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| Poncho Sanchez |
Long live John Coltrane! That’s
what the Detroit saxophonist James Carter yelled to a capacity crowd Friday
evening at the Paradise Jazz Series at Detroit’s Orchestra Hall minutes before he
performed a soul-numbing solo set of some of Coltrane’s signature works. The
concert was the third of the 2019 series, featuring a double-bill with Carter
and Latin jazz honcho the multi-percussionist Poncho Sanchez and his Latin jazz
band. Both Carter and Sanchez were there to pay tribute to Coltrane. The
audience got to witness the breadth of Carter’s virtuosity as he put
Coltrane’s “Blue Train," ”Naima,” and “ My
Favorite Things,” a standard that Coltrane immortalized, through death-defying
improvisational feats. This solo outing wasn’t the first time Carter
has tackled Coltrane’s music solo. Carter gave a similar performance two years
back in Philadelphia as part of Coltrane’s 90th birthday
celebration. The footage is available on YouTube. Carter had the audience
wrapped around his horns the entire set, but 30 minutes into making his horns
honk, squeal, pop and signify, the improvisational horseplay became redundant, and I felt as if I was watching Carter in the throes of an unnecessarily long practice session. Strangely, though the concert was billed as a salute to Coltrane, neither
Carter nor Poncho Sanchez said nary a word about Coltrane's influence on them musically or otherwise. Not one single word uttered by the musicians about Coltrane’s
massive and lasting stamp on jazz. Sanchez was all over the place, opening his hour-plus set with “Blue Train,” followed by “Trane’s Delight,” the title cut
from his upcoming album. From that point Sanchez’s set veered left, but not
necessarily in a bad way. The music was wholesome, even delicious at times, and Sanchez’s band was
tighter than Super Glue. The band has been together a whopping 35 years. Although the set was supposed to be all about Coltrane, Sanchez didn’t play hardly enough of Coltrane’s music, no "Cousin Mary," no "A Love Supreme," no "Alabama" no "Giant Steps". Coltrane favorites you wouldn't be wrong to expect for a Coltrane tribute. Instead, there were
some original compositions by Sanchez’s bandmates and a medley of
Sanchez’s music. Oddly, what aroused the audience most was the band’s Latin-infused take of a James Brown number. Had
me wondering if Sanchez was attempting to make some Coltrane and James Brown connection. And, of
course, it wouldn’t have been a Sanchez show without working in some obligatory Salsa music and dancing. To Sanchez’s credit, the audience was all in. Nonetheless,
the performance came up short of remotely resembling a John
Coltrane tribute.
