Terence Blanchard & Ravi Coltrane

This morning, I'm still hearing the music from last night.

Terence Blanchard's band, with Ravi Coltrane & Lionel Loueke at SF JAZZ CENTER.

Lea Ann got the tickets.

Anne T. Eliot showed us to our seats. She's a friend of our family who ushers at SF JAZZ once a month and gets in for free. All the ushers dress in black.

There's not a bad seat in the center, anywhere you sit is where you're meant to be.

I sat close enough to get into the wonderful music and to wonder what it must be like to be Ravi Coltrane at the same time. Ravi is John Coltrane's son, and plays the same instruments as his father. Would being Ravi Coltrane be like being Basho's son and deciding to take up poetry? Ravi's a really good player, very fit, does knee bends when he plays tenor.

Jazz gets into my brain like no other music--it brings back specific memories and takes me to the future at the same time. I remember seeing Miles Davis at Shelly's Manne-Hole in Hollywood in the 1970's. It was the "Bitches Brew" era. Miles was famous for playing with his back to the audience, and he did that night. Not all the time, but enough to keep the legend going. I remember seeing Art Pepper at The Lighthouse in the '80's. Art was sober, but on what turned out to be his last legs. He played great that night though, sustained beautiful saxophone, and his band was so tight, like they knew they were part of something great that wouldn't last much longer and wanted to keep it going forever. 

When the Terence Blanchard band walked off the stage, we walked downstairs. There, standing in the lobby, was the band's bassist, Joshua Crumbly. When Terence Blanchard had introduced the band members he said Joshua was, "the youngest member in the band at 21, had never been kissed, and came from LA."

I walked up to Joshua, introduced myself, told him I'd lived a long time in so Cal, and asked him where he was from.

"Antelope Valley," he said.