Ravi Coltrane has nothing to prove. With an advanced sound, the confidence only an improviser of his imagination can provide, it’s now time for the next phase in the saxophonist’s career with Blue Note records and the birth of a new sound. Coltrane emphasises the pursuit of pure improvising to Stuart Nicholson, that spur of the moment innate thing, something no conservatoire can provide, that spark people are scared of but are so desperate to have

It was back in August 2010 that The New York Times’ Arts Beat blog broke the news Ravi Coltrane had signed with the Blue Note label. But it has taken until now for Spirit Fiction, his much anticipated label debut, to be released. Blue Note big-wig Bruce Lundvall had made the decision to sign Coltrane in 2009 during the festivities for the label’s 70th anniversary following Coltrane’s attention-getting performances as a member of an all-star group called the Blue Note 7. It had been formed under the aegis of the Blue Note label to publicise their historic anniversary and provided the opportunity for Lundvall and Coltrane to talk about the future. “Ravi’s a guy we’ve been watching for a long time,” explained Lundvall.

Initially there were some legal issues to iron out, and then it was simply a matter of getting into the studio, never easy if you are as busy as the 47-year-old saxophonist. “I was under contract to Savoy at the time,” explains Coltrane down the line from his Brooklyn home. “There was a bit of wheeling and dealing to get me out of the agreement with Savoy, so things took a little while that end, and I finally signed [with Blue Note] in 2010. Recording started at the end of 2010, and then we recorded in February 2011 and we did another session that took a little while to schedule, that was in December of 2011, so it took a little while for everything to come together.”

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