Ravi Coltrane: Translinear Light—The Music of Alice Coltrane

Ravi Coltrane: Translinear Light—The Music of Alice Coltrane
Moore Theater
Seattle, WA
February 26, 2025

The Coltrane legacy in jazz is vast and monumentally influential—that is a known quantity in the music world. So much of that legacy is filled with the artistic resonance of John Coltrane, whose presence through pioneering endeavors and fearless journeying invoked a spiritual aspect of sound to coincide with his undeniable musical genius. His son Ravi Coltrane, the present day carrier of the family legacy, is often associated with his father's personal journey by the jazz public, and certainly the jazz press. He bears a striking resemblance to his father, and is an expressive, mega-talented tenor and soprano saxophonist.

Ravi's mother, Alice Coltrane, also known as Swamini Turiyasangitananda was, of course, the uniting force for her son's awareness of everything about his dad, as his partner in life and music. She replaced McCoy Tyner as pianist of the John Coltrane Quartet through the band's most tumultuous and groundbreaking moments. The vessel representing Ravi's musical upbringing is largely full of his mother's own legacy of sound, of her innate ability to combine musical genius with spiritual awakening, in essence, seeing that explorative journey as one. As a pianist, organist, harpist and composer, she was a visionary. With the Coltrane family moving to Los Angeles after John's death in 1967, Ravi's connection with his mother as an artist would continue to grow over time. Their artistic relationship culminated in Alice Coltrane's last album, Translinear Light (Impulse, 2004), her first in twenty six years after choosing a monastic life. Acting as producer as well as performing on saxophone and percussion, the project represented Ravi's last chance to record and perform with his mother. His brother Oran Coltrane appeared on alto saxophone as well.

The idea of taking the music of Alice Coltrane on the road experienced a high point at the 2024 Detroit Jazz Festival, with Ravi, his sister Michelle Coltrane and the brilliant harpist Brandee Younger featured in a performance that included The Detroit Jazz Festival Chamber Orchestra. The stage that evening was graced with the presence of such notables as Reggie Workman, Robert Hurst and Jeff Watts. It seemed as though a curtain had been opened, for the rest of the world to not just remember, but to experience the music of one of the true innovators in modern jazz history. The music seemed so present, so new, it was as if it needed to happen and so it did. With that impetus, the music took to the road with a formidable crew at the helm.

On a rare warm and clear February evening, a formidable crowd gathered at Seattle's Moore Theater to take in Translinear Light: The Music of Alice Coltrane. The vintage and recently restored theater is the oldest house in Seattle, seating 1400 patrons. Coltrane and Younger took to the stage with a quintet of young, uber talented musicians in drummer Ele Salif Howell, pianist Gadi Lehavi and bassist Rashaan Carter. The collective spirit and group mind of the quintet would carry this two hour deep dive into the music of Alice Coltrane, with a twist of John Coltrane's final works.

The performance opened with what Coltrane described as a "brief meditation," in essence, a modal ostinato that allowed the fivesome to create sound and feel the resonance of it as a one unit. The free flowing beginnings ignited "Rama Rama," a piece written for members of the Sai Anantam Ashram that includes lyrics in its original form. The quintet played the piece like a chant, the open ended harmonic values of the music leaving the musicians with a broad canvas to work with in unity.

"Andromeda's Suffering," and "Ptah, the El Daoud" are emblematic of Alice Coltrane's Impulse recordings in the early 1970's, each opening doors that lead to destinations in far different places. The quintet delves into the former followed the opening two pieces in a more modal space. In Detroit, the opening passages were supplied by a 50 piece chamber orchestra, in this occasion leaving Coltrane on tenor and Younger on harp to bring an improvised orchestral feel into a quintet setting. This sort of transformation during the entirety of the show was foundationally projected by the rhythm section. Carter's resonant bass was a power source, with Howell slicing through the hard line with great athletic grace. Lehavi, when left to solo, was dynamic and fleet, yet his contribution was largely orchestral on the opening three pieces. The chordal splicing between his two handed approach and Younger's piano-like support was the key to the vamping, almost floating harmonic drift of the music. It seemed to uphold, not lead the soloist, in this case, Coltrane's soaring tenor. "Ptah" was the most swinging, straight ahead piece of the evening, a pliably resilient post-bop romp that found Carter pulling down the groove that Coltrane easily found and probed with biting, sharp melodic bursts framed by drifting long tones.

Coltrane's decision to perform his father's last recorded composition, "Expression," was accompanied by him referring to the composition as a "beautiful piece of music." In listening, one could only imagine the emotional aspects of the endeavor for him and all of the musicians performing. In recording what could be his last recorded statement, the piece seemed to sum up neatly all of the elements of John Coltrane's career, carrying with it emotional elements that ranged from melodic and refined to free and spiritually infinite. For his part, Coltrane unleashed a statement of his own on tenor, at one point exchanging a nod and a smile with Younger. Perhaps knowing the significance of the music that spun out of the final session of one of the bright lights of world music history added an other-worldly impact for the listener. But it seemed that in an instant the music was elevated ever so slightly from a performance that to that point could only be described as inspired by excellence.

The concert both climaxed and ended with the quintet immersing themselves in music from Alice Coltrane's mid-seventies classic, Eternity (Warner Bros., 1976). Howell led the fivesome into "Los Caballos" with a drum intro that while athletic and rhythmically complex held subtleties that foretold what was to come in the verses ahead of this final chapter of a memorable performance. Coltrane switched to soprano for the first and only time of the evening, once again elevating the spiritual and emotional content of the music for the audience. Pianist Lehavi unleashed a genius solo section that literally led the all-in Moore crowd into a frenzy. In engaging in the intricacies of sharing harmonic and atmospheric duties with Younger throughout the performance, it seemed as though Lehavi had all of this energy stored up for one, final ascent. Coltrane took the piece, and the two hour performance out with an extended recitation of poetic beauty. In stating the written melody at the end, the audience was reminded of the simplicity and sublime spirituality contained within this resonant period of his mother's legacy.

It must be stated that the presence of harpist Younger throughout the two hour concert was the factor that tied together the sound of the ensemble. Younger has performed extensively as the "piano" of her own band and that of Coltrane's. In working with Lehavi, she added a textural content to the overall sound of the band that was only broken when she took the baton as soloist and ran with it. Her grace, energy and ardent virtuosity is one of the true wonders of the modern jazz world.

The Moore Theater itself provided a vibe that was somehow perfect for this evening. The sound was nearly perfect, something one cannot take for granted outside of venues who regularly present acoustic jazz. While the theater was slightly more than half full, the audience seemed more like a gathering of souls seeking spiritual fulfillment. One can ascertain that they found what they were looking for.

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