Review: Jazz Greats Reflect on Tales from Coltrane's 'Out' Side

Two world-class musicians brought the "out side" inside on Saturday, as the kicked off its winter jazz lecture series at in Greenport.

The presentation by living saxophone great Dave Liebman, pianist and biographer Lewis Porter and trombonist and jazz department head Ray Anderson took a small audience of local enthusiasts through the musical evolution of John Coltrane, from his bop beginnings to the free form and highly spiritual avant-garde canon that has made him a legend.

The musicians painted the picture of Coltrane as a socially awkward genius whose tireless practice regiment helped him to avoid social interaction. But the result of that was a mastery of his instrument that made it possible for him to revolutionize jazz.

"Coltrane explored scales in a way that nobody had before," Liebman said, speaking in a swinging, Kerouac-like, old-time New York accent.

The musicians highlighted Coltrane's evolution through several musical clips, starting with the saxophonist's straight-ahead solo on his 1957 record "Blue Trane" as a departure point to later recordings that pushed his music into the realm of free jazz.

From a clip from Miles Davis's "Flamenco Sketches," they showed Coltrane's exploration of modal music, which revealed a more serene and floating side to Coltrane, due a lot to Davis's influence on the saxophonist.

"He really beat into Coltrane's head that less is more," Porter said.

To demonstrate, Porter and Liebman performed two brief duets. To illustrate straight bebop, the duo improvised over the chords to George Gershwin's "I Got Rhythm" before switching gears to the less-is-more style of modal jazz and soloing over Miles Davis's "So What."

But Coltrane's biggest leap, according to Liebman, was his adoption of Broadway (and later Disney) hit "My Favorite Things," which saw Coltrane experimenting with non-traditional soloing by leaning on sounds tied to Far Eastern, Indian influences.

Of course, the major arrival for Coltrane was his recording of "A Love Supreme," a 1965 masterpiece he conceived on Long Island . Perhaps the most powerful moment of the presentation was when Porter demonstrated how Coltrane's final movement of the work, entitled "Psalm," was actually a musical reading of a poem he had included in the liner notes. As the music played, Porter read the words that synced with the notes.

But despite the artist's top intention to educate the audience, the highlight of the seminar wasn't the few musical examples played over the loudspeakers in the mid-19th century hall, but the subtle reactions from the musicians as they tuned into them.

There is nothing like watching musicians listen to music that inspires them. There's so much emotion they just can't hide in their faces. For Liebman, it was the almost surly faces he made, as if saying "it's just not fair," or "how dare you" with great reverence for what his admitted idol had accomplished in those recordings: Scowls, a shaking head, raised eyebrows and slight nods. For Porter, who has written a biography on Coltrane, the reaction was entirely different, with outstretched arms, big smiles and sways showing his supreme affection for the music.

For the audience, a mixed-bag of enthusiasts and musicians, the show was these accomplished "cats" listening to their gospel, and beaming in different ways.

Though it was disappointing to see so many empty chairs, especially with the topic being one of music's most influential legends, it was more disappointing that they omitted some of Coltrane's more adventurous examples of "out jazz." Clearly, there was a move to show the great musician's more accessible selections from his lexicon – though, how accessible is Giant Steps? – but it would have been a more complete overview of his avant-garde recordings to feature some of the adventurous, raucous and bewildering pieces he recorded shortly before his death. Pieces like "Meditation" and "Ascension" could have opened up the discussion to focus on what drove Coltrane to record the kind of cacophonous music that so many have dubbed pure noise. It would have been nice to hear Liebman explain Coltrane's approach; it would have been nice to have someone who speaks that language break it down for novice listeners.

Alas, the EEAC's program did give the crowd some insights into how musicians view their heroes, along with some intimate anecdotes from Liebman on how he got his start in jazz, and how seeing Coltrane play dozens of times in New York in the sixties inspired him to pursue music from that point forward.

The nonprofit will hold its next installment in the series on, where composer Edward Green and EEAC Educational Director Steve Watson will discuss the music of Duke Ellington.

Henry Powderly, a regional editor for Patch.com, previously studied jazz saxophone at Manhattan School of Music and has performed professionally throughout the state.