Azar Lawrence plays “A Love Supreme” at Jazz Standard

Fifty years ago John Coltrane made history with a single session at the Van Gelder Studio that resulted in this groundbreaking game-changing record “A Love Supreme.” Azar Lawrence, a tenor saxophone legend in his own right, honored Coltrane’s record with a standing ovation show at Jazz Standard on December 9th.Lawrence performed with a dream jazz gang featuring red hot piano master Benito Gonzalez, drumming virtuoso Jeff “Tain” Watts and the notorious Reggie Workman, a member of Trane’s inner circle, making a rare stage appearance on the double-bass.

A Love Supreme is not only one of the greatest jazz albums of all time – it is also one of the most influential ones. Artists like Bono, Santana, the Doors, the Byrds, Jefferson Airplane, the Stooges, MC5 and Mos Def list it as having an effect on their sound. Talib Kweli nails the description though, calling the album “a communication with God.” Not far from the story, since Coltrane recorded A Love Supreme naturally high, fresh from kicking the habit. And not to forget that both grandfathers of the man were ministers, so the religious, the spiritual, was always part of his journey.

Most musicians won’t dare to touch Coltrane’s work and even the thought of performing this epic record will make them shiver with fear. Well Azar Lawrence is not most musicians. How do you top perfection? Not simply by going through the notes, but re-living the album on stage. Keeping it close to the original energy of the combo in the recording booth back in 1964, when McCoy Tyner, Jimmy Garrison, Elvin Jones and John Coltrane played around with the sounds in a semi-improvisational mode, Azar Lawrence passes the ball around to his team and they all click together in a mindblowing performance.

It was simply breathtaking, the show of a life time, and the audience in the packed club was truly mesmerized. “There was no hard part about it”, laughs hearty Azar Lawrence backstage during the break between the two sets, “We’re doing what we do. That’s my kind of music. I played with McCoy Tyner, Elvin Jones and Miles Davis and they considered me family, they felt that I have the same kind of feeling and some of the kind of energy that John Coltrane had. I don’t know where it came from – it’s just what I do.” No wonder when Seth Abramson, music director of Jazz Standard and co-produced of Mr. Lawrence’s last album The Seeker, approached him with the idea to mark the 50th anniversary from the recording of A Love Supreme. “I played with McCoy Tyner for five and a half years, I lived and played with Elvin Jones for two years in total, so I ended up working with Elvin and Jimmy Garrison, I played with Alice Coltrane, so I’m kinda part of the family”, notes he, stating, not bragging.

The first time you hear A Love Supreme is something every jazz lover remembers forever. “Reggie Golsen played it for me. It’s Billy Golsen’s son, he passed, but he was my best friend and he had a large collection of music. He knew Elvin and Trane, he was around them all the time. That’s how met Elvin and McCoy – actually it was through Reggie. He played all that music for me – every day I was at The Golsen’s house, Billy Golsen was like a step-father to me”, says Azar. And thinking back to the first time he listened to the record, he adds: “Oh, yeah – it was definitely touching. Just the texture of the chords…And that music sends a special message for me. It touched my heart – I connected with it. Of all the other music I loved Miles, of course, and that’s where Trane came from. There was something about the way Trane played and McCoy – the texture of the chords really lured me into it, into playing. I was in middle school, 19 years old when I played with Elvin Jones. I just turned 21 when I played with McCoy.” Now with the passage of time he calls the album “a landmark”: “How it touches us spiritually, opens our minds, heals us and has a meaning. Often times people just pick a title for the album and I’m sure in their minds it has significance, but this is one of the best fits. You can see what it expresses, it’s like a book – you read it and you can see what this title means. The Love Supreme when you hear it, you get a feeling of what it means.”

Azar Lawrence finished with a story about how John Coltrane would practice all day and all night, so much that his wife went in the room and found him “sleeping on the top of the horn”. Reggie Workman seconds that with a sly nod, before they jump on the stage for the second set. Interesting piece of trivia is that John Coltrane himself performed A Love Supreme only once in July 1965, which makes the significance of this Jazz Standard event even bigger. Meanwhile next for Azar Lawrence is a brand new album called Into The Night, which he will record with “a different group of individuals from the East and the West Coast”, so stay tuned.

Photos by Anna Yatskevich