Jazz Album Review: Jeff Scott’s “Passion for Bach and Coltrane”

By Steve Elman

A belated appreciation of one of 2023’s most interesting releases — this Grammy-winning “compendium” may not be a strongly unified work, but its individual parts are eloquent residents of the Place Between classical and jazz. They are Big Music, demonstrations that a composer can draw on many genres without apology to make art that is rich and profound, art that could not exist in any other form.

Jeff Scott’s Passion has its head in the clouds, but its feet are on solid ground.

It may not be particularly timely to assess this work (mea culpa). However, since it was composed in 2015, and has lived in the repertoire of Imani Winds and guests for a substantial period, its 2023 recording is arguably still current. I took the time to give it the listening and consideration I felt it deserved.

At first, I was a bit apprehensive about the word “passion” and the crosses prominent on the cover of the CD sleeve. Was this planned as a successor to the great Passions of classical music? Could it step out from their shadows?

I needn’t have worried. Though the Passion story and its aftermath provide the heart of one part of the work, the operative word in the title is not “passion” but that little preposition “for.” This is a declaration by a composer, 12 musicians, and a poet of their passion for the music of Johann Sebastian Bach and John Coltrane.

Scott spins this globe on three axes, if that’s possible — Bach’s Goldberg Variations, Coltrane’s A Love Supreme, and the rich language of poet A.B. Spellman, whose voice is vitally important to the success of this recording. Spellman’s work is arguably as profound as that of Bach or Coltrane, and Scott was right to put him alongside musical giants. His writing is not diminished in the least by the comparison; in fact, Spellman elevates each of the parts in which he appears. And few poets read their own work so well.

Spellman’s daughter, Toyin Spellman-Diaz, who is the executive producer of the release and the oboist in Imani Winds, contributes liner notes in which she describes Scott’s Passion as an “oratorio.” I respectfully disagree. I do not hear Passion for Bach and Coltrane as an oratorio, or even as a suite. I hear it as a collection of individual pieces, some of which talk to others very well and some of which are more powerful when considered independently. It does not need a traditional umbrella term. It is sui generis. No wonder that Passion for Bach and Coltrane won a 2023 Grammy in the category of “Best Classical Compendium.”

This does not diminish the importance of Scott’s accomplishment in any way. His greatest achievements here are settings for Spellman’s work, built on familiar music of Bach and Coltrane, but the totality has a satisfying dramatic arc. The audience at the DiMenna Center in New York City, where the release was recorded, respond to individual parts (and solos) with enthusiasm, and they give the performers a full ovation at the end.

Spellman and the 12 musicians deserve it. The five members of Imani Winds and the four members of the Harlem Quartet do not function as units in cooperation or competition, but rather serve together as a pocket-sized chamber orchestra to give Scott the instrumental colors he needs to realize his ideas. In addition, the winds of Imani are fine improvisers; hornist Kevin Newton and clarinetist Mark Dover have prominent roles. Scott really puts their skills to the test by having them step into Coltrane’s shoes; they rise well to those challenges. The classical players are joined by a trio — pianist Alex Brown, bassist Edward Perez, and drummer Neal Smith — who play as a jazz unit in several important spots, with Brown doing most of the solo work; each also contributes color to the classical ensembles.

The voice and rich language of poet A.B. Spellman vitally important to the success of this recording. Photo: courtesy of the artist

Although the two CDs are divided into 13 separate bands, I hear seven parts to the work:

“Dear John,” which consists of two Spellman poems that frame Scott’s arrangement of the “Aria” theme from Bach’s Goldberg Variations, with a jazzy improv center provided by the trio. This sets a nocturnal mood, with Spellman working late in a hotel room, listening to Bach and then to Coltrane on the radio. He wonders: “If I believed in heaven, I would ask if you and Bach ever swapped infinite fours and jammed the sound that light makes, going and coming …”

“Psalm,” an interpretation of the last movement of Coltrane’s A Love Supreme. Scott takes inspiration from the title and alternates “verses” of Spellman’s poem “After Vallejo,” a fantasy of the poet’s death, with vigorous horn improvisations by Imani’s Kevin Newton, over a rubato foundation provided by the jazz trio. Spellman begins, “I will die in Havana in a hurricane … lifted by … all the claves that bind the rhythms of this world.” The first horn “verse” mirrors Trane. Spellman again: “I’ll be writing when I go, revising another hopeful survey of my life. I will die of nothing that I did, but of all that I did not do …” The exchanges continue, with Newton standing up well in comparison to Coltrane, including a brief appearance of the full ensemble. Spellman concludes, “I will die in Havana in rhythm … and the mother of waters will say to the saint of crossroads, ‘Well, damn. He danced his way out after all.’”

