The St George’s concert hall venue in Bristol is to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of John Coltrane’s signing to the Impulse label with a series of gigs dubbed Take The Coltrane.

Beginning on 13 January with local hero saxophonist Andy Sheppard and the Dan Moore Trio, the theme for the evening is Coltrane’s 1962 Ballads album. Songs from the album, which Coltrane recorded with McCoy Tyner, Jimmy Garrison and Elvin Jones at the Van Gelder Studio in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey include ‘Say It (Over And Over Again), ‘You Don’t Know What Love Is’, ‘It’s Easy To Remember’ and closer ‘Nancy (With the Laughing Face)’, the Jimmy Van Heusen song which curiously had lyrics written for it by comedian Phil Silvers, Bilko no less. Sheppard is backed by the upcoming Moore who has worked widely on the local Bristol scene, along with Partisans bassist Thad Kelly and Goldfrapp drummer Daisy Palmer.  

A fortnight later on 27 January the Take The Coltrane series, which has been put together by Independent music writer Phil Johnson, continues with a tasty double bill courtesy of a pair of Coltrane-influenced Manchester quintets led by trumpeter Matt Halsall and saxophonist Nat Birchall.

Current Jazzwise cover star Denys Baptiste then brings the series to a head with his quartet (pianist Andrew McCormack, bassist Gary Crosby, and drummer Rod Youngs) by performing Coltrane’s masterpiece A Love Supreme on 17 Feb. The series concludes with US tenor heavyweight Joe Lovano’s two-drummer band Us5 on 29 March.

– Stephen Graham

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Pictured: John Coltrane