I would have to include Wayne Shorter's FootPrints, John Coltrane's Impressions and Herbie Hancock's Maiden Voyage in this list as supreme examples of landmark modal tunes. These are the kinds of tunes that everyone has played and have managed to do incredible substitutions on, as well as mode shifts and lend themselves to spectacular heights of musical expression. There is so much you can do with a modal tune it's astounding.

I'm really surprised to see Giant Steps in that list, however. That tune is a landmark in its own right as it manages to move through ton of key centres in bullet time. Personally, i wouldn't mark it as modal whatsoever. This was where Trane really made his mark on the world, inventing the "Trane style" whose idea is to move through all of those different centres coherently.

Modal tunes tend to be simplistic in their ideas, placing a lot more work on the musician to actually create a spontaneous idea that is cohesive, thoughtful and musical. In a way, they are much more difficult in that the band has to actually listen to each other in order to create music. You're much more vulnerable to the listener when playing a modal tune. They aren't just listening for right notes, but are listening for notes that are played in a line that is interesting enough to make them sit back and smile.

In the great words of Brandford Marsalis (egotistical bonehead that he is), "The music tells you" what is available. And that goes for a modal tune just as much as it goes for Giant Steps or I've got rhythm. It's one of the only things that Branford ever said that I truly agree with -- pop culture as it is. But in a modal tune you really have to listen to what it's telling you because the subject matter is simple. You're not paraphrasing the dictionary (like you might be in Giant Steps) but trying to make a great novel using nothing but a Bank's advertising pamphlet.