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Fresh take on Coltrane
PREVIEW: JOHN CROSBY PLAYS JOHN COLTRANE
Pizza Express, dean street
JOHN Coltrane’s exquisite A Love Supreme is the great saxophonist’s paean to God, an intense, personal and almost avant-garde dedication.
This year would have seen the saxophonist’s 80th birthday and the suite is to be performed as part of a series of concerts at Pizza Express Dean Street to mark the occasion.
Double-bassist, composer and band leader Gary Crosby is leading two of his ensembles, reinterpreting four of Coltrane’s classic recordings A Love Supreme, Giant Steps, Blue Train and Ballads
“There really has been very little going on about Coltrane this year,” Gary says, “and I couldn’t let this year pass by without taking the opportunity to do something to mark the occasion.”
The first concert, on Saturday night, sees Tomorrow’s Warriors play Blue Train, Coltrane’s 1957 solo album.
The Warriors were established in 1991, acting almost like a college for young talented jazz players.
Gary himself was a member of the seminal Jazz Warriors in the 1980s, working alongside Courtney Pine and others.
Since starting Tomorrow’s Warriors Gary reckons at least 200 musicians have played in the group, including now established names such as Soweto Kinch.
The following concerts are performed by Gary Crosby’s other group Nu Troop, with Denys Baptiste on saxophone, Frank Roberts on piano and Rod Youngs on drums.
But these are not going to be just straight forward covers of the works, but reinterpretations of Coltrane’s music. It is something Gary has done with other jazz classics, including Charles Mingus’s Black Saint and the Sinner Lady.
Gary says: “These are some of my favourite albums of all time. A Love Supreme is one the greatest musical pieces.
“In the 1970s, when I was in my radical and militant period, fuelled by things like civil rights, A Love Supreme was the sound track to that sentiment.”
Although listening to music a lot as he was growing up, Gary only came to grips with A Love Supreme while at college.
He says: “I remember a group coming in and playing it to us and it was then I knew I wanted to be a musician.
“You can hear the seriousness of Coltrane in the music and how committed he is to the art form.”
A Love Supreme is an incredibly devout offering from Coltrane and in his sleeve notes Coltrane himself writes “During the year 1957, I experienced, by the grace of God, a spiritual awakening which was to lead me to a richer, fuller, more productive life. This album is a humble offering to him.”
Gary adds: “I think this is the third time we have played the suite. We listen to the music individually and come together to perform.
“There are key phrases in the music we have to bring out, if I didn’t play the bass feature in Resolution, (the second section of the suite) it wouldn’t work
“There are three or four points throughout the music that have to be played in A Love Supreme. We play two of them pretty much accurately and the others really depend on the night of the performance.”
Tomorrow’s Warriors regularly appear at the Spice of Life in Romilly Street, Soho.
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