Nicolas Slonimsky
Thesaurus of Scales and Melodic Patterns
Reviewed
Nicolas Slonimsky, a Russian composer, musicologist, and lexicographer who emigrated to the U.S., had a tremendous influence on the development of modern Jazz. More specifically, he influenced John Coltrane's harmonic concepts. In turn, Coltrane influenced Miles Davis (who as usual took all credit of the innovations for himself).
This system is based on the symmetrical properties of the 12 tone tempered system. It can be seen in different ways: as scales for study on any instrument (examples are written for piano, but can be easily transposed to any instrument), as scales to improvise on, and more interestingly, as a system of symmetrical distributions of tones with far reaching harmonic implications -as Trane and Miles used it.
Together with George Russel's Lydian Chromatic Concept of Tonal Organization, this seminal book laid the foundations for a modern, post be-bop Jazz vocabulary.
Highly recommendable.
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