Ravi Coltrane

Ravi Coltrane ( born August 6, 1965 in Huntington, Long Iceland, New York) is an American jazz saxophonist.

Life and work

His parents, the jazz saxophonist John Coltrane and jazz pianist Alice Coltrane, named it after the Indian musician Ravi Shankar.

After training at the California Institute of the Arts, he first played with Steve Coleman, but also with Geri Allen, Kenny Barron, McCoy Tyner, Pharoah Sanders, Herbie Hancock, Carlos Santana, Stanley Clarke, Branford Marsalis, Carola Grey or Torsten de Winkel. In 1997 he released his first album, Moving Pictures, which involved the drummer Jeff Tain Watts, bassist Lonnie Plaxico and pianist Michael Cain. His next album, From the Round Box (2000), Coltrane played with pianist Geri Allen, trumpeter Ralph Alessi, bassist James Genus and drummer Eric Harland one. On the following albums 6 Mad (2002) and In Flux (2005), he worked with bassist Drew Gress, pianist Luis Perdomo, and drummer EJ Strickland. With his quartet he joined in 2004 on the Montreux Jazz Festival and the Newport Jazz Festival. His album Spirit Fiction ( Blue Note, 2012, with Geri Allen and Luis Perdomo ) Ben Ratliff was one of the best jazz albums of 2012.

Occasionally, he also played with his mother Alice Coltrane; together with Al Jarreau, Earl Klugh and George Duke in 2005, he was on tour in India.

According to the judgment of the authors Richard Cook and Brian Morton Ravi Coltrane recalls stylistically closer to Joe Henderson and Dexter Gordon because of his father.

Lexical entry

• Richard Cook, Brian Morton: The Penguin Guide to Jazz on CD, 6th Edition, London, Penguin, 2002 ISBN 0-14-017949-6.