Giant Steps
by John Coltrane
Listen & Collect
Complete your collection or upgrade your listening experience.
John Coltrane bestography
Giant Steps is ranked 3rd best out of 90 albums by John Coltrane on BestEverAlbums.com.
The best album by John Coltrane is A Love Supreme which is ranked number 76 in the list of all-time albums with a total rank score of 14,646.
(N.B. Bestographies include all albums by an artist (and their variations), but do not include albums ranked outside the top 100,000).
Listen to Giant Steps on YouTube
Giant Steps track list
The tracks on this album have an average rating of 84 out of 100 (all tracks have been rated).
Top-rated track as rated by BestEverAlbums.com members.
Giant Steps rankings
Calculated from aggregate positions across 60,000 charts (2 million album rankings). Click to see how the rankings are calculated (Last updated: 6 hours ago)
| Year | Source | Chart | Rank | Rank Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | mostlymor | Top 10 Music Albums of 1960 | 3/10 | 4 |
| 2026 | jdizzle123456 | Greatest Jazz Albums of All Time | 17/50 | - |
| 2026 | mikepen | Top 24 Music Albums of 1960 | 5/24 | 4 |
| 2026 | sweetness | Top 100 Music Albums of the 1960s | 7/100 | 19 |
| 2026 | Rivera | 801-900 | 66/100 | - |
| 2026 | Johnnyo | All that jazz (ish) | 61/77 | - |
| 2026 |  Larcx13 | Top 100 Music Albums of the 1960s | 19/100 | 16 |
| 2026 | matterhornrider | Top 22 Music Albums of 1960 | 3/22 | 5 |
| 2026 | jlsfourth | Top 60 Music Albums of the 1960s | 29/60 | 11 |
| 2026 |  Tamthebam | Best of The 60s Pt.2 (101-200) | 65/100 | - |
| Total Charts: The total number of charts that this album has appeared in. | 521 | |||
| Total Rank Score: The total rank score. | 3,561 | |||
Giant Steps collection
Showing latest 20 members who have this album in their collection | Show all 309 members
Giant Steps ratings
Average Rating = (n ÷ (n + m)) × av + (m ÷ (n + m)) × AVwhere:
av = trimmed mean average rating an item has currently received.
n = number of ratings an item has currently received.
m = minimum number of ratings required for an item to appear in a 'top-rated' chart (currently 10).
AV = the site mean average rating.
Showing latest 3 ratings for this album. | Show all 634 ratings for this album.
| Rating | Date updated | Member | Album ratings | Avg. album rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ! | 10/07/2026 21:49 | pharoahstune | 256 | 79/100 |
| ! | 09/26/2026 14:48 | bigferda | 33 | 81/100 |
| ! | 08/29/2026 23:25 | xhitmanx | 1,604 | 75/100 |
Rating metrics:
Outliers can be removed when calculating a mean average to dampen the effects of ratings outside the normal distribution. This figure is provided as the trimmed mean. A high standard deviation can be legitimate, but can sometimes indicate 'gaming' is occurring. Consider a simplified example* of an item receiving ratings of 100, 50, & 0. The mean average rating would be 50. However, ratings of 55, 50 & 45 could also result in the same average. The second average might be more trusted because there is more consensus around a particular rating (a lower deviation).
(*In practice, some albums can have several thousand ratings)
This album is rated in the top 1% of all albums on BestEverAlbums.com. This album has a Bayesian average rating of 83.0/100, a mean average of 82.5/100, and a trimmed mean (excluding outliers) of 83.1/100. The standard deviation for this album is 13.5.
Giant Steps favourites
Showing latest 10 members who have added this album as a favourite | Show all 114 members
Giant Steps forum mentions
Romanelli 10/14/2026 23:37 in The Romanelli Music Diary: Exciter
BestEverAlbums 10/02/2026 08:18 in Monthly overall chart movements - September 2026View latest topic →
neilgee 01/12/2026 08:17 in What album are you listening to? (cont.)View all forum mentions
Giant Steps comments
Top Comments First | Newest First | Positive Sentiment First | Longest Comments First
(Showing comments with any number of votes. Manage Profile)
Fantastic Jazz album, this is one record to listen to when you're starting to get into the genre! Great fast-paced pieces like the title track, Spiral, and Cousin Mary proves how Jazz doesn't always have to be very relaxing and slow (Nothing wrong with that though).
AAL2014 TOP 100 COMMENTER 09/12/2020 13:46 | #258099 | TOP COMMENT
Vote up your preferred comments and the comments with the most votes will be flagged.
Giant Steps wasn't much of a standout to me upon my first listen or two, but in the midst of a bit of a personal Coltrane renaissance, this record is coming out as a brand new work. Even in what could (and really should) be considered a more traditional jazz setting compared to the likes of the superb A Love Supreme, and especially to the boundaryless records like Om or Cosmic Music, we still see Coltrane breaking barriers, and performing with immaculate virtuosity and cleanliness along with a stellar non-classic quartet lineup.
If you're looking for masterful melodicism in crafty jazz music, it is hard to recommend something before Giant Steps, a beautiful piece and one of jazz music's most important albums.
jomth 02/11/2015 14:21 | #134715 | TOP COMMENT
Vote up your preferred comments and the comments with the most votes will be flagged.
This album came a little after Kind of Blue but Coltrane still managed to made it to be one of the best jazz record ever.
Ps.Naima will always be my favorite ballad jazz ever.
HoldenM TOP 100 COMMENTER 04/27/2017 06:25 | #189901 | TOP COMMENT
Vote up your preferred comments and the comments with the most votes will be flagged.
Whenever I play this at work, it makes everyone around me really happy. So, how could I ever hate an album like that?
souplipton 06/15/2016 02:49 | #168744 | TOP COMMENT
Vote up your preferred comments and the comments with the most votes will be flagged.
Giant Steps is probably the best album of bop music ever recorded. It swings and Coltrane goes full out on this album. The tile track is appropriately named, given the large jumps he makes from note to note. "Mr P.C." is also great, but "Naima" is the best work on the album. It's a very emotional track, and Coltrane lays his feeling bare with his sax.
The top-voted comments get featured on our charts, Album of the Day, and the site newsletter.