Jeff Scott, composer of Passion for Bach and Coltrane and founding hornist of Imani Winds. Photo: Tanya Rosen Jones.

“Resolution,” a faithful reproduction of the second movement of Coltrane’s A Love Supreme. Scott offers an attractive harmonization of Coltrane’s theme, played by the full ensemble, and there are short solos by oboist Toyin Spellman-Diaz and one of the violinists from the Harlem Quartet (I think it is Melissa White). This is the one of two parts of Scott’s Passion in which Spellman does not speak, and I think this lack makes it the weakest.

“Out of Nazareth,” the Passion proper, told irreverently by Spellman, with tone-painting by the ensemble. Spellman starts in medias res (“Pilate, the Procurator, mean bastard that he was, thought three hours a mercifully quick death for this — what’s his name? — Jew”) and in a series of brief strokes, he goes well beyond the crucifixion, which he describes in clinical detail, to a Roman’s skeptical assessment of the Christian cult (“The unanimity was impressive, and you hadda give ’em the morality, which was hard to find in Rome. And man, could they blow! But face it: their audience was children and silly women, especially widows, especially widows with money …”) This part has the largest slice of music not based directly on Bach or Coltrane, and Scott finds a path for his writing that is listenable as well as modern.

“Variation 13,” a comprehensive rethinking of the 13th variation in Bach’s Goldberg Variations. The first minute is a direct transcription of Bach, arranged for the winds and strings, with arco bass underneath. Bach’s original is mostly in a major key, but there are hints of minor, which Scott picks up and makes a principal feature of his “Variation 13.” After the first minute, he begins transforming the Goldberg theme with modern harmony, very effectively, and the jazz trio enters with a solid Latin groove in a minor key. Alex Brown’s piano solo here is one of his strongest contributions, using some Latin conventions, which he never allows to become clichés. Imani’s flutist Brandon Patrick George contributes a bit of piccolo decoration at the beginning of Brown’s solo, and has his own solo spot after it. Then Imani’s clarinetist Mark Dover delivers one of two outstanding contributions to Scott’s Passion, very extrovert, which leads logically via a long oboe note to the last two minutes of Bach in the original major key, at first with the winds, strings and bass pizzicato, and then a reappearance by Brown with some piano decorations, all leading to a final cadence. Even though Spellman does not have a role here, the fine writing and performances make this part very satisfying, and one that could easily stand on its own in, say, a radio show.

Imani Winds (l to r): Mark Dover, clarinet; Brandon Patrick George, flute and piccolo; Monica Ellis, bassoon; Kevin Newton, horn; Toyin Spellman-Diaz, oboe.

“Groovin’ Low,” “Interlude,” “Among the Things I Must Have Known,” and “A Hug for Gonzalo,” although banded separately, represent a dramatic single-minded digression from the rest of Scott’s Passion, even though Scott looks back to Bach for some inspiration. These elements are an enthusiastic celebration of jazz, with a sidebar reflection on aging from Spellman. The structure here mirrors “Dear John,” with two large pieces flanking a brief comment from the jazz trio (“Interlude”) and one from Spellman (“Among the Things I Must Have Known,” a lament of a jazz fan in a club impatiently waiting for the music to start). “Groovin’ Low” has the fan in a senior reflection (““My swing is more mellow these days…. Don’t look for me in the trebles. Don’t look for me in the sly staccato splatter of the hot young horns. No. You’ll find me in the nuance …”). “A Hug for Gonzalo” specifically celebrates the artistry of pianist Gonzalo Rubalcaba, with Spellman annoyed by the lack of sensitivity around him (“Some … cannot abide soft and slow. It sounds like opportunity to them. The conversationalists confuse quietude with vacancy and rush to fill this new reflection Rubalcaba values so … I must now listen through their voices to his invocation…. Ah, Gonzalo, this is where we live … hoping the natter will leave our silence alone.” Scott’s music in “Groovin’ Low” draws directly on Bach’s Goldberg theme; in “A Hug for Gonzalo,” he hints at Bach in a thoughtful opening and close that frame another Latin groove and another solo by Brown, plus a solo by the other violinist in the Harlem Quartet, probably Ilmar Gavilán.

