'Mostly Coltrane' pays tribute to a musician of towering importance - and for Steve Kuhn it's an album of powerful memories. For two months in 1960, Kuhn, then just 21 years old, was the pianist in John Coltrane's quartet: an unforgettable experience for a young musician, to embark each night into jazz of such torrential emotional intensity. Half-a-century later, joined by a team of gifted collaborators playing at the top of their form, Kuhn re-channels the energies of the era in an album of astonishing invention and wild beauty.
Kuhn and Joe Lovano improvise gloriously together, riding the surging waves of Joey Baron's polyrhythms, in a programme of tunes written by or strongly associated with Coltrane. The music is indeed mostly Coltrane: tracks include "Welcome", "Song of Praise", "Central Park West", "Spiritual" and more. The album was recorded last December at New York's Avatar Studio.
Personnel: Joe Lovano (tenor saxophone and tarogato), Steve Kuhn (piano), David Finck (double-bass), Joey Baron (drums)