{"id":769,"date":"2026-05-29T18:42:39","date_gmt":"2026-05-29T18:42:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/?p=769"},"modified":"2026-05-29T18:42:39","modified_gmt":"2026-05-29T18:42:39","slug":"review-jazz-greats-celebrate-miles-davis-john-coltrane-in-concert","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/?p=769","title":{"rendered":"Review: Jazz greats celebrate Miles Davis, John Coltrane in concert"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Terence Blanchard wanted to get one thing straight with the audience:<\/p>\n

The trumpeter and his five fellow musicians were in the house to pay tribute to Miles Davis and John Coltrane, on the centennial celebration of the birth of these jazz giants in 1926. And that meant Blanchard and company were going to play music associated with those icons, but they were in no way interested in performing it exactly like Miles and Trane did or even trying to sound like them.<\/p>\n

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\u201cAll of these arrangements are ours. You know what I\u2019m saying?\u201d Blanchard said to the full house of jazz lovers assembled at the SFJAZZ Center in San Francisco on Thursday (May 28). \u201cY\u2019all see where we\u2019re going with this, right? OK. I just want to make sure, you know, because the jazz police is out there \u2014 alive and well \u2014 you know what I mean?\u201d<\/p>\n

Well, there was absolutely no need to call in the jazz police because this band \u2014 which also featured Ravi (son of John and Alice) Coltrane on saxophone, Charles Altura on guitar, Julian Pollack on piano and keyboard, David Ginyard Jr. on bass and Oscar Seaton on drums \u2014 definitely had its own thing going on during the opener of this four-night centennial celebration that runs through Sunday.<\/p>\n

There were times when a melody would rise up from the musical mix and it might spark a memory of one of those landmark recordings from the \u201950s, produced while Trane was a member of Davis\u2019 First Great Quintet or, later, when he returned to the fold as part of a sextet.<\/p>\n

Mainly, however, the listeners just dug the music for its own in-the-moment sound, especially given that the instrumentation \u2014 with the use of guitar, electric bass and keyboards \u2014 was so different than anything ever found while Coltrane and Davis recorded together.<\/p>\n

As if to further put their own signature on the evening, Blanchard immediately turned to the title track to his Grammy-nominated \u201cFlow\u201d \u2014 a tune, broken up into three distinct parts on the album, which he penned with bassist Derrick Hodge \u2014 and that proved to be a sterling way to start the 90-minute-plus show.<\/p>\n

At that point, the trumpeter was just working in a quintet setting \u2014 minus Ravi Coltrane. Yet, the brilliant saxophonist made his appearance\u00a0 \u2014 and made his appearance most definitely felt \u2014 with the second number, \u201cFlamenco Sketches.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n

Coltrane got the spotlight first on that tune, which closes out Side 2 of Davis\u2019 phenomenally popular \u201cKind of Blue\u201d album from 1959, slowly burning his way through a mesmerizing tenor solo that had Blanchard simply shaking his head in admiration.<\/p>\n

The sax faded into a slowly moving guitar piece from Altura, whose leads seemed to often fill in \u2014 if not technically, at least symbolically \u2014 for the alto sax work delivered by Julian \u201cCannonball\u201d Adderley once the Great Quintet expanded to a sextet (ironically, with the return of Trane to the fold) in 1958. Then the bandleader \u2014 who also happens to be the executive artistic director of SFJAZZ \u2014 brought the tune to a climax with a bright, escalating trumpet lead, climbing steadily up a mountain of hard-earned notes before gently coasting back down to a finish.<\/p>\n

Blanchard and Coltrane joined forces for the first time of the evening with \u201cOn Green Dolphin Street,\u201d with their two-horn attack nicely opening up this theme originally composed for the 1947 Lana Turner film \u201cGreen Dolphin Street\u201d that, one year later, Davis and Trane would record and fully cement as a jazz standard.<\/p>\n

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The six artists later rolled into a lengthy segment that drew from parts of several different Davis classics, including an absolutely transcendent spotlight on the Disney favorite \u201cSomeday My Prince Will Come,\u201d a song composed for the 1937 animated movie \u201cSnow White and the Seven Dwarfs\u201d that Davis would borrow as the title track to his 1961 album. The assortment of melodies \u2014 which also included \u201cTeo\u201d (another \u201cSomeday My Prince Will Come\u201d track) and \u201cAll Blues\u201d (from \u201cKind of Blue\u201d) \u2014 blended wonderfully together, highlighted by some energetic back-and-forth between Pollack and Seaton.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThat was what the young people call a mash-up,\u201d Blanchard explained of the piece.<\/p>\n

Blanchard would close up the main set with one of his old favorites from Davis\u2019 catalog.<\/p>\n

\u201cI used to love this man, when I first heard it,\u201d Blanchard remarked. \u201cNow I get a chance to do my interpretation of it.\u201d<\/p>\n

He was talking about \u201cTwo Bass Hit,\u201d a sparkling bebop standard penned by trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie and pianist John Lewis that Davis, Coltrane and company recorded on 1958\u2019s \u201cMilestones.\u201d The version heard on Thursday night wasn\u2019t so much Gillespie bebop, or \u201cMilestones\u201d Miles, but rather a very pure and insightful showcase of what the six players on the stage had to offer \u2014 which, to put it mildly, was plenty.<\/p>\n

The group returned for one encore, which Blanchard used as an opportunity to come around full circle and return to his own masterpiece album, \u201cFlow,\u201d for the soon-to-be-standard \u201cBenny\u2019s Tune\u201d (written by guitarist Lionel Loueke).<\/p>\n

It was a nice way to sign off on the evening, with Blanchard\u2019s own distinct signature, and illustrate that these players \u2014 while grouped together for these run of concerts to pay tribute to two historical greats \u2014 are at least as much interested in the present and future of jazz as they are in its past.<\/p>\n

Terence Blanchard & Ravi Coltrane, Miles Davis & John Coltrane Centennial:<\/strong> 7:30 p.m. through Saturday, May 30; 7 p.m. May 31 at the SFJAZZ Center\u2019s Miner Auditorium in San Francisco; $44.50-$124.50; www.sfjazz.org.<\/p>\n

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Get tickets to see Miles Davis, John Coltrane centennial celebration concerts by Ravi Coltrane and Terence Blanchard at SFJAZZ Center.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":768,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-769","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-things-to-do"],"yoast_head":"\nReview: Jazz greats celebrate Miles Davis, John Coltrane in concert - Next City Digest<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/?p=769\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Review: Jazz greats celebrate Miles Davis, John Coltrane in concert - Next City Digest\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Get tickets to see Miles Davis, John Coltrane centennial celebration concerts by Ravi Coltrane and Terence Blanchard at SFJAZZ Center.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/?p=769\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Next City Digest\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-05-29T18:42:39+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nextcitydigest.com\\\/?p=769#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nextcitydigest.com\\\/?p=769\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nextcitydigest.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/13065d40d633843429ac57d4e5c06f9b\"},\"headline\":\"Review: Jazz greats celebrate Miles Davis, John Coltrane in concert\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-05-29T18:42:39+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nextcitydigest.com\\\/?p=769\"},\"wordCount\":970,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nextcitydigest.com\\\/?p=769#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nextcitydigest.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/05\\\/ad38d4b91865c9de1fe421f0a55ed058.webp\",\"articleSection\":[\"Things To Do\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/nextcitydigest.com\\\/?p=769#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nextcitydigest.com\\\/?p=769\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nextcitydigest.com\\\/?p=769\",\"name\":\"Review: Jazz greats celebrate Miles Davis, John Coltrane in concert - 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