By Kevin Lee Associate Editor

American giant honored

Barreling across the American cultural scene like his powerful nickname, John Coltrane shaped generations with a reputation steeped in mysticism, fluency and inventiveness.

Musical figures as diverse as Jimi Hendrix, Carlos Santana, Primal Scream, Jah Wobble, the Stooges, Erykah Badu, Mike Watt, OutKast and Duane Allman have directly cited the jazz saxophonist and composer as a seminal influence.

“Coltrane is like the father,” trumpeter Lester Bowie once said. “He was one of the ones who led us into this spiritual quest, who made us aware of the spirituality of jazz. This had existed for years before, but Coltrane was putting it on another level, he was bringing it to the forefront.”

Coltrane: the musical prophet who sought to unlock the universe, inner and outer, through sound.

‘Trane: an ascetic transfixed on setting loose the music within, cascading notes and chords gushing forth like from a rampant firehose.

The Mystic Order of the Jazz Obsessed (MOJO) will salute Coltrane on Monday, Aug. 25 at 6:30 p.m. when Eastern Shore saxophonist Rebecca Barry and a trio of friends bids musical homage in the latest installment of MOJO’s Jazz Jambalaya series.

The show unfolds at the historic Gulf City Lodge (601 State St.) and attendance includes a bowl of jambalaya, keeping with the jazz society’s stated goal of sustenance for the mind and spirit alike.

Coltrane was born in Hamlet, N. C. in 1926 and quickly took to music, studying at a pair of conservatories before heading to Philadelphia.

Once in Philly, he eventually joined groups led by luminaries such as Dizzy Gillespie and Johnny Hodges. By 1955, he had crossed paths with trumpeter Miles Davis and the course of jazz was irrevocably altered via some of the more seminal albums in the genre’s history.

In Davis’ quintet, Coltrane formed a tenuous union with the bandleader. The pair were complementary. Davis was mercurial and adversarial, ‘Trane earnest and shy. Davis’ playing style was sparse, ‘Trane’s was busy. Davis was concerned with appearing stylish while Coltrane was nonchalant about attire. Miles lived glamorous and cool, Coltrane existed in a Spartan manner with a focus on music.

Coltrane did share one unfortunate commonality with Davis: an acquaintanceship with drug use. While Davis had kicked his heroin habit before they met, Coltrane’s abuse became so problematic that Davis asked him to leave the band at one point.

During a stint with Thelonious Monk in 1957, Coltrane experienced what he described as a “spiritual awakening.” He dropped his drug use immediately and sought to “make (his) life a force for good.”

“I humbly asked to be given the means and privilege to make others happy through music,” he later said.

He worked on Davis’ landmark album “Kind of Blue,” a peak of American mid-20th Century art. In one decade, he amassed an incredibly prolific personal catalogue, releasing almost 40 albums from 1957 until he succumbed to liver cancer in 1967.

More than any other jazz musician, Coltrane bridged the gap between blues, bop, modal and free jazz in an amalgam that could seem simultaneously fiery and touching. His seminal work, “A Love Supreme,” showcases this in a manner unparalleled.

Unequivocally, Coltrane’s most remarkable trait was a unique ability to make his saxophone “speak,” to give it a voice that could vacillate between a lover’s whisper and preacher’s shout.

“There’s no other tenor player with that tone,” Rebecca Barry said. “Everybody knows it as soon as they hear it. And I don’t think anyone ever played soprano (sax) like him either. I love him on that.”

Coltrane used the higher pitched reed for his famous 1961 revision of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s “My Favorite Things,” turning itinto an eastern-tinged dervish of a number.

The MOJO salute is a repeat of sorts, as they honored Coltrane in the winter of 2003 with a program assembled by local entertainment reporter Lawrence Specker. That event featured mock newspapers rendered by Specker that inserted local jazz luminaries into historical Coltrane moments, a la Forrest Gump.

Though saddled with difficult duty for the event, Barry has earned her accolades in a tough market. She built her own reputation in the Bay area before leaving for New Orleans to study at Loyola then moved on to earn her master’s degree in jazz at UNO, studying under the illustrious tutelage of Ellis Marsalis.

“I started playing sax in the sixth grade, but didn’t get into Coltrane until I was in college,” Barry said. She laughs at her earliest attempts to decipher his work.

“I remember the first time I was trying to transcribe ‘Moment’s Notice,’” Barry laughed. “I got so frustrated, I almost destroyed my saxophone. It was just so hard.”

After building a sizable reputation in the Crescent City, Barry headed home post-Katrina and presently is wowing audiences with her group Bust, a band with more of a leg in pop music and R&B than jazz.

But her heart stays in the more esoteric genre. She will satisfy that yen with her new “day gig” as a jazz teacher at Spring Hill College this fall, finding her own way to bring illumination through music.

For more information on the Aug. 25 show, call 251-459-2298 or e-mail mobilejazz@bellsouth.net.

Kevin Lee is Lagniappe associate editor. Contact him at klee@lagniappemobile.com.

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