Smoke Celebrates 10th Annual Coltrane Festival with George Coleman / Eric Alexander Quintet

Four months after opening their new expanded room, Smoke Jazz & Supper Club co-owners Paul Stache and wife Molly Sparrow Johnson reinstituted their annual Coltrane festival with a show dubbed "Countdown 2023." Fittingly, the festival opening featured 87 year-old tenor legend and frequent headliner George Coleman together with saxophonist Eric Alexander and drummer Joe Farnsworth—members of the One For All group that helped establish Smoke as the iconic club that it has become.

Originally opened in 1999, Smoke, whose landlords Stache and Johnson were respectively a dishwasher and bartender there, has evolved into a charming retrogression of jazz clubs of yore. The room echos the smoky magic of the original Birdland, the Village Vanguard and Ronnie Scott's in London. But its new bar/lounge and decorously draped stage offer a refreshing propriety.

In keeping with the multi-noted modal improvisatory offerings of John Coltrane tenormen Coleman and Alexander started matters off in the opening December 22 set with a screeching version of "Blues in B flat" replicating the torrid up-tempo version of the standard once performed by Bud Powell. The Coltrane-like squeaks and shouts continued unabated throughout the set. Next up was the seasonal favorite "White Christmas" whose melody, as well-known as any, was rendered with improvisatory explorations which practically hid the theme until midway through—such is the bold adventurism pioneered by Coltrane. Coleman's crowd cheering squalls and whoops were countered by Alexander's scaling mathematical lines oracular from his early classical music days and long a trademark in his impressive recording and performing career.

Presciently, Coltrane chose pop standards i.e. "My Favorite Things," "Some Day my Prince will Come" against which to unveil his revolutionary and lengthy improvisations. Similarly, the Smoke quintet also chose standards i.e. "Don't Blame Me," "Like Someone in Love," and "When Sunny Gets Blue" to reminisce the Coltrane repertoire. And in these tunes remarkable pianist Emmet Cohen showcased languorous melodic lines which welcomely countered the howling and yawping. Bassist David Williams warmly joined these melodic strains and drummer Joe Farnsworth supplied his familiar steadiness which has been a staple at Smoke since its earliest days.

Thus after the jarring wallop that Gotham jazz clubs have endured during the pandemic, the new edition of Smoke and the return of its Coltrane Festival are welcome events indeed. The sold-out set on December 22 affirmed the thirst that jazz audiences have long suffered.