On September 18th, I attended The Ryan Oliver Quartet’s fourth annual Birthday Tribute to John Coltrane at Hermann’s Jazz Club through a livestream.  As the title of the concert suggests, the set list was made up of the works of the late jazz legend John Coltrane. Although the entire venue wasn’t displayed in the livestream, it was clear that Hermann’s Jazz club bore a friendly and welcoming feel, the perfect location for the celebration of a jazz icon. The members of the quartet appeared relaxed, charismatic, and overall happy to be there, and wore the standard dress pants and shirt combo associated with a jazz performance.

The quartet’s instrumentation is textbook Coltrane. The drums, played by John Lee, emanate confidence in each beat, cementing a steady swing while still remaining exciting and dynamic throughout each piece. The piano, played by Nick Peck, beautifully lays down the chordal foundation for the tenor sax to dance on, and at times taking the spotlight with impressive solos. The upright bass, played by Alex Coleman, in true jazz fashion, moseys along each chord, adding stability and warmth to the ensemble.  Finally, the star of the show, Ryan Oliver,  takes on the challenge of replicating Coltrane’s sax in stride, so confidently leading the quartet throughout a majority of the concert. The quartet never struggles to keep the show interesting, taking turns playing intricate solos that help drive each piece, and over all “spice up” the performance. One point that especially surprised me was the drum solo in their performance of Impressions, as what’s customary in drum solos of popular music is basically just to make as loud of a sound as possible, but John Lee uses silence to his advantage, and somehow manages to keep nearly the whole crowd engaged. In the recording of the concert, an audience member can be heard shouting a euphoric “YEAH!” out of the pure joy that drum solo gave him.

It’s clear to any Coltrane fan that this set list wasn’t chosen to be simply a performance of his greatest hits, but instead the songs that truly resonated with the players, and as a result, the love for the music shines through the performance. Songs like 26-2 are played with genuine intimacy while Body and Soul and Village Blues are performed with such a swagger and showmanship you’d expect to see from a world-class quartet. At most times my direction was held by Oliver’s tenor sax, but as solos were passed across the ensemble, Oliver would remove himself from the stage to give them their well deserved spotlights. As someone born into easily the most distracted generation, I couldn’t honestly tell you that my attention was held throughout the whole concert, but I feel that is also a consequence of not physically being at the venue. In the privacy of my bedroom, I didn’t feel as guilty checking my phone from time to time, but The Ryan Oliver Quartet did a great job at pulling my attention right back into the action with such a dynamic performance. If I were to graph my excitement throughout the performance, I think I started at a 75, rose up to an 85 a couple songs in, dipped to maybe a 60 as I started to build my expectations of what this quartet was capable of, and then shot to 100 when Ryan Oliver announced they’d wrap up the concert with the first two movements of A Love Supreme, because I absolutely love that record, and they really did it justice. The only ways I could imagine the concert being any better would be if I was actually there, listening to the performance through my headphone speakers can’t be nearly as good as hearing each instrument reverberate across the room. As for the set list, I definitely would have picked different pieces to be played, but that’s mostly because I’m a pretty basic Coltrane fan, and I’m glad that they chose deeper cuts instead of the more popular tunes.

I thoroughly enjoyed this performance as a whole. The Ryan Oliver Quartet are naturals at replicating the greatness that the works of John Coltrane embody, and as a result, they put on a wonderfully engaging show. I would say in terms of watching a live concert in the midst of a global pandemic, this was definitely a new experience, and I truly hope that if this annual tribute continues into next year, I’ll be able to go see it in person.