MetroScape

I decided since it was so cold in the apartment, why not just make my way to the Ravi Coltrane Quintet concert at the Annenberg, since it would just be a little colder bolting through town on the bike, getting to see the iced skyline from the South Str. Bridge and the payoff not only being warmth, but hopefully great music. Couldn’t believe how gorgeously winter it was on the University of Penn campus, illuminating shadows of academia, reason and sanity in the air.

The Ravi Coltrane Quintet finished their stellar concert with an extended version of ‘I’m Old Fashion’ which accommodated memorable improvisations from each of the musicians and then was brought back to its famous refrain by Coltrane, in a completely lush, unshowy cadenza. The piece did seem like a commentary on what had just transpired through the ensemble’s two hour set- they were old fashion in delivering a full throated, musically invested and cohesive set. Among the many musical riches was Ornette Coleman’s Bird Food and really, showed such understanding of that era of hard bop, delivering it joyously and with warm, quicksilver articulation. More later, for now that image of the cloud scalloped full moon low in the sky over the city makes me want to do my homework.