DENYS BAPTISTE – The Late Trane
Edition Records – EDN1093
Denys Baptiste: tenor and soprano saxophones; Nikki Yeoh: piano and keyboards; Neil Charles: bass; Rod Youngs: drums – special guests: Gary Crosby: bass; Steve Williamson: tenor saxophone.
Recorded: The Premises, Studio A on 18th, 19th and 20th January 2017
What would John Coltrane be doing now, assuming he continued to play into his 90th year? Another way of speculating on this question is to ask what would Coltrane’s tunes sound like if they were recorded now? In order to answer either of these questions, you need to not only have the musical prowess to step up to the plate and even attempt the music, but also to be so completely immersed in all aspects of Coltrane’s legacy that each piece can become yours. This is a bit like the short story by Borges, ‘Pierre Menard, author of the Quixote’ – in this story, the author, Pierre Menard, wants to so completely immerse himself in the life and works of Cervantes that he would literally ‘write’ the Quixote, word for word, as if he had created it himself. This story is a surreal joke about literary research and creativity, but could equally apply to some musicians who ‘recreate’ the particular music of their heroes. But, this is precisely the opposite of what Baptiste achieves on these pieces. First, his sound, while influenced by Coltrane (as was many of the players who came through the ranks of the Jazz Warriors in the 1980s), is strikingly different in tone and phrasing. So, this is nothing like a pastiche of Coltrane’s tunes. Second, by focusing on the later recordings (1963 to 1967), Baptiste has picked a very rich seam that has not be previously mined to any great extent. Perhaps other players have been put off by the ‘complexity’ of the pieces. What Baptiste does here is to take ‘hard’ music and make it accessible and contemporary, and to do so in a way that is completely of the time. The later Coltrane pieces spoke as much to his concerns about spirituality and the political times in which he was living, as they do about his musical exploration. So, any interpretation of these pieces need to address spirituality and to confront what is happening now – this is not an invitation to wallow in nostalgia for the ‘60s, but a strongly contemporary recording. Pieces, like ‘Ascent’ (track 3) or ‘After the rain’ (track 9), crackle with distortion on the saxophone, burbles of electronic effects, and Yeoh’s Fender Rhodes-like keyboards. Here, you get Coltrane with a pinch of Sun Ra, filtered through modern jazz idiom – and this is quite possibly the answer to the question that opened this review.
In order to respond to the spirituality of later Coltrane recordings, Baptiste has written two original pieces on this set (‘Neptune’, track 6, and ‘Astral Trane’, track 8). Both are meditative and elegiac, and both feel, with their mournful introductory refrains, and gradual build, like pieces that Coltrane could have composed himself.
Given the collection of essays and reviews that Jazz Views has put together to commemorate the legacy of John Coltrane, you can see that one way of responding to his anniversary is to try to put into words what his legacy means. But a much better way is to do this through music – and Baptiste has produced a stunning and eloquent celebration of the final, and for me most creative years, of a saxophone colossus.
Reviewed by Chris Baber
Edition Records – EDN1093
Denys Baptiste: tenor and soprano saxophones; Nikki Yeoh: piano and keyboards; Neil Charles: bass; Rod Youngs: drums – special guests: Gary Crosby: bass; Steve Williamson: tenor saxophone.
Recorded: The Premises, Studio A on 18th, 19th and 20th January 2017
What would John Coltrane be doing now, assuming he continued to play into his 90th year? Another way of speculating on this question is to ask what would Coltrane’s tunes sound like if they were recorded now? In order to answer either of these questions, you need to not only have the musical prowess to step up to the plate and even attempt the music, but also to be so completely immersed in all aspects of Coltrane’s legacy that each piece can become yours. This is a bit like the short story by Borges, ‘Pierre Menard, author of the Quixote’ – in this story, the author, Pierre Menard, wants to so completely immerse himself in the life and works of Cervantes that he would literally ‘write’ the Quixote, word for word, as if he had created it himself. This story is a surreal joke about literary research and creativity, but could equally apply to some musicians who ‘recreate’ the particular music of their heroes. But, this is precisely the opposite of what Baptiste achieves on these pieces. First, his sound, while influenced by Coltrane (as was many of the players who came through the ranks of the Jazz Warriors in the 1980s), is strikingly different in tone and phrasing. So, this is nothing like a pastiche of Coltrane’s tunes. Second, by focusing on the later recordings (1963 to 1967), Baptiste has picked a very rich seam that has not be previously mined to any great extent. Perhaps other players have been put off by the ‘complexity’ of the pieces. What Baptiste does here is to take ‘hard’ music and make it accessible and contemporary, and to do so in a way that is completely of the time. The later Coltrane pieces spoke as much to his concerns about spirituality and the political times in which he was living, as they do about his musical exploration. So, any interpretation of these pieces need to address spirituality and to confront what is happening now – this is not an invitation to wallow in nostalgia for the ‘60s, but a strongly contemporary recording. Pieces, like ‘Ascent’ (track 3) or ‘After the rain’ (track 9), crackle with distortion on the saxophone, burbles of electronic effects, and Yeoh’s Fender Rhodes-like keyboards. Here, you get Coltrane with a pinch of Sun Ra, filtered through modern jazz idiom – and this is quite possibly the answer to the question that opened this review.
In order to respond to the spirituality of later Coltrane recordings, Baptiste has written two original pieces on this set (‘Neptune’, track 6, and ‘Astral Trane’, track 8). Both are meditative and elegiac, and both feel, with their mournful introductory refrains, and gradual build, like pieces that Coltrane could have composed himself.
Given the collection of essays and reviews that Jazz Views has put together to commemorate the legacy of John Coltrane, you can see that one way of responding to his anniversary is to try to put into words what his legacy means. But a much better way is to do this through music – and Baptiste has produced a stunning and eloquent celebration of the final, and for me most creative years, of a saxophone colossus.
Reviewed by Chris Baber
