Coltrane recalled at Jazz Hastings gig

The music of jazz great John Coltrane will be centre-stage when Israeli-born saxophonist Gilad Atzmon and his quartet headline at Jazz Hastings monthly gig on Tuesday 2 October. Julian Norridge reports.

Atzmon has spoken of Coltrane as “a man who transformed anger into love and plight into a humanist message”. He likes to emphasise the American’s tenderness rather than his revolutionary heat. His approach is to look at Coltrane’s subjective impact rather than mimic his legacy.

Atzmon himself has been described by The Guardian as the “hardest-gigging man in British jazz”. He has toured extensively around the world as a powerhouse multi-instrumentalist: he plays saxophones, clarinet and ethnic woodwind instruments.

Much influenced by both Coltrane and Charlie Parker, Atzmon’s powerful playing style combines great bebop artistry with his Middle-Eastern roots. His live performances have been described as “breathtaking and overwhelming”.

He has recorded 15 albums, of which 2003’s Exile was the BBC’s Jazz Album of the Year.

In 1998 he joined Ian Dury’s band, The Blockheads and remained with them after Dury’s death. He has recorded with Robbie Williams, Sinead O’Connor, Robert Wyatt and Paul McCartney and is featured on Pink Floyd’s last album, The Endless River.

Alongside his straightahead bebop quartet, Atzmon has toured extensively with his Arabic-tinged, Orient House Ensemble, which has eight albums to its name. His appearances are always greeted with enthusiasm.

“For sheer improvisational fireworks, quirky humour and genre-defying invention,” wrote one critic, “one will be hard-pressed to find a bandleader as unique as Gilad Atzmon.”

Atzmon is also a prolific author. He writes and edits for the website Palestine Think Tank, his philosophical texts on Jewish identity have been discussed by the likes of Noam Chomsky and his two comic novels have been translated into 24 languages. He’s also very funny on stage.

Gilad Atzmon Quartet Jazz Hastings, Tuesday 2 October, East Hastings Sea Angling Association (on the Stade behind the lifeboat station). Doors open 7.45pm for an 8.30 start, tickets £10 on the door.

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