John Coltrane’s compulsive search for newer and more meaningful forms of musical expression continued almost to the moment of his death in 1967. To Trane, rhythm and harmony, consonance and dissonance were fragments of a greater spiritual quest, one in which music furnished a bridge over which one might pass on his never–ending journey toward inner peace and happiness. It’s not a goal that one ever reaches, but one that he strives toward as long as there is breath in his body. Coltrane strived. While he may not have completed his odyssey, his legacy lives on in the open–hearted convictions of those he influenced. In November1965 Coltrane recorded his expansive five–movement suite, “Meditations,” recreated here on its 30th anniversary by one of Trane’s most ardent disciples, David Liebman, and his ensemble before a live audience at New York’s Symphony Space. The 54–minute work, played without interruption, was transcribed by Caris Visentin who plays oboe in Liebman’s group. It’s a turbulent, often inharmonious piece whose many moments of sound and fury (as on “Consequences,” on which an extended two–drum interchange leads to and underscores cacophonous passages by tenor, guitar, trumpet and synthesizer) are counterbalanced by others of beauty and repose (as, for example, in the final movement, “Serenity”). Nat Hentoff, in his liner notes, says that David Baker, a professor of music at the University of Indiana, once suggested to him that Trane’s music should be studied “the way we now study the etudes of Bach and Brahms.” Perhaps so, as such densely structured works as “Meditations,” while employing the traditional elements of Jazz, are more “classical” in conception than those that are more emphatically improvised and spontaneous. But that is for history to decide. Meanwhile, those who value what Coltrane has contributed to the music’s vocabulary may content themselves with superior performances such as this one of his prominent works.

Track Listing: Introduction; The Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost; Compassion; Love; Consequences; Serenity (54:55)

Personnel: David Liebman, tenor saxophone; Vic Juris, guitar; Jamey Haddad, drums, percussion; Phil Markowitz, piano, keyboards; Tony Marino, bass. With special guests Billy Hart, drums; Cecil McBee, bass; Tiger Okoshi, trumpet; Caris Visentin, oboe.