Ravi Coltrane: Spirit Fiction

Ravi Coltrane stepped into some seriously oversized shoes twice in his career— first when he took up tenor saxophone, following in the giant footsteps of his legendary father, second when he replaced the late Michael Brecker in the Saxophone Summit (with fellow tenorists Joe Lovano and Dave Liebman). Over the course of five albums as a leader Ravi’s gradually developed his own voice on the instrument. His sixth (and first on Blue Note) is his most mature and fully- realized outing. He uses two separate groups here. With his working quartet— pianist Luis Perdomo, bassist Drew Gress, and drummer E.J. Strickland—he reveals a near-telepathic hookup on the bristling, exploratory “Roads Cross” and “Cross Roads.” The zen-like ballad “the change, my girl,” pairs Strickland’s sensitive brushwork with Ravi’s plaintive cries on tenor; another highlight is their swinging, conversational duet on “Spring & Hudson.” With a quintet of trumpeter Ralph Alessi, pianist Geri Allen, bassist James Genus, and drummer Eric Harland, Coltrane digs deep on modernist fare like Alessi’s hard-driving “Klepto” and his intricate, countrapuntal “Yellow Cat.” Lovano guests with the quintet on a scintillating version of Ornette Coleman’s “Check Out Time” and an intimate trio rendition (with pianist Allen) of Paul Motian’s bittersweet “Fantasm.”