Branford Marsalis and Dianne Reeves pay tribute to John Coltrane at the Chan Centre on October 13
In Coastal Jazz and Chan copresentation, the pair mark the centennial of saxophonist Coltrane’s birth by performing songs from his 1963 album with singer Johnny Hartman
Left to right, Branford Marsalis, Dianne Reeves, John Coltrane
Coastal Jazz and the Chan Centre present Branford Marsalis and Dianne Reeves Celebrate John Coltrane at the Chan Centre for the Performing Arts on October 13 at 7:30 p.m.
BY 1963, JOHN COLTRANE was already recognized as one of jazz’s most important innovators. Thanks to his time spent in the Miles Davis Quintet and as a bandleader in his own right, the saxophonist was known for his boundary-pushing “sheets of sound” and increasingly free improvisation.
One thing he was definitely not known for was working with vocalists. So it must have come as a surprise to producer Bob Thiele when Coltrane asked him to reach out to singer Johnny Hartman and get him into the studio. It almost certainly surprised Hartman himself, who initially declined the invitation, arguing that he wasn’t really a jazz singer. He was eventually won over, and on March 7, 1963, Coltrane and Hartman—along with pianist McCoy Tyner, double bassist Jimmy Garrison, and drummer Elvin Jones—entered the Van Gelder Studio in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, and emerged with a record bearing the no-nonsense title of John Coltrane and Johnny Hartman.
With 2026 marking the centennial of Coltrane’s birth, it has quite naturally been a big year for tributes to the jazz legend. Last month, saxophonist Branford Marsalis and singer Dianne Reeves set out on a tour that will continue through to next April and will take them all over the United States and Europe. An upcoming Chan Centre concert is one of only three Canadian stops on the tour, which finds Reeves joining the Branford Marsalis Quartet—including Joey Calderazzo on piano, Eric Revis on bass, and Justin Faulkner on drums—to perform a tribute to the Coltrane/Hartman LP.
This is not new territory for these musicians, who recently recorded a studio album of their own versions of tracks like “Lush Life” and “My One and Only Love”. Jazzwise called Dedicated to You an “exquisite commentary on the 1963 album”, highlighting the “sense of longing, the melodicism, and the way in which the music stays true to the spirit of the original” and praising Reeves’s “burnished, luxuriant timbre”.
Rarely have performers been so perfectly matched with the material they’re covering, which makes this a can’t-miss event for jazz fans. 
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