Ravi Coltrane - Gold Blend

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Ravi Coltrane - Gold Blend

Friday, 27 February 2009 12:06

It’s a mature Ravi Coltrane that appears impressively on new album Blending Times. Recorded not long after the death of his mother Alice Coltrane, Ravi talks to Stuart Nicholson about his own approach often only seen within the prism of his father’s legacy. It’s a path that began with early on-the-road explorations with Elvin Jones and Steve Coleman coalescing into his early records for RCA and more recent work with Saxophone Summit.

Ravi Coltrane has not made life easy for himself by becoming a jazz musician. At the very least the mere mention of his name prompts unreasonable expectation of raising the sunken treasures of his late father’s memory. John Coltrane was the finest saxophonist jazz has seen, yet his son, also a saxophonist, appears unperturbed by the weight he carries on his shoulders, aware of his limitations yet confident of his abilities. His latest album Blending Times reflects this quiet self-assurance, building on 2005’s In Flux, widely described as the first document of his mature musical concept, by taking his music in new directions in what is his finest recording to date.

Taking its title from a convergence of past and present, Blending Times is an album that took over a year making, emerging during a period of personal transition, when Coltrane says “a lot of things happened in my life.” Most significant was unexpected death of his mother Alice Coltrane on 12 January 2007, which put the completion of the album on hold for several months. “After my mom passed away I had still not finished the record and my focus went from recording and for a long time it was difficult to think seriously about getting on with my obligation to finish the record,” he says. “It was a big shock, but we did have to finish it, and it started to change a little bit after that point, and when we finished it, it was kinda like, ‘How do I balance the material I recorded before she passed with material I recorded after she passed?’”

This is an extract from Jazzwise Issue #128 – to read the full article click here to subscribe and receive a FREE CD

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