Albany Student Press Ravi Coltrane puts on a great performance at Jazz Fest

Albany Student Press

Coltrane puts on a great performance at Jazz Fest

By Jeff Nania

Jazz Musicians entertain the city of Albany at the annual Riverfront Jazz Festival

The sound of Ravi Coltrane's tenor saxophone was clear on the walk to the amphitheater where Albany's 2010 Riverfront Jazz Festival was held on the 11th of this month.

The first tune was immediately recognizable as "Nothing Like You." This song was first heard years ago on an album called "Sorcerer" by the second great Miles Davis Quintet with drummer Tony Williams, bassist Ron Carter, saxophonist Wayne Shorter and Pianist Herbie Hancock.

The track is somewhat of an oddity of jazz lore, a piece of music that has its own little story to go with it. Maybe that is why Ravi Coltrane chose to start his set with it

The second piece was called "Prelude," an original of Coltrane's. It began more lightly and slowly than the first tune, starting out with just bass and sax for the first couple of bars. Unlike the first tune, it never made its way to a full on swing groove.

More...

As the Detroit jazz fest's artist-in-residence, pianist Mulgrew Miller celebrates the icons who shaped him | freep.com | Detroit Free Press

As the Detroit jazz fest's artist-in-residence, pianist Mulgrew Miller celebrates the icons who shaped him | freep.com | Detroit Free Press

The apprentice system was once the lifeblood of jazz. Gifted young musicians moved to a major city like New York, signed on with one of dozens of working bands and assimilated the subtleties of the tradition on the bandstand.

But that system has been running on fumes since the 1980s. Economic and cultural changes decimated clubs, reshaped the recording industry and moved jazz further to the margins of contemporary culture. Few opportunities remain for young musicians to crisscross the country with name bands or work steady local gigs with veterans. Meanwhile, former apprentices who paid their dues struggle for their day in the sun.

Pianist Mulgrew Miller, artist-in-residence of the 2010 Detroit International Jazz Festival, just made it under the wire. Miller joined the Duke Ellington Orchestra in 1977 at age 21 and for the next 17 years worked steadily with some of the most imposing leaders in jazz -- drummers Art Blakey and Tony Williams, Detroit-bred singer Betty Carter and trumpeter Woody Shaw. At 55, he's one of the most respected and recorded musicians of his generation, a standard bearer for mainstream values of swing, melodic improvising, harmonic sophistication, polished technique and a tall drink of the blues.

He is, in other words, a flame keeper.

Read more: As the Detroit jazz fest's artist-in-residence, pianist Mulgrew Miller celebrates the icons who shaped him | freep.com | Detroit Free Press

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