careers".

Composition
The song is a 16-bar form. Each four bars incorporates the same tonal centers of "Tune Up", which are D major, C major, and B♭ major.

Each tonal center begins with the ii chord but then cycles through two different keys before arriving at the I chord. The ii chord is followed by a dominant 7 chord that is a half step above—using the first four bars as an example, this would be Em7 and F7. This dominant 7 chord resolves in a V-I manner—F7 to B♭Δ7. The next key center is cycled to by playing the dominant 7th chord a minor third up from the last key center—D♭7 to G♭Δ7 to A7 to DΔ7. The next four bars, and new key, starts by making the I chord the ii of the next key.

Notable recordings

 * John Coltrane in Giant Steps (1960)
 * Benny Green Quintet in Prelude (1989)
 * Billy Harper in Live on Tour in the Far East (1991)
 * Brad Mehldau in Introducing Brad Mehldau (1995)
 * Allan Holdsworth in None Too Soon (1996)
 * Kenny Garrett in Pursuance: The Music of John Coltrane (1996)
 * Steve Kuhn in Countdown (1998)
 * Brad Mehldau Trio in Brad Mehldau Trio Live (2008)
 * Victor Bailey in Slippin' N' Trippin' (2009)
 * Joey Alexander in Countdown (2016)
 * Simon Moullier Trio in Countdown (2020)
 * Michael Sagmeister in Story Board (2021)