It takes a lot of moxie to not only take on the same career as a famous father (talk to Tim Berra, for example), but the exact same instruments of the iconic jazz master. Are the people in the audience for the sake of hearing a young and upcoming tenor and soprano saxist leading his own team of EJ Strickland/dr, Dezron Douglas/b and David Virelles/p, or simply to soak in some sort of generational blessing and connection to the music of their own youth?
Ravi Coltrane capably showed that he was his own man, with his own sound and own approach to this American classical jazz. Opening on soprano with an elastic reading of “I’m Old Fashioned,” he emphasized long and warm notes, letting the fiery kineticsm of Strickland supply the coal for the musical engine. Promoting material from his impressive latest release (Spirit Fiction) he performed on tenor material such as “Who Likes Ice Cream” and “The Change, My Girl” that emphasized thoughtful shadows, medium tempo and ruminating grooves, music that was at once willowy and breezy. He displayed his bonafide bop chops on a take of “Epistrophy” that went from see saw to herky jerky like a knuckleballing reliever, also giving space for Douglas and Virelles to stretch out and explore the tunes with inquisitive dexterity. The laconic “Fantasm” was moody, melancholy and mystical, with Strickland again setting the tone with some impressive mallet work. By the time he closed the almost two hour set with a rollicking “Nothing Like You,” Coltrane had impressed the crowd enough to have people want to not be concerned about the artists familial past, as much as his musical future.