Finding a New Tune

Trumpeter Miles Davis and saxophonist John Coltrane, two monumental musicians who turned out to revolutionize jazz and beyond, happened to both be born in 1926. A century later, as their influence continues to reverberate in ways even they couldn’t have imagined, two of today’s visionary giants in Terence Blanchard and Ravi Coltrane come together for a special performance at the Granada Theatre on January 27 that is equal parts tribute and transformation, appreciation and adventure. Backed by an exceptional ensemble, Blanchard and Coltrane, who was a toddler when his famous father passed away, come together in a concert that celebrates jazz’s rich past while embracing its future.

Meaning it’s anything but an attempt to recreate the masters’ voices.

“That’s not what those guys would want us to do,” Blanchard told UCSB Arts & Lectures’ Charles Donelan in a recent podcast. “I think it would be kind of disrespectful and intellectually lazy to just try to recreate what those guys have done… Miles went and found his own voice, man, and did his own thing and carved out a niche for himself based on what it was that he felt honestly about music… He was a very forward-thinking musician.”

The same goes for his co-leader on the concert tour, Blanchard said. 

“Even though his last name is Coltrane, Ravi is not looking back at the past. He has his own approach and his own identity, and that’s the thing that I really love about him.”