Something truly extraordinary happens on this disc.
Ravi Coltrane was smart enough to ask Joe Lovano—one of the canniest and most creative musicians in jazz, if not always one of its greatest players — to produce this disc. And for the first time, this no-longer-young tenor saxophonist (he’ll be 47 in August) who has carried around one of the greatest last names in jazz, sounds as if he is neither the slightest bit afraid or resentful of it, but is actually springing from his father’s musical legacy into places his father never entirely dreamed of — but would, no doubt, wholeheartedly approve.
Listen to the title track and you’llrealizethatwherehis father was both a prophet and a poet, his son is a poet and scientist.
This is a terrific jazz disc, with great jazz playing by pianists Luis Perdomo and Geri Allen, blistering counterpoint for Coltrane by his long-standing trumpet player Ralph Alessi, and drummers Eric Harland and Eric Strickland providing sensitivity for the soloists as well as freedom, invention and immense power.
Coltrane’s duet with Strickland on “Spring&Hudson”—a tribute to the venerable Half Note club whose bandstand virtually compelled musicians to face each other—is a decidedly more orderly and epigrammatic affair than his father’s sprawling and ecstatic epic searches with Elvin Jones and Rashied Ali.
On “Fantasm,” his tenor-playing record producer Lovano joins Coltrane and Allen to play a composition by drummer Paul Motian, who had just died when the disc was made.
This is Coltrane’s first disc with a new record label and the result is his best in a very long time.
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