Ravi Coltrane in his element at Jazz Showcase Tenor saxophonist stirs audience with profound phrasing and an elegant sound
by Howard Reich
Tenor saxophonist Ravi Coltrane sounds best in intimate quarters, which helps explain why he fared so much better during a recent performance at the Jazz Showcase than he had a few of seasons ago at the Harris Theater.
On that occasion, he offered a profoundly underwhelming response to "A Love Supreme," a landmark recording by his father, John Coltrane. The inconsequential nature of Ravi Coltrane's "Reflections on 'A Love Supreme' " and the somewhat muted nature of his solos made scant impact in the wide-open Harris.
Performing for the first time in the new home of the Jazz Showcase, however, Coltrane sounded thoroughly in his element. Though he didn't summon quite the galvanic power that he sometimes aspired to, the velvet quality of his tone and the questing nature of his phrases stirred a large audience.
Coltrane opened the evening on a characteristically spiritual note, playing long, searching lines on "Translinear Light." Jazz listeners know the piece as the title track of a CD by pianist Alice Coltrane, the saxophonist's mother, who released it in 2004 after a long recording hiatus. In this rendition, the saxophonist and his quartet produced vast waves of sound, swelling from one dramatic peak to another.
Though Coltrane typically performs with pianist Luis Perdomo, on this occasion Geri Allen took that role, to splendid effect. Her glistening arpeggios and orchestral approach to the keyboard elegantly reflected Alice Coltrane's piano aesthetic, while building on it too. Some of the evening's most tender music unfolded in Drew Gress' "Away," from Coltrane's CD "In Flux." Here was the essence of Coltrane's art, a gently stated nocturne undergirded by solos of real substance and harmonic ingenuity.
