September is a revered month in the jazz community. John Coltrane, a pioneer in avant-garde jazz, was born Sept. 23, 1926. Seventy-seven years later, fans celebrate his birthday and music with shows and festivals.

New Thing Productions, a company run by Michael Hentz that brings improvised music to Syracuse, pays respect to the man on the saxophone with a John Coltrane Birthday Celebration. Michael Marcus Trio and Steve Swell’s Brasswood Trio will perform at the Westcott Community Center at 826 Euclid Ave. on Sept. 23 at 7 p.m. Admission ranges from $10-$15.

‘We are celebrating John Coltrane’s birthday by celebrating his music,’ Hentz said. ‘He is so true, and honest, and he was always searching for that next level in his music. The man worked so hard on his music, and it shows in his playing and his recordings.’

Coltrane was born in Hamlet, N.C., and raised in Philadelphia, Pa. He studied music at Granoff Studios and the Ornstein School of Music. During World War II, he joined the army and played in the U.S. Navy Band in Hawaii. After the war, he returned to Philadelphia, where he started his music career in the 1950s.

Coltrane first worked with Dizzy Gillepsie’s band, Earl Bosnic’s band and Johnny Hodges’s small group. Then, in the summer of 1955, he received a call from Miles Davis asking him to be a member of his quintet. Coltrane agreed and joined the group as a tenor saxophonist. Although many doubted this decision, Davis had faith in Coltrane’s talents. Under the tutelage of a jazz legend, Coltrane earned great fame and recognition. In 1957 and 1959, Coltrane stepped out on his own and recorded Blue Train and Giant Steps, his most influential works.

The public at first criticized his avant-garde style because it strayed from the accepted standard. His music was labeled eccentric, unorthodox and even anti-jazz. Coltrane played more freely and spiritually than the standard, and he often improvised on the spot. At times his solos were up to 45 minutes long. He became known for using the three-on-one chord approach and the ‘sheets of sound,’ when he played multiple notes at the same time.

‘John Coltrane was the last innovator in the monumental, important voices on the saxophone, and just the way jazz has been evolved to,’ said Michael Marcus of Michael Marcus Trio. ‘Since his death in 1967, there has been no such innovators.’

Coltrane died of liver disease in 1967. His music lives on, and in 1982 he was awarded a Best Solo Jazz Performance Grammy Award posthumously for his album Bye Bye Blackbird.

‘His music has moved so many other fans and musicians that there are so many people that have one way or another been touched by something he has done,’ Hentz said. ‘I think John Coltrane summed it up best when he said, ‘My goal is to uplift people as much as I can. To inspire them to realize more and more their capacities for living meaningful lives, because there certainly is meaning to life.”

Many musicians today emulate Coltrane’s avant-garde style, including the Michael Marcus Trio and Steve Swell’s Brasswood Trio. Both bands occasionally play Coltrane tunes at their shows and are expected to do so Sunday.

Marcus, who plays various reed instruments, started his career playing in blues bands with Albert King and Bobby ‘Blue’ Blank from 1977 to 1980. He recorded his first albums, Sonny Simmon and Billy Higgins’ Backwoods Suite, in 1982. In New York, he started his career as a jazz soloist. Marcus has played all over the world, including the Blue Note and the Modern Museum of Fine Arts in New York City. Marcus’s band consists of Dominic Duval on bass and Jay Rosen on drums and percussion. He relates to Coltrane’s tone and his harmonic movements.

‘John Coltrane has a beautiful tone,’ Marcus said. ‘His tone has a cry in it. He has a spirituality and a beauty with his tone.’

Steve Well, a trombonist, usually plays in New York City. He has played at the Blue Note, Tonic, and CBGB’s – as well as on Broadway. Swell formed his own group in the late 1990s. After going through some lineup changes, he now works with Tom Abbs on bass and tuba and Geoff Mann on drums and percussion.

‘There’s been so many, many musicians who have been a part of my development,’ Swell said. ‘To go back to list Coltrane is very revealing to me. He used modes and harmonics that were jumping-off points, and he made sound that I use today in my improvisations.’

Coltrane’s music had a spirituality and transcendence that was new to music, he said.

‘It was a point in time in music when no one else did what John Coltrane did, which was largely to be himself and to take his own sound of harmonics that was so very original,’ Swell said. ‘It has such a long-lasting effect.’

Published on September 18, 2003 at 12:00 pm