Finally, there is “Acknowledgement,” a reverential arrangement of the opening movement of Coltrane’s A Love Supreme with an interpolation of Spellman’s “Death Poem.” Despite its title, the poem only uses death as a starting point; it becomes a meditation on the progress of life and the hope in new birth, and its placement in the last part of Scott’s Passion is inspired, not only as an echo of the death images Spellman calls up in “Psalm” and “Out of Nazareth,” but as a concelebration, a secular prayer as powerful as Coltrane’s religious one.

The Harlem Quartet (l to r): Felix Umansky, Melissa White, Ilmar Gavilán, and Jaime Amador

Scott provides a short introduction to the famous rubato theme for the full ensemble with bowed bass. Clarinetist Mark Dover then makes his first appearance, attractively centering his statement of the theme in his chalumeau register. The bass sets up the four-note “a love supreme” motif, and piano and drums enter, a bit slower than in the original. Spellman then steps into the spotlight: “We in our frailty paint death in black unspeaking mystery, the inexorable terrible wonder we run in mark-time terror to escape. The dead must know that life is more the question — death the answer the living cannot learn.” The poem concludes: “But how true a gift is life to the newly-born, when the only love we can pledge is our own? All we can give is hope that this new heart will find a heart to rise, that it builds itself in the world and is not built by the world, that it loves, and is loved.”

Dover follows, closely hewing to the bones of Coltrane’s original solo, but Scott opts to provide him with a more lyrical, less modal foundation. Coltrane’s approach was an intense seeking of the divine; Dover’s is celebratory, as much of the saxophonist’s greatness as it is of divinity. The clarinetist develops his own kind of intensity as his solo progresses, and eventually, drummer Neal Smith moves to his mallets with the kinds of polyrhythms Elvin Jones used to stoke the original. Dover saves his high notes for the climax of his solo, and then subsides to the four-note “a love supreme” motif. As with Coltrane, the motif is repeated many times, and Dover uses all of the modal reharmonizations of it that Coltrane did. Over his last repetitions, the members of the ensemble begin to chant the words, as in the original, with the same change of melody. Bassist Perez picks up the motif, varies it a bit, and concludes with a double-stop, echoing Jimmy Garrison’s, with Neal Smith adding a tiny decoration of bowed cymbal.

Scott’s Passion for Bach and Coltrane takes listeners on a journey. Its many musical strengths speak for themselves, but as an accomplishment, it is a milestone. There is nothing here of “hybrid music” or experimentation. It simply and directly uses homages to Bach, Coltrane, and Spellman to make mature statements about life. The seven parts of the Passion are Big Music, demonstrations that a composer can draw on many genres without apology to make art that is rich and profound, art that could not exist in any other form.

More:

Personnel information: Jeff Scott: Passion for Bach and Coltrane (Imani Winds Media, 2023) Imani Winds (Brandon Patrick George, fl / pic; Toyin Spellman-Diaz, ob; Mark Dover, cl; Kevin Newton, Frh; Monica Ellis, bsn); Harlem Quartet (Ilmar Gavilán and Melissa White, vs; Jaime Amador, vla; Felix Umansky, cel); Alex Brown, p; Edward Perez, b; Neal Smith, dm; A. B. Spellman, spoken vo; all directed by Jeff Scott, composer and founding hornist of Imani Winds

Scott’s Passion for Bach and Coltrane is hearable (and purchasable) on Bandcamp

A promotional excerpt of “Variation 13” was posted on YouTube prior to the Grammys. It offers the opportunity to see all the players (except Spellman) in performance.

A video feature on Scott’s Passion has also been posted on YouTube, with interview excerpts and some snippets of the music, including Spellman reading part of “Dear John.”

Steve Elman’s more than four decades in New England public radio have included 10 years as a jazz host in the 1970s, five years as a classical host on WBUR in the 1980s, a short stint as senior producer of an arts magazine, 13 years as assistant general manager of WBUR, and fill-in classical host on 99.5 WCRB.