2014 - A Love Supreme

A Love Supreme: the 37th Annual John Coltrane Memorial Concert

Saturday, October 18, 2014, Friends of John Coltrane Memorial Concert presents the 37th Annual John Coltrane Memorial Concert. “A LOVE SUPREME” Celebrating the 50th Anniversary featuring Donald Harrison with the John Coltrane Memorial Concert Ensemble, hosted by Eric Jackson and presented in collaboration with Northeastern Center for the Arts.

“Acknowledgement” “Resolution” “Pursuance” “Psalm”, the four movements that comprise John Coltrane’s “A Love Supreme” suite, considered by many to be his greatest work and the most profound spiritual jazz composition ever created. Fifty years ago, the entire world was embroiled in political movements to gain equal rights, a restless climate in much need of answers that only a higher power could convey. It was within that climate that “A Love Supreme” was born, and to this day, this particular composition continues to resonate.

The suite, including a recitation of Coltrane’s prayer given by Eric Jackson of WGBH radio, will be performed in its entirety by the John Coltrane Memorial Concert Ensemble, comprised of Boston-based master musicians Carl Atkins on saxophone, Leonard Brown on saxophone, Jeff Galindo on trombone, Yoron Israel on drums, Ron Mahdi on bass, John Ramsay on drums, and George W. Russell, Jr. on piano. The Ensemble will be joined by special guest New Orleans’ saxophonist Donald Harrison, hailed as the “King of Nouveau Swing” who is also deeply rooted in the Black Mardi Gras Indian tradition, a tradition that stems back a few centuries to New Orleans’ Congo Square, where uprooted 18th and 19th century Africans could gather and openly celebrate their culture.

John Coltrane’s “A Love Supreme,” the 50th Anniversary. The 37th Annual John Coltrane Memorial Concert, with the John Coltrane Memorial Concert Ensemble and guest artist Donald Harrison; hosted by Eric Jackson. Co-presented by Friends of John Coltrane Memorial Concert (fJCMC) and Northeastern Center for the Arts. Saturday October 18, 2014 at 7:30 pm. Tickets: $30 general admission, $25 students/seniors, $40 VIP [all ticket prices include service charge]. Northeastern University, Blackman Theatre, Ell Hall, 360 Huntington Avenue, Boston.

Donald Harrison is a New Orleans saxophonist, composer, arranger, principal consultant for the “Treme” series on HBO, and a Big Chief of the Congo Square Nation Afro-New Orleans Cultural Group. “Harrison reigns supreme in both of these worlds … ‘They inform each other,’ says Harrison, who adds that the feeling he gets when he steps out onto streets in his beautiful feathered and beaded suit on Carnival Day is comparable to when he blows his horn … ‘It’s a metamorphosis into a transcendental state,’ he explains of masking and being involved in the culture. ‘It’s the same thing when you’re playing jazz — it’s transcendental; it takes you away.‘” (offBEAT, 2014)

The John Coltrane Memorial Concert is co-produced by Leonard Brown, Associate Professor of Music & African American Studies at Northeastern University, and Emmett G. Price III, Associate Professor of Music and former chair of the Department of African American Studies at Northeastern.“A richly deserved standing ovation capped another successful John Coltrane Memorial Concert, with everyone present already impatiently awaiting next year’s edition.” (The ArtsFuse, 2012)