Celebrating the 100th birthdays of jazz luminaries Miles Davis and John Coltrane, the contemporary jazz artists Terence Blanchard and Ravi Coltrane brought reimagined versions of legendary compositions to the stage of Powell Hall on a Saturday evening. The audience skewed slower-moving, laid-back, and grey-haired and/or Kangol-hat wearing, with attendees and staff alike recognizing friends in the crowd and stopping to chat and/or hug, giving a warm, family feel to a crowd filled with Powell Hall and jazz fans.
The concert was part of the Powell Hall Presents series, where the theater lends its spectacular acoustics to showcase performances sans St. Louis Symphony Orchestra. Without the eighty-plus musicians on stage, the six-piece ensemble could spread out a little. The show began with the band at their stations—Julian Pollack at stage right, with a piano on his left and two keyboards stacked on his right, David Ginard on electric bass at the center, Oscar Seaton on drums to his left, and Charles Altura on electric guitar, just in front of the drum rig. Blanchard strolled on stage to take his place near one of two stools at the front of the stage and performed a track from his 2005 album Flow before introducing the band and providing some context for the evening.
They would not be playing the original arrangements, Blanchard explained. They could never do justice to the original composers. Instead, they would be playing completely new arrangements of some classic Davis and Coltrane tunes as an illustration of the depth of impact these two giants had on the genre and the musicians to follow them. This stood out as true-to-jazz-form in contrast to an upcoming event in the Powell Hall Presents series, advertised as Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon “played note for note, sound for sound.” The centennial celebration would do quite the opposite, retaining those recognizable kernels of jazz foundations but building around them elaborate new façades.
Ravi Coltrane has a deep connection to the work: son of John Coltrane, named after Ravi Shankar, and raised primarily by his mother, the trailblazing jazz harpist and composer Alice Coltrane. With his entrance, the ensemble launched into what Blanchard said kids these days call a ‘mashup’ of “Flamenco Sketches,” “On Green Dolphin Street,” and “All of You.” These selections are fixtures in the Davis catalog, famously featuring Coltrane on tenor saxophone.
The six-piece ensemble, with electric strings, added layers of complexity to the standard arrangements, stretching each into a jam that featured considerable guitar solo work as well as interplay between piano and guitar. As a matter of personal taste, I would have liked a little less solo guitar, a little more bass spotlight, and a little more room for the incredible drummer to roam alone. I also would’ve enjoyed more focus on the centennial musicians’ instruments. Overall, though, I loved the synchronicity of the concept: a singular creation, borne of a thoughtful assemblage of talented and imaginative musicians, tipping their hats to canonical material while imbuing the music with each of their unique contributions.
We were told upon entering the theater that the show would be one and a half hours with no intermission. That time just flew by. After the ‘mashup’ (Blanchard: “I guess they don’t say ‘medley’ these days.”) were just three final, lengthy and intriguing interpretations, including two selections originally featuring Coltrane on Davis’ Someday My Prince Will Come.
The title track as well as “Teo,” with “All Blues” in between, finally gave Blanchard and Coltrane the opportunity to play simultaneously, rather than in turn. Blanchard, for his part, stood feet planted firmly, bending at the waist, blowing with a force that buzzed through his entire form, so the trumpet screamed and wailed one more time with power enough for the people in the back, outside, and across the street. On his left, Coltrane stood in an offset stance, knees bent with kinetic energy, bobbing like a spring, bouncing and dipping with every note. The alignment between these two tremendous talents was the element I was most hoping to see and most enjoyed in the evening.
With just seven songs in ninety minutes, the selections basked in over ten minutes of performance apiece, but it felt like the blink of an eye. What I wouldn’t give for another set. Take that intermission! Catch your breath and come back for another round! What I wouldn’t give for another installment of this project. They could set different themes or select distinct eras to reimagine! What we got, though it could never seem enough, was a treat for fans who know the Davis and Coltrane catalog inside and out, to see new life breathed into twentieth century jazz canon by such immense twenty-first century jazz talent. | Courtney Dowdall
