Photograph by Michael Weintraub
Tenor saxophonist Ravi Coltrane will be playing at Jazz at the Bistro January 18–21. He played in St. Louis several years ago. Then, and on his own recordings, he is a very impressive player with a recognizable sound. But I wonder how many jazz listeners expect him to sound like his father, John, or worse, be some sort of a reincarnation of him? The easy way out would have been to imitate his father; he could have a good, but unfulfilling career. Instead, Ravi Coltrane chose to be himself, in spite of the “baggage” some long-time jazz fans bring to his performances and recordings.
Here is the “baggage” I try to avoid when I hear any Ravi Coltrane performance or recording because it is unfair to him for me to even compare him to his father.
The experience of hearing John Coltrane live in 1959 with the Miles Davis sextet was a life-changing event. I was 16 at the time, and at that performance, I discovered there was musical artistry much higher than the teenage music I really did not like to listen to. I became a lifelong jazz fan and scholar of the music from that moment on. About five years ago, I told Jimmy Cobb, the drummer with that Miles Davis Sextet, about my experience of seeing the group live and how the experience had changed my life. Jimmy said that “quite a few” people had told him the same thing over the years.
For me, John Coltrane is the only musician who gives me the impression that he is connected to “something else” when he improvises. I saw him perform two other times. The first time was in the fall of 1961 with Eric Dolphy on reeds added to his quartet. That group was the one the West Coast critic John Tynan called “anti-jazz.” The music I remember hearing was the music recorded later that year in early November at the Village Vanguard in New York.
The last time I heard Trane live was at a concert at UCLA’s Royce Hall on November 23, 1963, the day after the John F. Kennedy assassination. My late wife and I had been married only three months and the concert was one of the few performances that happened in Southern California for several days. Coltrane was late and the rhythm section of McCoy Tyner, piano, Jimmy Garrison, bass and Elvin Jones, drums played one tune at an intensity I had never heard before. Trane then came on stage just as “Afro Blue” started. The intensity went even higher to the point where we felt that we were participating in an exorcism throughout the concert. It seemed that the unaccompanied cadenza on “I Want to Talk About You” seemed to last 20 minutes. At one point, the thought passed through my head that either Trane or Elvin was going to die from a heart attack right there on stage.
John Coltrane and his second wife, Alice, had three sons. John, Jr. (1964–1982) was a drummer. Two of the sons are saxophonists: Ravi was born in 1965 and Oran was born in 1966. Oran has recorded with Alice Coltrane, Carlos Santana, Oliver Lake and others. In addition to his work as a touring musician, Ravi is the curator of his father’s music for the John Coltrane estate.
Ravi was named after Ravi Shankar, the great Indian sitar master who John admired. According to some reports, Ravi apparently did not listen to his father’s music for some time. He began playing tenor sax in 1986. Ravi’s sound is darker, and does not have the sharp edges that his father's sound had. His material has unusual structures, different from his father, who took the song structures of his time (blues and 32-bar song forms and 4/4 swing) and stretched them to the breaking point during his improvisations. The M-base music collective of the late 1980s led by saxophonist Steve Coleman heavily influenced Ravi’s concept. St. Louis alto saxophonist Greg Osby also worked and studied with that group of musicians.
The Ravi Coltrane quartet with pianist, Luis Perdomo, bassist Drew Gress and drummer E.J. Strickland has been together since 2002. Like all jazz groups that have been together for a long time, they all know each other so well that the compositions become very malleable and can go many different ways from night to night.
Ravi’s first recording was with Elvin Jones in 1991. He has over 50 recordings as a sideman and six as a leader to his credit. Blue Note records signed him to a recording contract in 2010, but no new recordings have appeared. He recorded as a member of the “Blue Note 7” on a CD called Mosaic, a celebration of the Blue Note Legacy. His latest recording is Blending Times (2009) on Savoy Jazz.
Dennis Owsley has broadcast a weekly jazz show for St. Louis Public Radio (KWMU-FM) continuously since April 1983. Professionally, he holds a Ph.D. in organic chemistry and is a retired Monsanto Senior Science Fellow and college teacher. His current show, “Jazz Unlimited,” is heard every Sunday night from 9 p.m. to midnight.
