Centennial Coltrane
- 3 min.
- Entertainment
Coltrane's sacred legacy
John Coltrane is regarded as one of the most influential innovators in the history of jazz. His utterly inimitable signature sound earned his rich body of work the label of "sacred legacy." For an entire season, Ancienne Belgique, Bozar and Kaaitheater are paying tribute to this legend and his wife Alice.
From 16 September through March 2027, you can enjoy concerts, dance performances, films and talks – a programme that's already largely sold out. This tribute marks John's 100th birthday this year and his wife Alice's 90th birthday next year.
The symphony of two intertwined lives
John Coltrane was born in 1926 in Hamlet, USA, and grew up to become one of the most influential saxophonists in the history of jazz. He caught the attention of Miles Davis and Thelonious Monk. Working with the latter, he developed his famous "sheets of sound" technique – a torrent of notes that swept through the music – and, through modal and free jazz, blazed a trail that generations of musicians would follow after him.
In 1960 he formed his own quartet, with which he released the four-part suite A Love Supreme (1964). This musical tribute to his faith became his best-selling record and is still considered one of the most important jazz albums ever made.
Coltrane died in 1967, at the age of forty, from liver cancer.
Alice Coltrane, born McLeod, was a jazz pianist and one of the few harpists in jazz history. She met John in 1963 while playing in the Terry Gibbs Quartet. When John's pianist left the band in 1965, Alice took his place until her husband's death. The couple married in 1966. Together they had three children. Their youngest son, Ravi Coltrane, himself grew up to become a renowned saxophonist.
After John's death, Alice developed her own cosmic, spiritual sound on albums such as Universal Consciousness and World Galaxy, influencing artists from Radiohead to Flying Lotus. She died in 2007.
A season between two birthdays
The opening event is already one of the most striking. From 16 to 18 September, the Rosas company presents a newly rewritten version of the choreography A Love Supreme. This quartet piece was created by choreographers Salva Sanchis and Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker in 2005 for four young male dancers. Their strikingly energetic interpretation underscores the power of Coltrane's ode to divine love.
From there, the programme moves on through distinctive tributes such as The Coltrane Mutations by Flat Earth Society, along with concerts by contemporary saxophonists and musicians who still measure themselves against Coltrane's work, from James Brandon Lewis and Shabaka to Aaron Parks & Walter Smith III.
On 11 November comes Coltrane 100, the big birthday concert featuring Joe Lovano and Melissa Aldana among others, combined with a screening of a film about the saxophonist. Alongside all this, films, talks and conversations run throughout, shedding further light on the duo and their legacy.
The Coltrane & Coltrane season closes on 8 March 2027 – International Women's Day – with Translinear Light. Here, none other than son Ravi Coltrane plays saxophone, paying tribute with this concert to his own mother, who would have turned ninety next year. Brandee Younger even brings along Alice's restored harp.
More info can be found in the calendars of Bozar and Ancienne Belgique.
