John Coltrane Retrospective: Jazz Performance

John Coltrane Retrospective: Jazz Performance

For my chosen performance, I listened to a local jazz band perform a reworking of some of John Coltrane's arrangements of American standards, like "My Favorite Things." At first the stated aim of the performance surprised me, given that I had always thought of jazz as improvisational. This performance was supposed to encapsulate the past, rather than showcase original works. However, there are many different ways of improvising in jazz. In this case, the band may have looked over the musical arrangement of Coltrane, and perhaps listened to his performance. The performance was a celebration of jazz styles from a different era, but still felt fresh and new. This is partially a testimony to Coltrane's genius and partially a tribute to the passion of the band to embody it.

The band tried to recreate Coltrane's approach, although there must have been some improvisation or reworking involved: I had heard most of the arrangements before and there were some slight variations in tone and cadence, versus what I hard heard on a recording. Clearly, the band still put a bit of its own 'spin' on the arrangement. The performance was relatively casual. The band was not made up of full-time professionals, but rather of people who played semi-professionally during their spare time. It took place during the day at a local community center, and most of the audience members were older. The main aim of the concert was to share music that the band members enjoyed. The music, however, did have a smoky and sensuous tone to it. I had rarely seen a soprano saxophone being played, but because this was Coltrane's signature instrument, it was very prominent in the music.

Because the performance was a homage and not an original creation, it did not have the spontaneous, fun quality that a 'jam session' might have. However, there was a greater seriousness to the concert than jazz as 'background music' might possess. The music had a kind of melancholic quality, despite the fact that it was not spontaneously arising as an emotional outpouring of the musicians. The other instruments prominently featured were piano, drums, and base. All of these instruments are very visceral in nature, and complimented the soprano saxophone's lighter tone.

Although all of the instruments had solo passages, the solos were not strident 'featured' performances, or showpieces like a guitar or drum solo during a rock concert. The solos emerged from the hum of the other musicians, as the other instruments took up the background chords while the solos gradually emerged in prominence. Melody in "My Favorite Things" is passed around, and because it is fairly unobtrusive and unostentatious -- more like a rhythm than a distinct melody -- the status of 'soloist' slowly emerges rather than is announced. The band worked together like a single intelligence.